Recruiting a New County Administrator

The Meeker County Board of Commissioners has hired David Drown Associates of Minneapolis to help with the recruitment of a new County Administrator. Andrew Letson is leaving that position in October to become the Stearns County Administrator.

Letson says his last working day in Meeker County will be October 14th and it’s hoped that some finalists will be scheduled for interviews by that time so that there is a very short gap between administrators. He says one of the big tasks that he’s been working on is getting a budget together for 2027.

Letson says the budget process usually runs from May through December, so department heads are determining what their needs will be for the next year and the budget committee is meeting to make sure that there will be adequate resources to accomplish what needs to be done in an efficient way to minimize the tax burden for residents. He says the big challenge this year is state and federal policy changes that will impact the county budget – especially cost shifts for the SNAP program.

Letson says the tax increase last year was 9.16% and he’s not anticipating it being that much in the coming year. He says the County Board will have a work session at the end of this month to work on the budget, the preliminary levy will be adopted in September, and then the final levy will be approved in December.