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SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING JULY 13, 1998 <br /> Kim asked Nick to describe his delegation skills. Nick said that is the most difficult skill <br /> and it takes a lot of conscious effort on his part to do this. He said that he has to learn to <br /> trust that his staff can do their work. John asked Nick how well he did this in Virginia. <br /> Nick explained that he had 12 different department heads. He gave them authority to go <br /> directly to the city council if they felt their concerns were not resolved by him. He said <br /> this did not happen very often because they were able to resolve their differences before it <br /> got to that point. Nick said, "it scares the hell out of me", however he could not run the <br /> city by himself. Kim explained that this had been a concern and so this Council is <br /> implementing an intervener system. <br /> Kim noted that Nick had obtained his masters degree during his tenure as City <br /> Administrator in Virginia. She asked how the degree helped him in carrying out the <br /> Administrator duties.Nick explained that he spent the first couple of years at Virginia <br /> "crawling". After he earned his degree,he found from a managers perspective, he needed <br /> to be more"up-front", take the first step toward reconciliation and talk about what went <br /> wrong and what happened. He needed to build trust. He walked his way through the <br /> process.Nick said he was lucky and had the support of the city council. <br /> Caroline asked Nick when he applied for the administrators position at Lino Lakes,did he <br /> do any research on the City. She also asked what motivated him to apply for the position. <br /> Nick explained that when he left the administrator's position in Virginia, he took some <br /> time off from the public sector. However, he feels that he wants to be an administrator <br /> again. Nick said he saw the ad,noted that Lino Lakes is a growing city on the northern <br /> fringe of the Twin City metropolitan area and felt that this would be a good match for <br /> him. He said he does have another job offer in a much larger city in other state. However, <br /> he felt it would be hard for his family to move into a metropolitan area. Nick said he <br /> would like to stay in Minnesota since both his and his wife's families live here. In <br /> addition, he does have 14 years of PERA which was also a factor. Nick explained that he <br /> had heard good things about the elected officials in Lino Lakes. He said he would not like <br /> to work in a city with a dysfunctional organization. <br /> Caroline asked Nick if he would move into Lino Lakes. He said yes. He explained that he <br /> was working as the Virginia City Engineer and lived in Chisholm. When he was asked to <br /> move into the City Administrator position,he requested permission to remain in his home <br /> in Chisholm. <br /> John asked Nick when he went through the PDI process, what was indicated as something <br /> that he needed to personally work on. Nick explained he needed to develop his listening <br /> and delegation skills. He noted that he likes to talk.Nick said he needs to give the speaker <br /> his full attention and to listen carefully. <br /> Chris said that he had read all the material about Nick but asked Nick to tell the Council <br /> who he is. Nick replied that he is an intense person, believes in himself, is very social, <br /> hard working and dedicated. <br /> u <br /> PAGE 4 <br />