The City of Northfield has received a report from the consulting firm Baker Tilly, evaluating and analyzing the City’s Administrative Department, with some interesting recommendations.
City Administrator Ben Martig said, as part of the city’s Strategic plan, each city department has been undergoing a review over the course of the last few years, and the Administrative Department, which includes Communications, Human Resources, Finance, IT and the City Clerk’s Office, as well as Martig’s position, is the most recently evaluated.
The report came back with what was labeled as three “High Priority Recommendations.” The first is to restructure and increase the capacity of the department. This would include the establishment of six new positions: an Assistant City Administrator, a Human Resources Manager, another IT Specialist, a Sustainability Coordinator, a Budget Analyst, and a part-time Administrative Assistant.
Along with those positions, the second recommendation is to formalize the workforce planning strategy, and finally the consultants found a need to prioritize training for the operating software the city deployed last year in order to take advantage of its full benefits.
A key component in the recommendations is the impending retirement in 2026 of Communications and Human Resources Director Michelle Mahowald. The report shows that there will be an opportunity at that point to split the responsibilities of the position into one focused on Communications and another focused on Human Resources.
The report went on to detail a series of flow charts that show how many of the department directors would report to the Assistant City Administrator rather than Martig himself, with just a few people, including the Finance Director, reporting directly to Martig.
There were many questions from the Council regarding the report, including a well-supported comment from Councilor Kathleen Holmes that there was much more information needed regarding the Communications position. He said those details will be forthcoming.
“We’re working on more details, but the Council had some good input. So that’ll be coming back in May for the council to accept the report. They asked for a little bit more information related, in particular, to the Communications area. So, we’re excited about exploring that.”
The Council could take the matter up again as soon as their meeting on May 7th.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Pursell: health care must be affordable and accessible for Minnesotans
Representative Kristi Pursell (D-Northfield) of District 58A is working on a bill that she has chief authored in the House of Representatives that would create a commission to look at the problems of healthcare access in Minnesota.
Across the state, healthcare systems have been consolidating their services and closing departments, sometimes even full clinics, at what is becoming an alarming rate. The Northfield Hospital + Clinics Birth Center has become a destination for many people having a baby, in part because of the excellent care they provide, but also because birth centers in surrounding communities like New Prague have been shut down.
The problem is not a new one, but it seems to be picking up speed. For many years there have been complaints about the lack of access to mental health services, and the need for more beds to help those in crisis, even as facilities were closing. The problem then spread to rural health care systems where local clinics began to close, leaving some people hours from any sort of health care. Long term care facilities are closing around the state to the point where it is being called a full-on crisis.
Representative Pursell said the legislature wants to know why it is, when demand remains high, that the supply of healthcare is being cut off.
There are obvious answers, of course. The Covid-19 pandemic was devastating for health care employment, and costs have increased for health care across the board and reimbursements from entitlement programs like Medicaid have become extremely problematic. However, Pursell said, Insurance Companies are showing record profits, and quite a bit of State money has been spent trying to ease the situation. The legislature would like to find out, Pursell said, exactly what is going on.
“We’ve heard from people in Grand Marais who have said I can’t age here. I can’t grow old here. There’s no services for me. Up the shore in Grand Portage, you have to drive to Duluth to have a baby. We’re spending a lot of state dollars. How is it – or isn’t it – serving Minnesotans instead of serving shareholders? We’re really trying to get our arms around what Minnesotans need and how we make this more affordable for people’s lives.”
With the final legislative deadline approaching, Pursell’s bill needs to receive a committee hearing before Friday or the bill will not be taken up on the House Floor. However, the companion bill in the Senate, chief authored by Majority Leader Erin Murphy, has quite a bit of momentum, and Pursell is hopeful the bill’s success in the other chamber will help hers garner the same sort of attention by the end of the week.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Kristi Pursell can be heard here
Council will consider Gaza Ceasefire Resolution tonight
And the City Council will meet tonight in the Council Chambers in City Hall.
Among the items on a rather light agenda will be the consideration of a Resolution of Support for a Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The past two regular council meetings have seen dozens of Northfielders imploring the City Council during the Public Comment portion of the meeting, to consider such a resolution. The Council’s policy, as stated repeatedly by Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell, is to not consider a resolution that does not directly affect the City of Northfield. However, with the demand showing no signs of abating, at least two members of the Council have seen fit to put a resolution on the docket.
The Council will also hear Police Chief Mark Elliott’s report of his department’s activity during the 1st Quarter of 2024, and they will consider another resolution assigning advisory authority to the Economic Development Authority regarding the Downtown Redevelopment Projects at 5th & Water Streets and 5th & Washington Streets.
As always, the city and the council are asking to hear opinions and comments from the public. Anyone who wishes to do so is invited to come to the meeting and address the council on any topic they see fit. Those wishing to voice their opinions without addressing the council should email their councilors directly or post a comment through the eComment button on the “Agendas” section of the City Council website.
Tonight’s meeting will begin at 6:00.
KYMN News 4/16/24
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
