Source: Shelby Lindrud, West Central Tribune, May 16, 2016
Starting July 5, Kandiyohi County will provide assessing services for the city of Willmar, as the Willmar City Council approved resolutions to abolish the city assessor’s office and enter into an agreement with Kandiyohi County during Monday’s city council meeting. … The two city employees who worked in the assessor’s officer were offered employment with the county and have until Tuesday to make their decision. … If one or both of the city’s appraisers want to stay with Willmar, the AFSCME contract gives employees of abolished departments the opportunity to move to other positions within the city, which could cause the lay off of other city employees. The two current city appraisers and one former spoke at the meeting, all asking for the council to reconsider the abolishment. … As part of the agreement with Kandiyohi County, Willmar will pay approximately $375,000 total to the county for assessing services in 2016 and 2017. As part of the agreement, the city will also give the county the city assessor’s computers, a police squad to be used by the county assessing staff for transportation and would pay the wages and benefits of an Assessor II for several weeks if the county needs to hire someone before July 5 to handle the added workload from the city’s business. …
