A new job with the city will soon be open. The title is city manager.

At the Albert Lea City Council meeting Monday night, Councilor Jeff Fjelstad moved that the city council take a recess so that the port authority could meet. This motion passed and the port authority council, which is composed of the city council members, convened immediately. During the port authority meeting, Fjelstad offered a resolution to name City Manager Paul Sparks the full-time executive director of the port authority. The move was contingent upon the hiring of a new city manager. The resolution passed with one council member dissenting.

Since the port authority was formed in 1987, Sparks has filled the dual roles of city manager and port-authority director.

&uot;I am resigning (as city manager) to accept the position as full-time executive director of the port authority,&uot; Sparks said.

Mayor Jean Eaton said Sparks will resign his position today.

&uot;I believe we need a change,&uot; Eaton said, reiterating reasons for the change that she has earlier made. She said that as city manager and port-authority director, Sparks has a conflict of roles. Having Sparks perform both of those roles &uot;no longer works,&uot; Eaton said.

Fjelstad said that the resolution was presented as part of a plan to restructure the city’s two strongest economic-development organizations, Greater Jobs Inc. and the port authority. He said the restructuring is not yet complete. When asked who was behind the move, Fjelstad said that Greater Jobs and members of the community were.

&uot;Not 100 percent of the community, but a majority,&uot; he said.

The resolution was not specifically publicized to the community via the city council’s pre-agenda meeting last Thursday or any posted agenda. Fjelstad raised the resolution near the end of meeting, during a time council members raise miscellaneous &uot;ward items&uot; that don’t appear on the agenda.

Councilor Al Brooks said he agrees the city needs to restructure. &uot;I don’t have a problem with Sparks&uot; as port authority director, he said. He did, however, disagree with the procedural aspect of the resolution. Referring to meetings that councilors Fjelstad and Warren Amundson had attended with representatives from Greater Jobs and the county, Brooks said that he wishes he had known what happened during those meetings.

The dissenting councilor was George Marin. In addition to opposing the discreet manner in which the resolution was proposed, he said he wanted more time to consider the position change.

Though he agreed that structural change is needed in the port authority, Marin compared the change to the shipping business, saying that the council is switching vessels but keeping the same captain. &uot;I think we need a new captain,&uot; he said.

Some public attendees of the council meeting commented on the resolution. Roger Bok of Albert Lea said the city manager &uot;has done his job.&uot;

&uot;The city’s budget is done by Sparks and the budget is fine,&uot; he said. However, Bok was also unhappy with the method in which the resolution was made.

Local business operator Don Sorenson, a member of the &uot;Think Tank&uot; that has pressured the council to replace Sparks, also objected to the handling of the resolution.

&uot;This is not the way to do business,&uot; he said. He told the council there should have been an open meeting so people could have had a chance to discuss the resolution in advance.

Sparks said that he will continue to serve as city manager and port authority executive director until a new city manager is hired.

A national search for a city manager will begin immediately, Eaton said.

The city manager is the administrative head of the city, running day-to-day operations and answering directly to the city council. The port authority is an arm of the city that can buy and sell land and take other actions with the goal of spurring economic development.

(Contact Benjamin Dipman at ben.dipman@albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)