Wells City Council has some vacant positions in staffing that need to be filled.

They held a work session on April 18 to discuss their plan of action.

Since this was just a work session they were unable to make any motions, but they did take time to toss several ideas around on the matter.

The recent termination of city administrator Steve Bloom added to the list of open city positions.

Mayor Ron Gaines states that the city needs to find replacements for administrator, community development, street supervisor and deputy city clerk.

Council member Anne-Mare Schuster suggested with all of the openings that the city consider looking at the job duties of the current employees.

“This might be the time to reorganize the duties at city hall and then we can figure out exactly what we would want from the positions we’re hiring,” she explains.

Other council members agreed and said that perhaps they could combine the different positions.

Council member Gary Robbins asked if the current city office employees could write down some of the tasks they do on a daily basis.

“That could give us a better idea of what we might need,”?he adds.

The council members agreed the city administrator position should be their top priority and they should hire from the top down.

“That way we can make sure the others we hire get along with the city administrator and we can play off his strengths,” council member John Herman says.

Once someone is hired to that position, they will be able to see the areas he is familiar with and can fill in the other open positions to complement those areas.

Schuster also visited the League of Minnesota Cities website to view job postings from towns similar to the size of Wells.

“I thought it would be a good idea to see what we’re up against,”?she explains.

She also felt this may help when they do decide to go forward with advertising for the various positions.

The council agreed that they would make a decision about advertising for the administrator position at the council meeting on Monday night.

Also at the work session the council;

Discussed the work duties of Robin Guise the city planning intern. It was brought up at the last council meeting that she would like additional tasks to complete when she is in the office.

Council member Ashley Seedorf suggested that the council designate someone to assign tasks to Guise.

The council will make a decision on how to proceed at the next regular meeting.

With the street supervisor position still open, the council discussed how it should be handled when the current staff take vacation time.

“We need to look at the policy about the street department taking vacation time on the same days,”?Seedorf explains.

The council will meet on Monday, April 22 at the Wells Community Center at 5 p.m. for the next regular council meeting.

They will then be able to take action on items discussed during last Thursday’s work session.