Manager’s Job Again in Jeopardy: Majority on Council Appear Poised to Take Action Monday

By Steve Scott, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Apr. 8–The Maplewood City Council will take another run at the city manager’s job Monday night, with at least the mayor and one council member eager to oust Richard Fursman.

As Fursman’s supporters wonder why he would be dismissed, the council’s newest members say they will exercise their right to remove the city manager, their second attempt within a month.

“We are not letting him go for cause,” said Mayor Diana Longrie, who serves on the five-member council. “If we let him go for cause, we have to specify reasons. “¦ He’s an at-will employee. As an at-will employee, you need no reasons in Minnesota.”

Fursman, city manager since 2000, defends Maplewood’s reputation, citing the city’s bond rating, engineering projects, financial performance, environmental conservation and civic participation.

“I could go on and on,” he said, after listing a string of state and national awards received by the city in the past two years. “The only way all of that comes about is through vision, cooperation and teamwork.”

Council Member Erik Hjelle said if it were possible, he also would seek to remove the city’s human resources director, finance director and police and fire chiefs.

“I’ve got oversight over one person,” Hjelle said. “If I could change that, I would, but I can’t.”

Under Maplewood’s form of council-manager government, the city manager is the only employee who serves at the discretion of the council.

Longrie and Hjelle were elected in November, and Council Member Rebecca Cave won her seat in a special election in February. Longrie unseated an incumbent mayor, Hjelle was the top vote-getter in the general election and Cave was a runaway winner in the special election. It is widely perceived that the three will vote to remove Fursman.

Cave did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this report but said she was dealing with a family medical emergency earlier in the week.

The council newcomers are pitted squarely against two veteran council members on the city manager issue.

“You can dislike him if you want or dislike his style, but if I live to be 150, we’ll never have anyone of this caliber come to us again,” veteran Council Member Kathy Juenemann said of Fursman. “There’s a lot of mediocre city managers out there, and that’s what we’ll get. People won’t go someplace where’s there’s too much strife and too much nonsense.”

The other veteran council member, Will Rossbach, concedes the council has the right to take such a vote.

“But I’m very disappointed this is where we’re ending up,” he said. “If you were to look at the type of qualifications you’re looking for in a city manager, Mr. Fursman already meets those and exceeds them.

“What we’re coming down to is a personality conflict between the three new elected officials and Mr. Fursman.”

Longrie and Hjelle adamantly declined to specify why Fursman should be removed.

“Richard is an employee, and to have that conversation about an employee in a public realm is not acceptable because he has rights,” Hjelle said. “If he wants to exercise his right to have a public hearing, that’s fine.”

Fursman could ask for such a hearing to specify the reasons for a dismissal but said he would not do so to avoid dragging the city further into controversy.

Longrie said she wouldn’t specify reasons because she didn’t want to jeopardize Fursman’s ability to find a new job.

“He gets a six-month severance package that says he can be let go by the council for any reason at any time,” Longrie said. “This is a common occurrence in everyday political life. Everyone knows that. Why would Maplewood be any different than anywhere else?”

Some Maplewood observers say the three newcomers had an agenda to remove Fursman because they or their family members believed they were earlier crossed by the city manager.

Fursman and the city in 2003 had a temporary restraining order served against a local cable access TV producer, Kevin Berglund, now Longrie’s husband, that barred him from contact with four female city employees. A judge later lifted the order for lack of evidence of misconduct.

In 2004, Hjelle was reprimanded and Cave’s husband, George, was suspended for 30 days after a city investigation into their opposition of a paramedic restructuring. Both were pay-per-call firefighters.

Hjelle bristled at suggestions of a private agenda.

“I ran on the theme of change and common sense,” he said. “I’m sorry: Change means change. If someone wants to sit back and say that I have that much of an ax to grind over a memo put in my file in 2004, I’d have to be pretty vindictive to go through all this effort over that. If someone wants to think that, fine, let them. I could care less at this point.”

Additionally, Fursman in January released the report of an investigation into whether Hjelle, as a firefighter, made inappropriate use of a fire hall last fall for campaign activities. Longrie and Rebecca Cave also were mentioned in the report but weren’t subject to investigation because they weren’t city employees.

Last month, the city manager issued a memo to the council advising them to be mindful of open-meeting laws, which prohibit three or more council members from discussing city business in private.

Three days after Fursman issued that memo, Longrie called a special meeting to review the city manager’s contract. But no vote was taken after the city’s legal counsel advised the group that Hjelle and Cave’s votes may have been voided by a conflict of interest, stemming from the firefighters’ employment status.

Fursman would in effect supervise firefighter employees. But Hjelle and Rebecca Cave as council members supervise the city manager.

Hjelle resigned as a pay-per-call firefighter last Friday. George Cave reportedly resigned as well, but he did not return a phone call seeking confirmation. With those possible legal roadblocks removed, an agenda item, “Removal of City Manager,” was added to this Monday’s meeting.

“I don’t harbor any bitterness and hope for nothing but the best for Maplewood and the community leaders,” said Fursman, who previously served as city administrator in Andover, Osseo and Carver. “The feeling I am left with is simply sadness. I moved my family here recently, have three kids in the schools, and have a real bond with the community, my neighbors and the employees that we will all miss very much.”

Steve Scott may be reached at 651-228-5526 or sscott@pioneer

press.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

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