City to search for new city administrator

The City of Rhinelander is once again preparing to recruit a city administrator. At the same time, a pointed debate continues over how the news of current administrator Patrick Reagan’s departure was disseminated. Reagan’s resignation, announced in a letter dated July 7, was reported by local media on July 10. Almost immediately, District 1 alderman Tom Barnett reacted with dismay, posting candid comments on social media. He reiterated his concerns during the public comment portion of the July 13 meeting.
“While I understand there is no legal requirement to notify City Council of the city administrator’s resignation before it becomes public, there is a difference between what is legally required and what is ethically appropriate,” he said. “Learning of such a significant event through local media rather than through official communication from the administration was disrespectful and demonstrated a lack of professionalism. It sends the message that the council is viewed as an afterthought instead of as partners in governing our city.”
In a subsequent interview with the Star Journal, Mayor Kris Hanus disputed the contention that he, or anyone else in the administration, considers the council an afterthought. He explained that he expected city council president Carrie Mikalauski, who received a copy of the resignaton letter, to notify her fellow alders of the news.
“They elected her to be their leader,” he noted.
He expressed concern that Barnett’s public criticism of the city over the announcement could make it harder to recruit Reagan’s replacement, potentially driving up the cost of finding a new hire.

“The message I think it potentially sends is: here’s an elected official who didn’t have all the information (and) made a comment, made a response without knowing enough information,” Hanus said. “If I was applying for a job in Rhinelander, I might go, ‘They’re going to have trouble finding someone. I’m going to negotiate for more pay because I think it’s going to be harder to find someone there now.’”
Hanus also noted the timing of the resignation’s becoming public, stressing that it landed around the July Fourth holiday and Rhinelander’s Hodag Country Festival, when several city staff were unavailable.
“(Reagan’s letter came) at a really, really busy time where a lot of the admin staff in City Hall was occupied or on vacation,” he said.
Hanus also acknowledged the city has a history of administrators leaving after relatively short tenures and he is concerned about the potential perception of continued dysfunction. “Believe it or not, I think (Reagan’s) the second-longest serving city administrator,” he said. “I would definitely say Zach (Vruwink, Reagan’s predecessor) left the city in a lot better position than his predecessor, and I think Patrick is leaving the city in a much better position too.”
When asked to respond to Barnett’s comments, Mikalauski explained that she hesitated to forward Reagan’s letter because she was concerned about the appearance of impropriety.
“I did receive the resignation letter from Patrick, but I did not forward it to my fellow Alders as I didn’t want to have the appearance of a walking quorum,” she wrote in an email to the Star Journal. “Since the meeting, I now realize that I could have instructed the City Clerk to forward the letter to all of them. I will use that process in the future.”
Asked to respond to Hanus and Mikalauski, Barnett explained how he expected the notification process to work.
“In my opinion, the official resignation should have been communicated directly to each alderperson through their official city email,” he wrote in email to the Star Journal.”I believe that responsibility should have fallen to Patrick Reagan himself or the Mayor. That is the professional and ethical way to handle the resignation of a city administrator, particularly since the full City Council....not just the Council President....is responsible for hiring the next administrator. Regarding the explanation that the Council President chose not to notify the rest of the council because of concerns about creating a walking quorum, I do not believe that is a sufficient justification. More importantly, I don’t believe that responsibility should have rested with the Council President in the first place. An individual email informing each alderperson of the resignation would not have required discussion or deliberation; it simply would have ensured that every elected official received the same important information through the proper channels.”
“As for the Mayor’s comments suggesting that my public remarks could make it more difficult to recruit a new city administrator, I respectfully disagree,” he added. “I believe those comments shift the focus away from the underlying issue, which is transparency and professional communication. I’ve seen similar arguments made before...for example, when I raised concerns about the city’s golf course operating at a financial loss, the response was that speaking publicly about those concerns would hurt memberships and worsen the situation. In my view, suggesting that raising legitimate concerns is itself harmful discourages open discussion rather than addressing the issue at hand. Transparency and accountability are essential to good government. I believe residents expect their elected officials to ask difficult questions when appropriate and to speak up when professional or ethical standards fall short. Raising those concerns publicly is not intended to create problems...it is intended to encourage better governance and strengthen public trust.”
As for the search itself, Hanus said the recruitment process typically begins with the council identifying what qualities or priorities it wants in a new hire based on where the city currently stands, then searching for a candidate suited to that direction — whether that means someone focused on staff relations, economic development or infrastructure. He said the first step will be to contract with a search firm to handle the preliminaries and whittle down the initial group of prospective candidates. After that, a pool of five or six candidates could participate in a meeting with department heads and that meeting would be followed by formal interviews of the finalists by the full council. Given the time of a year and the time it takes to do a thorough search, Hanus said he would not expect the new administrator to be onboard until January 2027.
Reagan’s resignation is effective Aug.7. During the July 13 council meeting, he explained that he decided to take a city manager position in his home state of Michigan for family reasons. He also took time to praise city staff as “a lot of really good people doing a lot really good things.”