Councilman Justin Head suggested a workshop for the full council to discuss the city manager’s job responsibilities and the council’s expectations.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Williston City Manager Scott Lippmann scored low on recently completed city council evaluations, but the discussion Tuesday night wasn’t about firing him. It was about improving his work performance.

            Lippmann scored 2.3 out of a possible 5 when the point totals of all five council members and the mayor were calculated for a composite score, but his score will rise somewhat when the mayor’s scores are removed from the total.

            Alberta Lippmann, the city manager’s wife, asked why Mayor Jerry Robinson was allowed to evaluate her husband when he is not a voting member of the council.

            Robinson responded that he evaluates the city manager because he works with him. The mayor has always evaluated the city manager.

            “It doesn’t matter if it’s always been done like that; is it right?” Mrs. Lippmann said.

            The charter says that the city manager shall be evaluated by the city council, which means the five voting members. The mayor oversees the fire and police departments but doesn’t have a vote on the council.

            Councilman Charles Goodman said he wouldn’t vote to accept the evaluation numbers if the mayor’s numbers were averaged into the total score. A decision was made to exclude Robinson’s numbers from the composite score, which will raise Lippmann’s final number.

            Robinson didn’t object.

            The council voted to meet in a workshop at 6 p.m. on Jan. 14 to discuss their expectations of Lippmann as well as his job responsibilities. His job description will be part of the council discussion.

            Council President Nancy Wininger said the entire council should discuss what they expect of Lippmann.

            “I have sat down and told him what I would like to see,” she said.

            But she pointed out that Lippmann has five bosses.

            Lippmann got into hot water with the council when he received pay raises that had not been approved by the full board. He was stripped of all the pay raises he received for several years, but there was no appetite for doing anything more than that.

            Firing Lippmann would require a super majority of the board under the terms of his contract. In other words, four of the five members of the board would have to vote to fire him, and that appears unlikely.

            The council evaluations were included in the agenda packet that was sent out before Tuesday’s meeting, but the names of council members weren’t attached to their evaluations.

            Council members agreed that Lippmann should prepare a summary of how each council member graded him in advance of the Jan. 14 workshop, as well as the composite score of all five council members. The comments of each council member will be included in the packet with their names attached, but to ease confusion, the summary page will be separate.

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City of Williston Regular Meeting December 17, 2019; Posted December 17, 2019