The Flandreau City Council has told the city’s development group that it isn’t interested in the volunteers’ input when it comes to narrowing down candidates for the city administrator job.

The Flandreau Development Corporation had asked the council if someone from the organization could help when it comes to looking at job candidates’ economic development skills before an administrator is hired to replace Don Whitman, who is retiring in April. The city’s future is going to be determined by whether it can grow, and economic development will be an important part of the administrator’s job, those on the development board say.

“I’m incredibly disappointed that this is the conclusion that you’ve come to,” said Carleen Wild Wilson, president of the FDC. “I don’t understand what the drawback would be.”

The decision was talked about at the Feb. 6 city council meeting after the council came out of an executive session. The offer to help, that had first been brought to the council last month by FDC members, wasn’t on the most recent council agenda.

Council members went into executive session, a closed-door meeting, with its lawyer Paul Lewis and Whitman. Lewis said the executive session was because the group would be discussing qualifications of a prospective employee. He later said no specific job candidate was named in executive session, but based on some qualifications of the candidate, people may have been able to guess who it was so the meeting needed to be private.

Dan Sutton, council president, said he could not say how many applications the city has gotten before the deadline to accept them on Friday because he wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from applying. Council members will get copies at the Feb. 20 meeting, he said.

The job initially was posted on Jan. 11, but the job description doesn’t mention economic development as one of the administrator’s duties. An advertisement listing the job does, however. The council also has said previously that the city might be able to work with the FDC to hire an economic developer because the new administrator wouldn’t have as much time to devote to that effort as the FDC would like.

It is not clear if council members discussed in private whether the FDC should be involved in the selection process, but Mayor Mark Bonrud said the council had come to a consensus that the council would be the group that would screen applicants. Representatives of the FDC may get to review the choices once they are narrowed down to a couple of people, he said. Council member Bob Pesall said the group did not vote in the closed session because that is not allowed. Lewis said Bonrud misspoke when using the word “consensus” and that the executive session was legal.

The recent decision on the selection process differs from the first plan for screening applicants, which was going to be handled by four members of the council.

Council woman Karen Tufty said she doesn’t understand why one group -- the FDC -- would think it would have more knowledge than the city.

“We can’t have hard feelings. There’s going to be disappointments along the way,” she said.

Kelley Ramsdell, a businesswoman who is on the FDC, said the group wasn’t asking to be able to vote on a new administrator.

“We weren’t asking to be on the council. We were just asking to be at the table,” she said. “Another opinion doesn’t hurt.”

Sutton, who also is on the FDC, said he can wear two hats in representing the needs of the community in the selection process.

“I think that when this is all done., we’re going to be able to find a new candidate that is someone that picks up where Don left off,” he said.

Wilson said that drawing on a broader base of people and working together to find the best person would be good for Flandreau. “If I were in your seat, I would think that is a valuable opinion to want to have,” she said.

Businessman Scott Ramsdell said in an interview after the meeting that the goal of those volunteering on the FDC is to bring new ideas to the selection process for everyone’s benefit. “The whole purpose we’re trying to get is to allow this group of people to help vet this person,” he said. “They (the council) are not allowing a proper vetting.”

In other business,

• The city is figuring out the process for how the money will flow in to pay for the study of the dam, Whitman said. In the first phase, four options for the dam will be determined, and then the public will be able to give feedback on which ideas they like.
• The city is working with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe on converting 66 street lights to LED heads, Whitman said. The tribe will pay for the cost of the upgrade.
• The city will sell a surplus mower rather than trade it in for a new one, Whitman said. The replacement mower is in the 2018 parks budget. The minimum bid on the used mower will be $2,500, and money from the sale will go back in the city’s general budget.
• The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20 because Monday, when the meeting would typically be held, is President’s Day.