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City of Gem Lake City Council Special Meeting Minutes August 7, 2025 1 City of Gem Lake City Council Special Meeting – August 07, 2025 Meeting Minutes Mayor Gretchen Artig-Swomley called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. noting that the special meeting had been properly noticed with signage on the front exterior display case that was placed there four days prior. Councilmembers Jim Lindner, Len Cacioppo, Ben Johnson and Joshua Patrick were present. August 07, 2025, Agenda A motion was introduced by Councilmember Linder to accept the agenda, seconded by Mayor Artig-Swomley. Motion carried 5-0. New Business Recruitment Process Report The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the recruitment process for hiring a new city clerk following the resignation of Melissa Lawrence. Artig-Swomley gave a report on the two places the job was advertised online, the job description and basic proposed schedule for each step within the hiring process. She highlighted the following: 1. 14 applications have been received and acknowledged. 2. A list of questions for initial on-line interviews was developed. 3. A scoring matrix was designed. 4. Six initial on-line interviews have been conducted, with four possibly advancing to in-person interviews. All initial interviews were conducted by Artig-Swomley and Melissa Lawrence. 5. One applicant dropped out. (Prior to interviews) 6. Two very recent applications are in the early processing stage (received today.) 7. The deadline for applications is Friday August 8 at 4:00 p.m. 8. Two people from White Bear Township have agreed to be part of the in-person interview team. 9. One council member is being asked to take part in the interview-person interviews, in addition to Artig-Swomley. 10. A decision on who that will be will be based on the proposed interview schedule and who is available from the council to consistently take part. Artig-Swomley or Lawrence will send that out early next week. 11. It is hoped that a decision can be made on a successful candidate next week. 12. A hiring decision could then be approved at the next City Council Meeting. Artig-Swomley stressed that Lawrence has been extremely helpful in all aspects of this process, and it is very appreciated. Transitioning and Creating a Procedure Manual It is hoped that there will be some transitioning time between the new hire and Lawrence, but if that does not happen, a backup strategy is being planned. Artig-Swomley is being trained by Lawrence to do most of the functions of her job. This way Artig-Swomley can train the new person as necessary. Artig-Swomley has been creating a procedure manual and distributed a draft of the manual to date. It is not finished, because she has a lot more to learn and document. However, she asked those present to look over the draft and comment. Cacioppo agreed to learn how to do the septic and water billing so he can train the new person. Johnson agreed to learn how to do tobacco and liquor licensing, as well as permitting so he can train the new person. (White Bear Township has also agreed to help the new person learn the permitting system.)