MOORHEAD GOVERNMENT: IS IT A “WELL OILED MACHINE?”
If the taxpayers and citizens of Moorhead were paying attention to their city government I probably wouldn’t receive half the e-mails or comments I do. People often want answers for questions they could easily find out for themselves, yet don’t because they are not sure if they can get the answers or they don’t want to take the time to find out what they need to know.
Finding the answer to a question should be relatively easy. Well, that is, if a person has the time to call a few dozen times or if they don’t need to know immediately. Recently I was asked about the salaries of certain department heads within the city of Moorhead. As I haven’t checked on any of them myself in recent years, I was as clueless as the person asking. The catch here is that the person who was questioning what one department head is making is also a city council representative. That does not mean this person should have automatically known, because under the City Charter Rules for the city of Moorhead, a city council representative has no authority over anyone working for the city of Moorhead. In other words, no one elected to the city council of Moorhead represents the citizens of Moorhead when it comes to who actually does work for the taxpayers. So, if there is ever a question by a taxpayer about who’s in charge of a department or a particular job, the only person to talk to is Mike Redingler, the City Manager of Moorhead – the City Manager, today, yesterday and since 1985 (actually, city management governing was voted in by the people in 1984).
But I digress. Recently a few changes have happened within the city — changes of positions within the city staff that not even the Moorhead City Council was aware of until the promotions had already occurred, and to quote one city council member, “This has been upsetting.”
The changes have happened because Moorhead’s City Manager, Mike Redingler, is apparently a “type A” personality who according to one person might “work himself into the ground if allowed.” Until recently, it is rumored that Mike Redingler’s work day often lasted as long as 11 hours. This sounds like a win-win for the taxpayers who chip in to pay Mike Redingler. However, not having a super stressed-out and overworked city manager is probably better for Moorhead’s citizens in the long run.
So, what changes have taken place and with whom? Well, for starters, the position of “assistant city manager” has been resurrected by installing Ms. Wenger. About the same time, Scott Hutchins was named as “deputy city manager.” Exactly what the difference is, apparently no one other than Jill and Scott (and presumably Mike) totally understands. Certainly not anyone inside of the city council does.
At the end of last year, Moorhead’s Human Resource Director, Jean Thompson, retired.
On Friday, it was announced, albeit in muffled tones, that Jill Wenger has now been promoted to the Human Resource department as its director. This is the third position Jill Wenger has been “bumped” to within the city of Moorhead in less than four years. Her successor as Moorhead City Clerk presently makes $48,590. So, in a relatively short period of time, Ms. Wenger has gone from a salary of $40,000-plus to $69,617 as the Assistant City Manager. Since whenever the City Manager decided to give Ms.Wenger her post as the new Human Resource Director, Ms. Wenger’s salary also jumped with the new bump to $74,826 per year. Scott Hutchins, as the newly created “Deputy Manager” as counter-part to Jill being the temporary Assistant Manager, also received a raise of $6,027 to his salary, increasing his total to $101,045 per year.
My question is direct and obvious. When Ms. Wenger was in the newly-created position as assistant city manager, less than a year ago, how exactly did she also learn the responsibilities necessary to be the Director of Human Resources? No doubt about the fact she has the smarts. Being a City Clerk is a difficult task in itself. What was required to be Mike Redingler’s “second or next to second” in command? But now, as Director of Human Resources? How does one simply take over a position such as this without at least some training or prior experience? Was the newly-created job as “assistant city manager” just a way to allow Ms. Wenger an in-house, on-the-job training for the directorship of Human Resources? Another question the city council might want to ask regarding this entire “promotion” business is why was the vacancy for the position of Human Resource Director NEVER advertised or posted? I understand Jill Wenger filled in when Jean Thompson left, but was the real intention to let her see how well she liked the job first, and then just give it to her?
Personally, I have no issue with Jill Wenger. As I said, I think she’s a smart lady and hopefully will be an excellent Human Resource Director. However, I do have major reservations regarding what City Manager Mike Redingler did – arbitrarily and without at least consulting the city council board, or posting the position for other and possibly more-experienced candidates to apply for the job. Is it required by Minnesota law? Not that I am aware of. But appointing people to positions simply created for the benefit of giving a title and more money to someone smells like a “shell game.” It also gives major credence to the phrase “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The questions that need to be answered are these: is anyone, especially those of us who have lived under a different style of government in Moorhead, still convinced that city management rule really works? Personally, I sincerely question that. Secondly, if we have as many people as the city of Moorhead does have working within city government, running the city from each department, add to that a City Manager who has the authority to create positions, hire people, promote people and get rid of people without input from the eight elected officials who apparently are not told very much until the “deed has been done” so to speak, does Moorhead really need EIGHT elected officials? Why not only four – one per ward?
Compare Moorhead’s ruling government authority to Fargo’s. They have five City Commissioners and a City Administrator. Among the city commissioners are the Mayor of Fargo and a Deputy Mayor, plus three elected commissioners. The Mayor of Fargo makes $28,860 a year. Deputy Mayor Mahoney makes $24,554 per year. Pat Zavarol, Fargo’s City Administrator, makes $167,044 per year. The Human Resource Director for Fargo makes $ 113,797 per year. Each department head is responsible for new hires. It’s simple. The top tier all the way to the bottom tier, regarding who runs what in the city of Fargo, does not read like a twelve-story building blueprint. So why does a city the size of Moorhead, with a total population of 36,000 (max), need three “chiefs” to do the same job? Better yet, what happened to ELECTED representatives being responsible to the taxpaying citizens, versus a government CEO who is basically responsible to no one because those who should ask the hard questions don’t?
God save us from “inappropriate, embarrassing and untimely questions,” and as my grandmother used to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions!”
Questions/comments send to: sooasheim@aol.com or call 218-233-8604.