A special meeting of the Balaton City Council was called this past Monday.
City Clerk Kimberly Wall resigned from her position following controversy from the council regarding complaints of her unprofessionalism from residents. At the meeting, the council agreed upon a prior negotiated separation agreement. The former city clerk will collect severance pay until the end of the year, matching her regular hourly wage.
The agreement also states that both parties refrain from making disparaging statements against one another, and if a City employee is making statements against Wall, the council will try to prevent it.
The last item on the agenda was city complaints.
City Attorney Matthew Gross specified that while the council could receive and acknowledge complaints and details, they could not discuss actions in response to them in an open meeting. Two complaints, regarding bathrooms at Knudson-Boskey Memorial Park and water access to a City property, were discussed.
Mayor Lonnie Lambertus then acknowledged that the council had received two other complaints, and suggested the personnel committee meet with the people involved with those complaints directly before bringing them to the meeting. This sparked Wall to question the council’s nondisclosure.
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To this day, I still don’t know who complained or what they complained about specifically. If you want me to correct my wrong, you need to tell me what I did.
— KIMBERLY WALL Councilman Dylan Fricke explained that the person whom the complaints are about should have the ability to discuss the complaint with the council first before bringing it to the public, which then led to further discussion of complaints about Wall.
At the June meeting, the council had originally planned to hold a closed personnel meeting to discuss verbal, informal complaints brought to them against Wall. She opened that meeting, thus learning of the complaints. The council did not disclose to her what the comments were, and did not change that on Monday night, despite pressure from Wall.
“To this day, I still don’t know who complained or what they complained about specifically,” Wall said. “If you want me to correct my wrong, you need to tell me what I did.”
Deputy City Clerk Jody Kruger remains in the office, and Alexis Birk is currently acting as the interim city clerk. A job posting will be up soon for the position. Before a swift adjournment, Wall made one last comment to the council: “I hope you guys are happy with your decision because what you did to me was wrong. It’s just not fair.”