Council votes 5-0 to dismiss Larson At Thursday night’s meeting, the city council approved by a vote of 5-0 a motion to dismiss Dallas Larson as the city administrator. Also on a 5-0 vote, the council approved a separation agreement between the city and Larson, setting November 19 as the effective date for his separation from the city. As of Tuesday of this week Larson had not accepted the separation agreement, which, among eight conditions, calls for payment of four months of salary and other benefits, including continued health, life and disability insurance through March 18, 2005.The motion to dismiss Larson as the city administrator contains 14 reasons as “a representative, but not comprehensive, list of reasons” for his dismissal.
Included on the list of reasons are claims that:
• Larson “has not adequately implemented the City Council’s policy directives.”
• he “has not communicated well with the City Council and has failed to keep the City Council adequately informed…”
• his “management style does not meet the City’s current needs.”
• he has, at times “completely failed to provide critical information to the City Council.”
• “the City Council no longer trusts the City Administrator.”
• “the existing relationship with the City Administrator has eroded to the point where it is difficult for the City Council to do its job.”
• he has “a poor working relationship with members of the public and the business and development community.”
• he “improperly used City letterhead, implying the consent and approval of the City to conduct non-City business on behalf of a private corporation.
”The reasons also include claims that Larson gave “false or misleading information to a potential developer,” that, without informing the council and without city council authorization “instituted negotiations to purchase property;” that he “failed to provide critical information to the city council during the budget process about the nature and extent of various city funds,” and that “if the city council had full disclosure, the city council may have made the city levy lower.”All five council members present at the Thursday meeting voted in favor of the two motions. Those members are Andy Hochmuth, Lisa Wilcox-Erhardt, Mike Bateson, Peter Bodette and Gary Thomas. The sixth council member, Karl Hochmuth, was absent.With input from council members both motions were prepared for council action by Elliott Knetsch, who serves as the city attorney. He told the council that neither Larson nor Larson’s attorney have accepted the conditions of the separation agreement.Larson could not be reached for comment this week.Mayor Glenn Weibel, who cannot vote on a council motion except to break a tie, challenged the accuracy of some of the contents of the two documents and said there were several statements in the documents with which he did not agree.The mayor complimented Lanell Endres, the assistant city administrator who has been serving as the acting administrator during the absence of Larson, who technically is on vacation. Weibel said Endres has been doing an “excellent job.”The city of Cannon Falls may or may not have a new interim city administrator. A city official from a Twin Cities suburb has been selected for the position from among several candidates, but as of early this week had not accepted an agreement approved for her employment by the Cannon Falls city council.The candidate, who has served at different times as the administrator of four Minnesota cities in the Twin Cities area, met with Cannon Falls city officials on Monday of this week but reportedly had not decided as of Tuesday to accept the offer to serve as the interim administrator here.
Related Link
Content © 2008 Cannon Falls Beacon
Software © 1998-2008 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved
1 comment:
If these accusations are true, how in the $%^& did we get stuck with him. I would like to see a response from Dallas on this.
Post a Comment