I was going through the statewide news last night when I discovered that Muscatine's City Council has been floating the idea of terminating city administrator Gregg Mandsager's contract with the city since October. It's not immediately clear why council members began this discussion at this time, except that they were increasingly unhappy his efforts to minimize communication between council and city employees. According to local media, Mandsager has been on leave through the Family Medical Leave Act since shortly after that 10/17/19 meeting.
There was a lot of discussion over Mandsager's absence and proposed termination during the 11/07/19 council meeting. council approved a motion to begin looking for an interim city administrator and to assign duties of deputy city administrator to department heads Jerry Evers and Rich Kleims. They also noted that he would receive six months' severance if he ended up getting terminated by the council.
The Muscatine Journal reports that the Muscatine City Council voted vote last night with a 4-3 to terminate city administrator Gregg Mandsager's contract, effective immediately. The council expressed frustration that there had been several examples of directives that they had issued to Mandsager, but that he'd continued doing the opposite. Mandsager will be provided with specific examples of why his contract was terminated. He will have 30 days to ask for a hearing with the council to respond to these charges.
Rick Klimes has been appointed as interim city administrator and will begin the process of seeking a new city administrator.