FAIRMONT– The Fairmont City Council held a lengthy conversation on Monday on whether or not it wanted to go with a new engineering firm to assist the city. The city has been contracting with local firm, Bolton & Menk, on and off for several decades and most recently since 2022.

The three firms the council considered on Monday were SEH, which is based out of St. Paul, ISG, which is based out of Mankato and Bolton & Menk, which is also based out of Mankato with an office in Fairmont.

The city’s interim administrator, Jeff O’Neill, said that all cities are set up differently as some have an engineer on staff and some have public works people. He said the current set up in Fairmont is not unusual.

The city made the switch to its current format in 2022 when its city engineer, Troy Nemmers, left the position. Nemmer’s title had been Public Works Director/City Engineer. In June of 2023, Matthew York came on to fill the vacancy but his role is Public Works/ Public Utilities Director.

Since Nemmers left, the city has contracted with Bolton & Menk for engineering services.

O’Neill said the process for selecting a consulting engineer is typically done once every five years, however, in this situation because the city switched from having a staff engineer to a hired engineer (Bolton & Menk), he said it made sense to go out for a Request for Proposal (RFP), which was sent out on Nov. 1, 2024.

“This effort to select a consulting engineer has been a wonderful experience,” O’Neill said.

The three proposals, with information and costs for each firm, equaled 144 pages which were in the council’s agenda packet. O’Neill said interviews were also done with all three of the firms. Sitting in on the interviews were Council Member Britney Kawecki and James Kotewa, O’Neill, York and an engineer technician with the city.

“ISG was kind of recommended as the number one candidate, but it wasn’t a unanimous decision in that respect. Bolton & Menk number two and SEH number three,” O’Neill said.

He explained that the consulting city engineer’s role in assigning engineering project work is done in three ways. It can prepare an RFP with staff and solicit requests from engineering firms and help the city evaluate the submittals.

“In that situation your consulting engineer is not going to be eligible to bid on it,” O’Neill explained, adding that that helps develop trust and stray away from worries of conflict of interest.

The consulting engineer, on smaller projects, can authorize smaller projects without going out for an RFP. Finally, the consulting engineer can bid on projects that city staff prepared an RFP for.

Next, O’Neill compared the top two firms the council was considering. When it came to costs for services, he said it was hard to determine which would be most cost-effective as they charged differently with Bolton & Menk on a graduated scale and ISG charging more on the front end with a flat rate.

O’Neill stressed that both firms are highly capable. Mayor Lee Baarts asked if York wanted to comment.

York said that he’s had a good relationship with Bolton & Menk, specifically with Troy Nemmers and Wes Brown, and that he’s also had a good working relationship with members of ISG, some of whom are working on current projects with the city.

“It’s a very difficult decision to make,” York said. “This decision that will be made by council is extremely important and we need to take it seriously.”

Kotewa shared that the process of going through the RFPs and interviews was very long and said comparing ISG to Bolton & Menk was like comparing “apples to apples.” He said he received a few phone calls over the weekend from people who had seen the item on the agenda.

“Bolton & Menk was mentioned to be part of the fabric of the community. They’ve been here for a long time. They employ 19 people at our office here in Fairmont and while I believe ISG would do a fine job, I still back Bolton & Menk because of the job they have done here,” Kotewa said.

Kawecki, who was also involved with going through the RFPs and sitting in on the interviews, said she thinks the citizens of Fairmont are ready for a change.

“Whether or not whoever’s fault it may be, possibly Bolton & Menk has become complacent,” Kawecki said, adding that she thinks that’s the standard that has been set.

“I think that that’s why basically the overall support was for ISG, was for the energy and everything that comes with a fresh look and new ideas. It was really good to see,” Kawecki said.

Baarts asked how often Bolton & Menk is needed and able to physically come to city hall. York said it’s nice to have face to face discussions but that a lot can be done over the phone or Zoom as well.

“Probably every other week we meet in person,” York said.

Council Member Jay Maynard said, “I think Matt’s comment and James’ about the local office is really telling because they’re here. In 15 minutes Troy can be upstairs (at city hall) talking to him. As opposed to ISG out of Mankato. They have to get in their truck and drive an hour… and you bet they’ll charge us for that travel time.”

He said there has to be a compelling reason for him to consider making a change when it comes to engineering services.

“Because what we’re doing if we make a change is throwing away 60 years of institutional knowledge,” Maynard said.

He added that if there were any concerns about communication, as was earlier expressed, it should be addressed with the hope that the issue would be fixed.

Council Member Wayne Hasek also took issue with straying away from working with a local business.

“I think you’re setting really poor precedence if you hire somebody else because Bolton & Menk has 19 people who work there from here,” Hasek said.

He made a motion to appoint Bolton & Menk as the consulting engineer for the city, which Maynard seconded.

After some more discussion, Kawecki let her frustration be known and said, “if we decide to do a committee and the two councilors on the ends (Hasek and Maynard) are going to not consider anything that comes out, that we just make that clear from the start because I don’t really want to waste my time. I spent 20 hours reviewing the proposals and then we spent hours debating the candidates and came out with a recommendation and probably because it’s me, we’re not going to go with them, or whatever it is.”

She asked O’Neill to make sure that council time isn’t wasted in the future.

In a roll call vote, the motion to appoint Bolton & Menk as consulting engineer for the city passed 3-2 with Kawecki and Council Member Randy Lubenow opposed.

In other business, the council heard a brief update on the police department’s body worn cameras. Police Chief Mike Hunter said every two years they’re required by state law to have an audit done on the department’s body worn camera program and present it to the council for approval before it submits the audit to the state.

“We’ve had it (the program) around since 2018 when we first deployed it on the streets so we’ve had a couple different audits during that time. We’re one of the first ones to deploy body cameras in southern Minnesota and we’re very proud of that and very proud of the program,” Hunter said.

Baarts asked if every officer has one and Hunter said yes.

“That’s one of the nice things because it’s issued as part of our equipment so our patrol guys wear them including myself. We like them,” Hunter said.

The council approved the body worn camera audit and directed staff to submit the audit report to the state of Minnesota legislative commission on data practices and personal data privacy.

In other news, the council:

— Declared Friday, April 25 Arbor Day in the city of Fairmont. A tree planning ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. at Bird Point Park.

– Adopted a policy for processing multiple retail cannabis registration applications with a single license available in Fairmont.

— Approved to authorize an amendment to an agreement with MSA Professional Services, Inc., dated May 5, 2022, regarding updates to the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations.

— Tabled a task order with Bolton & Menk for construction administration for the Gomsrud Park project.

— Approved the purchase of a new dump/plow truck and snow removal equipment.

— Heard that the opening date for the Fairmont Aquatic Park is June 3.