By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer
SEYMOUR – At its Monday, Feb. 8, common council meeting, Seymour Mayor Ryan Kraft gave an update on the city’s search for an administrator/clerk.
With the city’s former deputy clerk, Kelly Gerrits, recently accepting a different job with Outagamie County, there’s a vacancy in the clerk’s office.
At the January council meeting, Kraft said he didn’t believe Seymour was a large enough municipality to require a full-time administrator, so the new role would be a combined part-time clerk, treasurer and administrator position.
“After speaking with representatives from the cities of Oconto and Wrightstown and hearing from council members, we tweaked the priorities of what we’re looking for in a qualified candidate,” said Kraft. “Among other things, we’d like someone with a strong background in economic development, someone able to find external funding sources and someone who has good relationship-management skills.”
Kraft said he got good feedback from Oconto and Wrightstown on what worked for them in terms of posting the position.
“They ended up reaching out to a recruiting firm to help in the process,” he said. “We’ll start with posting the job online first and see how that goes, but if we’d like to get help with more qualified candidates, we can always go the same route with using a recruiter.”
Kraft said he’s still waiting to hear from a few other municipalities.
“I’ve reached out to as many mayors in the area as possible to gain as much information as I can,” he said. “When we’re dealing with the long-term success of our city, I don’t think we can have too much information.”
The starting wage, approved by the council, will be from $75,000 to $80,000, but it could go higher based on qualifications.
Lori Thiel, the current clerk-treasurer in Seymour, would make a lateral move to the deputy clerk position.
“We’d like to have the new role filled by the middle of this year,” said Kraft. “We have the online posting set until March 15.”
To view the job posting, visit lwm-info.org.
Candidates can also visit cityofseymourwi.org for more information or contact Thiel at 920-833-2209 with additional questions.