City council approves process to hire fire chief

Update on billing for township fire services

The Princeton City Council recently held a discussion and approved the hiring process for the Princeton Fire and Rescue Department’s (PFRD) new fire chief.

During the council meeting on Thursday, April 11, the Princeton City Council reviewed a proposed hiring process for the city’s new fire chief.

The previous fire chief, Ron Lawrence, retired from the position effective March 1 after the PFRD issued a vote of no confidence against him back in December 2023.

According to City Administrator Michele McPherson, the deadline for applications for the part-time fire chief position closed on April 5, and the city received a total of seven applicants.

Following the deadline, city staff created a review process for those applicants to go through that includes four steps.

The first step involves McPherson and Princeton attorney, Damien Toven, to review the applications with a yes or no checklist developed to screen for compliance of the minimum standards of the job description.

The next step involves the finalization of participants to act on the two interview panels, the development of interview questions, and identification of interview dates.

Step three involves two separate interviews for the applicants.

The first interview will be with Panel A composed of seven individuals that will interview the applicants. Those seven Panel A members will include a fire chief from an outside fire department, a PFRD member with less than 10 years of experience (non-leadership), a PFRD member with more than 10 years of experience (non-leadership, a PFRD leadership team member, a community member from a prominent business within the city, the city administrator, and a council member or the city mayor.

Following the interviews of the applicants, Panel A will then reduce the number of applicants to the top three candidates. Those candidates will then enter a second interview with Panel B, also composed of seven members.

Panel B will include assistant city administrators Bob Gerold and Todd Frederick, the mayor or a city council member, a Greenbush Township Fire Advisory Board member, a community member from a prominent city business (the same from Panel A is preferred, but will accept a new member), and one of the PFRD members from Panel A.

Panel B will be responsible for the final selection of the best candidate for the position and will recommend that candidate for the position to the council for approval.

The final step of the process will include a background check on the candidate.

Once all four steps are completed, the City Council will approve the hire of the city’s new fire chief.

The timeline for the hiring process will be determined by the availability of panel members to conduct the interviews.

For more information, visit https://www.princetonmn.org/services/agendas_and_minutes/city_council.php and view the April 11 meeting agenda.

Township fire service billing update

McPherson provided the Princeton City Council with an update on the billing issues for nearby townships that utilize the PFRD for fire services.

Following multiple complaints from nearby township residents, including Princeton Township and Wyanett Township, the city discovered a variety of issues with the billing for fire services with the townships.

Currently, city staff are working through the billing for Wyanett Township.

McPherson said at the council meeting on April 11 that city staff are getting closer to resolving the issues of over-billing. She also thanked Wyanett Township Supervisor Ken Murray for his help with the issue and for providing the city with a copy of a check that was missing in city records.

According to McPherson, with the cooperation of Murray, the city was able to locate all of the historical receipts related to the Wyanett Township billing issues and the city found a variety of overages that will warrant refunds to the township.

McPherson currently does not have a recommendation for the council on where the funds for the refund will come from, as it was not budgeted for, but hopes to provide one at the April 25 council meeting.

Reach Chloe Smith at chloe.smith@apgecm.com