Yesterday was Northfield City Program Coordinator Beth Kallestad’s final day with the city. After packing a decade’s worth of work into two-and-a-half years, Kallestad has accepted a position with the environmental consulting firm, Tetra Tech.
Working under a vague job title like Program Coordinator, Kallestad has been the engine powering several city initiatives in the area of Climate and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It would seem the mandate of her job was to take several ideas that were, to that point, talked about but never acted on and turn them into real programs.
She said getting the city to pass the Climate Action Plan was a big accomplishment. The plan calls for Northfield to run on carbon-free electricity by 2030 and to be completely carbon free by 2040. Once the plan was in place, it then became incumbent upon the city, and Kallestad by extension, to work toward that goal. She has done that in many ways, from working with Xcel Energy’s Home Energy Squad to offer free energy audits to homeowners and lighting audits to businesses, to promoting the use of solar power wherever possible, to the work she did on the city’s new Sustainable Building Policy, which is expected to pass next week when the City Council meets for the first time in 2022.
Kallestad has been equally effective with her role in supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Much the same way the city has developed a Climate Action Plan, Kallestad was essential to the development of the city’s Racial Equity Action Plan. In that role, she was instrumental in the installment of Claudia Garcia as the city’s first Spanish language translator and interpreter. Garcia has become indispensable in a very short amount of time to the city, so much so, in fact, that her position will shift from part-time to full-time next week. And there have been other developments, as well. The city is looking for ways to offer better access to services, not just in terms of language, but also in terms of physical barriers and the hours of availability. Strong recruiting efforts are being made to make the city’s boards and commissions better reflect the makeup of the community. Kallestad herself has taken a role in the training of new board members and commissioners and has connected the city to the University of Minnesota’s Community Leadership extension program.
All of this has been done as she has pioneered a new position that was somewhat ambiguous to begin with. Aside from working on those large projects, she has also overseen certain aspects of the Strategic Plan and has filled her time defining and expanding the scope of her position and the projects on which she has worked.
“There are those three [components]. There’s the climate work, there’s the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work, and there’s the strategic plan oversight. And how much to do when and where has been an evolving thing. But it’s more been the breadth of a lot of different things.”
Her position has been posted on the city’s job board, now titled Assistant to the City Administrator. Kallestad said the next person in her role will most likely have some different job responsibilities as the position continues to evolve. Resumes are now being accepted for the position. The posting will close on January 1st.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Beth Kallestad can be heard here
NAFRS to consider ‘pros and cons’ of a full time chief
Amid the flurry of recommended changes that can be found in the organizational review presented to the Northfield Area Fire and
Rescue Service, the one that will certainly receive the most attention is the idea of moving the Fire Chief’s position to full time.
Not only does the report recommend a full time chief, but it also points out that this is the third organizational report that the department has received in seven years that makes such a recommendation.
The report outlines the need for a full-time chief. It says that there are not enough hours for both the chief and his leadership team to do everything that needs to be done. Consequently, there have been problems with communication that have been difficult to fix.
“Lack of leadership availability is due in part from having minimal hours, with only a part time chief and captains,” the report says. “The leadership lacks time capacity to adequately plan, identify and address threats, and respond to requests.”
A full time chief, according to the report, would allow for more time to be devoted to community outreach and fire prevention programs, which are vital to public safety.
Chief Gerry Franek has run the department for more than twenty years. He has said that he intends to retire sometime in the next few months, and the report has identified this as the perfect time to begin a part-time to full-time transition. In fact, one of the recommendations made to that end, appointing First Assistant Chief Tom Nelson as Franek’s successor, was done by the NAFRS board shortly after the report was released.
NAFRS Board Chair Brad Ness said whether the board decides to move ahead with creating a full time chief, however, is still up in the air.
Ness said there are questions among board members about the necessity of having a full time chief. Some have questioned the cost of such a move. A new full-time fire chief would expect a salary of $135,00-$150,000, with a 30% benefit package and the use of a vehicle on top of that, bringing the total cost of the position into the neighborhood of $200,000.
Ness said the board will consider the change from all angles, looking at the reasoning behind the recommendations, as well as the cost, the benefits, and the disadvantages to making the change.
“Are people ready and willing to pay for a full-time fire chief? There are absolute pro’s but there are cons, too. I guess the question that [the Rural Fire District] is asking is ‘How will this improve putting out fires?’ So, we just need to [decide] what is best for this department.”
A congratulatory open house honoring Chief Franek has been reportedly scheduled for the end of January, but there is still no official word on exactly when – or even if – he intends to retire. The subject is expected to be discussed at an organizational board meeting that is scheduled, according to the NAFRS website, for January 13th.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with NAFRS Board Chair Brad Ness can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net.
[recent_post_carousel slides_to_show=”1″ limit=”5″ slides_to_scroll=”1″ category=”10″ media_size=”medium” dots=”false” show_read_more=”false”]
