Dec. 3—WILLMAR
— During a discussion Nov. 21 regarding a new position with the Willmar Parks and Recreation Department, Willmar City Councilor Rick Fagerlie took a line of questioning toward department director Rob Baumgarn that made the remainder of the City Council, as well as city staff, noticeably uncomfortable.
Baumgarn and Willmar Human Resources Director LuAnn Sietsema were asking the council to approve a job description for a facilities coordinator, a new position in the Parks and Recreation Department.
Among other comments, Fagerlie called Baumgarn's leadership of the department "a disaster," and said he thinks the new position is unnecessary and that Baumgarn should be able to handle many of the responsibilities.
At one point during the questioning, Councilor Andrew Plowman moved to end the discussion and vote.
Councilor Julie Asmus eventually called for a point of order at the same time that Community Operations Director Kyle Box got up to walk across the room and approach the city attorney and city administrator regarding the line of questioning and comments from Fagerlie.
"Is this appropriate?" Asmus asked.
"Yeah, it is," Fagerlie stated. "We need to clear the program out."
"At a council meeting?" Asmus asked.
"Yes, where else? We don't have committee meetings," Fagerlie stated.
City Attorney Robert Scott warned the councilors to focus their questions on determining the need for the new position and not make it a discussion about the personnel performance of a specific employee.
After taking a short recess, and Sietsema further clarifying the need for the new position, the job description was approved in a split 5-2 vote.
Fagerlie and Councilor Tom Butterfield opposed the job description, and Councilors Justin Ask, Vicki Davis, Audrey Nelsen, Asmus and Plowman were in favor. Councilor Michael O'Brien was not present at the meeting.
The position for the facilities coordinator is in the city's 2023 budget to start at the beginning of the year, and it is also budgeted to add maintenance staff in the spring when outdoor youth programming will increase, according to City Administrator Leslie Valiant.
The facilities coordinator will be responsible for managing the daily operations of the city's facilities, coordinating facility use with a wide variety of groups, responding to building equipment and mechanical needs, training part-time employees, preparing and monitoring the budget with the parks and recreation team and performing marketing and advertising activities, according to the job description.
Fagerlie questioned why Baumgarn wouldn't have time for many of the tasks to which the facilities coordinator would be assigned. He commented it would be best to hire additional maintenance personnel at this time.
He also said that without the youth athletic associations, there would not be much of a youth recreation program. Fagerlie accused Baumgarn of "talking badly" about different youth athletic associations to other youth athletic associations.
"As a person with a recreation degree in community ed with municipal emphasis, I see it as a disaster, and I was hoping it would be something good, and I don't see that," Fagerlie said of hiring Baumgarn as the parks and recreation director in 2018.
Fagerlie sat on the interview committee that recommended Baumgarn to the City Council for the position and is quoted in a West Central Tribune article at the time saying, "He is working for the city now, he can jump right in. It should be a smooth transition. He is going to improve it. I have 100% confidence in the gentleman."
Other councilors, Mayor Marv Calvin and city staff came to Baumgarn's defense.
Current staffing at the Parks and Recreation Department includes Baumgarn as the director, Ryan Sheffler as the facilities and adult recreation coordinator, Rachel Centellas as recreation assistant, Britta Diem as community center manager, a recently vacated youth recreation coordinator position for which the city will be hiring a replacement and two maintenance staff.
Sietsema stated she met with Public Works Director Gary Manzer and Baumgarn multiple times, and hiring a facilities coordinator made the most sense, along with the need for additional maintenance staff.
She noted the city is actively recruiting to fill the youth recreation coordinator position that was recently vacated by Alex Sobieck, who told Sietsema there were 250 kids in the recently completed football program that brought in $25,000.
"That's just a snippet of one program and it's just going to grow from there. Our community park facilities have been upgraded and are better, and that's what we are looking at and projecting forward," she told the council.
Much of the defense of Baumgarn centered around how busy he has been the last few years overseeing all of the recreation-related projects financed by the local income sales tax.
This meeting took place on the same day that the Events and Recreation Center at the Willmar Civic Center opened to the public, a nearly $10 million project overseen by Baumgarn.
Baumgarn also oversaw the construction of new turf fields and the softball complex at the Civic Center, all of the upgrades at Robbins Island Regional Park and upgrades to Swansson Field in southwest Willmar — projects that totaled another approximately $11 million.
"(Parks and Recreation) facilities are improving, but they are also getting more complicated. Facilities are getting more expensive to operate and facilities are getting more costly to replace," Plowman said, noting how much money the city has spent constructing top-of-the-line facilities that will be very busy with programming.
He added that the Parks and Recreation director oversees more than just programming; he also manages and oversees employees as well as making sure the facilities, equipment and machinery are all maintained.
"I just don't see it as an area to cut corners after you spend millions of dollars on this stuff," he said.
Asmus pointed out that Baumgarn already had a full plate as the department head and also managing the Civic Center before all of the local option sales tax projects were added to his responsibilities.
"I feel like you have carried the water for two to three years and now it's kind of filtering out, and now we can see where the rec programming is going and where the needs are going to be," she said. "Especially with the new rec center facility. I think this position is needed and I think it is a good allocation and balance of the responsibilities, I'm in favor of this position."
Calvin noted that the city has added more than 208,000 square feet of facilities financed by the sales tax, all of which are the responsibility of the Parks and Recreation Department.
The mayor also agreed with Asmus' assessment that Baumgarn had been taking on added duties.
When Baumgarn was hired as department director in 2018, the city's plan had been to hire a new Civic Center manager to replace Baumgarn in that role and to hire a recreation coordinator. Baumgarn instead wanted to hire two recreation coordinators and continued managing the Civic Center himself while also leading the department.
"You agreed to accept responsibility for both tasks, is that correct?" Calvin asked.
Baumgarn acknowledged that was correct, explaining that the city administrator at the time said that, besides Baumgarn as director, there would be only two additional positions in the department.
Baumgarn was the first director of the city department after the dissolution on Sept. 1, 2018, of Willmar Community Education and Recreation, which was jointly operated by the city and the Willmar School District. Baumgarn's department is responsible for youth and adult recreation programming. Willmar Community Education operated by the school district offers education and enrichment programming.
Calvin also asked Baumgarn how many hours each work week he has a chance to sit and plan future goals for the department, which Baumgarn acknowledged was hard to judge with his time the last three years being occupied with all the sales tax projects.
"I pushed back on this position until (the city administrator) sat down and explained all this to me," Calvin said, noting the city has added a lot of responsibility to the Parks and Recreation Department. "If we are going to have a recreation program that is going to work and function the way it should function, we need people to do it. Thank you for bringing this request forward."
