FAIRMONT– Jeff O’Neill is back for his second tour as Fairmont’s interim city administrator. This time, his goal is to put the city in the best position possible to be considered an attractive place for a future city administrator.

“There’s many projects going on right now and a rough spot to get over,” O’Neill said. “I want to work with the council on goal setting and help them set direction for what’s important.”

He also wants to help build positive relationships between the council and staff and make sure everyone understands expectations and how they can work together as a team to succeed.

“There’s such great talent on the city council and on the staff. The council is new with James (Kotewa) starting his term and Britney (Kawecki) in her new term. This is the right time at the beginning of this new era to start building the team and identifying what needs to be done,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill has several decades of city administrator experience in the cities of Coon Rapids, Watertown and Monticello and more years of experience working as an interim city administrator in St. Joseph, Becker and Watertown.

He was first hired as Fairmont’s interim city administrator in September of 2023. At that point the council had gone without someone at the helm since former city administrator Cathy Reynolds resigned in May of that year.

O’Neill stayed with the city until March of 2024, at which point former city administrator Matt Skaret was hired. Six months later, O’Neill came on again following Skaret’s resignation in November.

For the first time, O’Neill was found via a firm, Gov HR USA, which the council had hired to help it find an interim and/or full-time city administrator. This more recent time, O’Neill said a council member reached out to him and asked if he’d be interested in returning. The offer received unanimous approval of the city council.

It’s unclear how long O’Neill will be serving in this capacity as there is no time limit on his current contract with the city. The council is also not actively looking for a new city administrator.

“It’s natural to pause and wait some time before going out (and looking) after having someone resign after six months,” O’Neill said.

For now, O’Neill is just trying to smooth things out and keep some projects on track. He spoke to some of the bigger issues he thinks need to be addressed.

“There needs to be a set of goals and strategic objectives and identification of where the council is headed and what it wants to get done. There should also be a mission statement on how the team needs to shift its behaviors so that it works better together,” O’Neill said.

The Fairmont City Council meets next at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 27.