Bemidji City Council Considering Approach to City Manager Review

The evaluation of Bemidji city manager Nate Mathews is over a month away, but councilors are looking at how to approach the topic.

At Tuesday night’s regular meeting, the councilors looked at Mathews’s proposed process for his review. His suggested process included meeting one-on-one and going over a list of 18 questions, and he also requested the council provide a list of formal goals and priorities.

But some councilors thought there should not be individual meetings due to possible conflicts.

“I would support meeting together as a council because we do govern him as a council, not individually,” said Ward 2 councilor Josh Peterson. “We’re able to hear if some councilors have concerns or questions, we can hear it as a whole and it’s one councilor’s word versus another.”

The annual review of Bemidji’s city manager is set for March 29.