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Deb Spitzer’s resignation will be effective Jan. 30, about seven months after she started the job. Spitzer said she stepped down after the city council extended her six-month probationary employment period.
“It was made very obvious to me during the city council meeting that you have other intentions for my position,” Spitzer wrote to the city in her resignation letter.
In a telephone interview from her city office Thursday, Spitzer said, “I just felt like I was not going to be in this capacity for another three months. The city council pushed my probation back another three months, and this was the third time it had been on the council agenda. I can understand if I was just appointed in December.”
Spitzer said she has taken an accounting job in the private sector.
The city of Lewiston hired Spitzer as the billing clerk on May 17. A week later, the city council offered her the city administrator job after a search committee found her to be more qualified than the candidates it reviewed.
Lewiston’s former city administrator, Barry Kramer, and former deputy clerk, Mary Jane Vogel, resigned within two weeks of each other in early 2006 after an ongoing dispute with council members Bruce Boynton and Richard Ahrens, who said the two staffers did not provide monthly city budgets.
Vogel and Kramer had said the city hired them knowing they did not know how to use the software.
Spitzer accepted the promotion and started her new post June 28 — and became the city’s first employee who knew how to use the accounting software.
Spitzer, who has an accounting degree from Winona State University, had worked government positions for the past 15 years and had prior experience with similar software at her former job as accountant for the city of St. Charles, but resigned when her husband, Winona County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Spitzer was elected mayor.
As city administrator, Spitzer took care of Lewiston’s finances, building permits and state reports. Like all new city employees, she was placed on a six-month probationary period.
The council planned to discuss her review at its Dec. 13 meeting, but postponed it until Dec. 28 and again on Jan. 10 because of the election of a new mayor, Lee Rain, and two new council members, Jack Kanz and Garry Sauers.
Council member Richard Ahrens said he was surprised when he found out Spitzer had resigned.
“We had our last meeting and I thought we were working together, and all of a sudden she gave her resignation,” he said. “Our (former) mayor gets a little obstinate and threatening, and that’s why we didn’t have her evaluation before.”
The meeting he referred to was a closed-door meeting Dec. 28 with the former council and mayor, which ended with council member Boynton walking out, according to Ahrens and Spitzer.
In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mayor Rain expressed frustration about discussing Spitzer’s resignation
“It kind of perturbs me,” he said. “What’s the big deal about Lewiston? People are getting hired and fired all the time.”
Rain said it was up to the city council to decide what to do next and was unsure of the direction the city would take.
He refused to comment further.
Steve Kanz, a member of the city council’s comprehensive planning committee, said Lewiston’s finances have always been an issue in the town of 1,500.
“Everybody in town wants to know where we’re at,” Kanz said. “We need to build new streets, a pool, parks and a library.”
Kanz said he thought Spitzer was qualified and didn’t believe her job performance was the reason for the council postponing her evaluations.
“I don’t think (her resignation) puts us in a bad spot,” he said. “I think this town is going to move forward.”
Amber Dulek can be reached at (507) 453-3513 or at amber.dulek@lee.net.
RIDICULOUS wrote on Feb 5, 2007 10:19 PM: