Birchwood Village outsources city staffing to Oakdale

Feb. 12--Things have been relatively quiet at city hall in Birchwood Village the past few years, after a period of discord and high employee turnover.

Now, city officials hope they've found a long-term solution to their staffing struggles: outsourcing.

In January, Birchwood Village and Oakdale entered into a shared-services agreement for administrative duties. Birchwood pays Oakdale; Oakdale provides the personnel.

The arrangement works because Oakdale had an intern they didn't want to lose and Birchwood Village needed someone to do part-time work, Oakdale City Administrator Craig Waldron said.

"It's one of those innovative, intergovernmental things," Waldron said. "We were able to put it together. It's a win-win situation."

Birchwood Village has gone through at least seven city clerks or treasurers in five years.

The turnover disrupted the flow of work and cost the city money, Mayor Mary Wingfield said.

"The problem we have is, we're small. So in order to get someone who's good, that means we're only going to get somebody who looks at us as a stepping stone," she said.

She added, "It's really expensive to hire someone, train them in and then have them leave. It's not a productive method."

When they got another notice of resignation last summer, city officials looked for a solution.

The city already has shared-services agreements with other cities, and those have proven successful, Wingfield said. So they decided to try that for city hall operations.

Initially, the city paired with St. Anthony.

Birchwood Village council member Greg Donovan, who pitched the cooperative agreement, told his colleagues in July to look at St. Anthony Village as a consultant and partner that could help take a second look at Birchwood Village's operations.

But the arrangement ultimately didn't work, the mayor said.

"It didn't get legs," Wingfield said. "I can't even say why."

A few months later, they were exploring more options and connected with Oakdale.

Though still in its infancy, the new shared-services agreement looks promising, Wingfield said.

Per the agreement, Birchwood Village pays Oakdale$70,000 a year. In turn, Oakdale provides a staff person. For the time, it's Chris Mickelson.

Mickelson is finishing his master's in public administration at Hamline University and recently finished a one-year internship for Oakdale. He was hand-selected for the internship by Waldron, who teaches at Hamline.

The arrangement was an opportunity to keep Mickelson on staff and to give him more hands-on experience, Waldron said.

"We really like him. Birchwood Village likes him. So we hired him on our staff and basically used the proceeds from the (Birchwood) contract to hire him full time," Waldron said.

Initially, Mickelson will focus his efforts on Birchwood Village, Waldron said. He'll work in Birchwood, act as city clerk and manage the daily operations. Eventually he'll add more Oakdale hours to his workload.

At some point, Mickelson will take on a shadow, who will step in when he's done, Wingfield said.

"We don't lose anything in the transition. We've always got the continuity with Oakdale," she said.

Wingfield said Birchwood Village had been paying about $58,000 a year in salary costs, in addition to taxes and other employment costs.

So the annual expenditure is about the same, but Birchwood Village benefits in other ways: it has the backing of Waldron's expertise and Oakdale's resources, and it avoids unemployment and insurance liability.

"It's a net gain for us in almost every respect," Wingfield said.

Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at 651-228-5162. Follow her at twitter.com/LizMohr.

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