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The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners said Tuesday they plan to go into closed session at their next meeting to review the performance of interim County Administrator Ryan Rasmusson as they consider how to proceed with the position in the future.

Mike Humpal, manager of local government solutions with South Central Service Cooperative, attended the board’s workshop Tuesday to discuss options for how to proceed with the search for a new administrator. The board hired South Central Service Cooperative of North Mankato in July 2022 to lead the search after the resignation of former Administrator Tom Jensen and the subsequent hiring of Candace Pesch for the role. It then continued working with the firm after the board parted ways with Pesch in April after less than six months.

The firm had then proceeded to search for new candidates but after three out of the five most qualified candidates for the position withdrew their names for the position, the county in July opted to suspend the search.

Humpal said moving forward, the board essentially has two options.

The first option is to have a review of the interim administrator, who has served in the role since May. Rasmusson had applied for the position and was one of the two remaining candidates in July. Humpal said Rasmusson scored high amongst the candidates for leadership and management and had solid references, understands the organization, is established in the role and is received well by both his peers and the board.

The second option is to begin a new search in January after the holidays, though it could be potentially four to five months after that until a new person is in place.

Humpal said he was unsure what the applicant pool would be like as there has not been a lot of movement in the sector.

“I can’t guarantee we’ll get one or 10 candidates, we just don’t know,” he said. “We’ve certainly had a good selection of candidates.”

He described what happened with the last round of candidates as “unfortunate.”

First District Commissioner Brad Edwin said he was concerned with how much time had passed, noting if they waited until April or May to hire another person, it would be almost a year since they started the process after Pesch’s termination. He brought up the idea of doing a performance review of Rasmusson to determine if he is the right person to be in the permanent position. He noted later that he thought things had been going exceptionally well.

Humpal said had Rasmusson been selected for the permanent position instead of the interim administrator, he would have been at the point of a six-month review right now. Humpal encouraged having discussions with Rasmusson to make sure there is a mutual understanding of the role and its responsibilities as well as goals.

Second District Commissioner Dawn Kaasa asked why the board didn’t go ahead with the interviews with Rasmusson and the other candidate who was a finalist.

Humpal said he didn’t think interviewing the two would have been productive.

Fifth District Commissioner Nicole Eckstrom said she was in favor of meeting with the other commissioners to discuss Rasmusson’s time as interim and then bringing in Rasmusson to the conversation as well. She said that was something she wanted to do right away so they could know what direction they want to go.

She noted if the board ends up hiring Rasmusson as the permanent administrator, she wants it to be because they have full confidence in him not because they just don’t want to wait the extra five months for another potential selection.

Rasmusson, who was also at the meeting, said he would appreciate the opportunity to sit down with the board and talk about what has happened in his time as interim as well as goals for the future.