By Brenda Erdahl
The City of Maple Lake will have a new, full-time city administrator by mid-August.
Councilors approved a contract with Scott Hildebrand at their Tuesday, July 2 meeting. He will start on August 12 once he has fulfilled his obligations to the City of Landfall where he is currently employed as city administrator.
Hildebrand was chosen after a rigorous selection process that began with 20 candidates. Those 20 were whittled down to five. Of those five, one of the candidates accepted a position elsewhere and another decided against relocating to Minnesota, Mayor Lynn Kissock said. The three remaining candidates were interviewed by city hall staff, city department heads and all city councilors except Wayne Paumen who was out sick. Hildebrand was the unanimous pick, Kissock said.
Hildebrand’s starting salary will be $101,358.
“I know when people hear that they’ll think it’s a large salary. It’s hard in our small community to think of that salary level, but I will say that is the going rate,” Kissock said. “I’ll also say a community near here just made an offer to a new city administrator with zero experience and the number is not far off.”
In actuality, Hildebrand’s salary is closer to what the previous city administrator was paid than it first appears because he won’t be taking the City’s health insurance.
“Because he won’t be taking our health insurance, that greatly reduces the cost to us, so as an entire package, we are closer to what we paid our previous administrator,” Kissock said.
“We have a very experienced gentleman coming and I’m really looking forward to the work he can do for us and with us as we look to tackle some growth,” she added.
Hildebrand attended Tuesday’s meeting and before that, experienced a slice of life in Maple Lake at the June Makers and Growers Market.
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