I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
July 3, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The Bemidji City Council voted almost unanimously Monday to boost City Manager Phil Shealy's salary to $59,661 and to continue his $150 per month car allowance. There was one dissenting vote on the decision.
After a review of a recently completed city manager evaluation filled out by the Council, Mayor Doug Peterson and Mayor Pro-Tem Ralph Zachman found the scores "overwhelmingly in support of his (Shealy's) performance," stated a memo written by Peterson to the Council. The mayor also reviewed a League of Minnesota Cities salary survey which showed most cities comparable to Bemidji are paying higher salaries to the city manager.
Peterson also stated in the memo that there was a discrepancy in the city manager's salary as compared to other cities, when considering number of city employees, the university setting in Bemidji and the airport manager responsibilities assumed by Shealy.
On the city manager evaluation, councilors were asked to rank Shealy on 22 items, such as "prepares carefully for council meetings" or "is adept in personnel management," on a score of one to five, with five being the highest ranking. HIs average of the 22 items from all councilors was 4.41. The lowest ranking, 3.93, came with "knows how to pace self."
Peterson said he believe d the average scores Shealy received showed that Bemidji has a good city manager.
The lone dissension came from Council member Rosemary Given Amble who moved that the council discuss the salary matter in a closed session before voting.
However, the rest of the Council disagreed. Peterson said he believed the evaluation numbers were enough evidence to show Shealy deserved the raise.
"I was prepared to go much higher," Zachman said. "I'm very comfortable with what we recommended."
Given Amble said she was concerned with the raise, which was about 5 percent more than Shealy's former approximate salary of $56,000. She said she thought since the Council had been holding staff raises to no more than 3 percent this raise could cause problems.
Peterson said he did not believe there would be a problem.
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