He has been city administrator for seven years
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The City of Burlington is in the market for a new city administrator.
Kevin Lahner announced via Twitter late Friday afternoon that he would be taking a similar position in the City of Waukesha.
“Mixed emotions today,” Lahner tweeted. “Excited for my new gig, but sad to say goodbye to the great folks at Burlington City Hall.”
In a telephone interview, Lahner said Waukesha had announced the hiring earlier today when he had agreed on a contract with them. That contract will need to be approved by both a committee and the City Council in Waukesha, Lahner added.
“I informed the staff (in Burlington) today,” Lahner said. “It’s very humbling. I have a great group of people that I work with, both on the staff and with the council.”
According to Mayor Bob Miller, Lahner’s salary with the city is for $133,000 a year. There were no details immediately available on the contract with Waukesha.
Lahner, who has been the city’s administrator for the last seven years, was among the highest paid municipal managers in the state. He received a significant raise in 2011 to stay in Burlington after being offered a job in Elk River, Minn., a suburb of the Twin Cities.
“He will be missed very much,” Miller said.
Miller confirmed the City Council will enter closed session Tuesday night to discuss using a hiring firm to select Lahner’s replacement. The city has used Voorhees and Associates for its last several major hirings, including Lahner, Police Chief Peter Nimmer and City Fire Chief Perry Howard.
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Don’t break my heart!!! Hope the door don’t hit him in the butt on the way out!!!
Congrats, Kevin!
What a great promotion for you.
As a reporter, you were always a good guy, willing to work closely with me to get the word out about what was happenining in Burlington and I appreciate it. Far better than your predecessor!
Stay cordial with the Waukesha Freeman out there and you’ll do fine.
Burlinton’s loss is your gain. Dilligent work really does pay dividends.
This is your chance to shine brighter.
All the best to you!
Mark Dudzik (busy getting my brain back up to snuff in rehabilitation as I recover from a game-changing Traumatic Brain Injury)
Voorhees and Associates is responsible for recommending Lahner, Nimmer and Howard. Hmmmmm, time to rethink THAT!
No surprise. He played the playbook to a T, spending most of his time shuffling the numbers and using the media to make himself look good for his next job. Meanwhile the citizens are stuck with bloated uncaring administration, hollowed out service, and skyrocketing fees and taxes. All for DOUBLE what the position is worth.
Will the city “leaders” (aka personal enrichers) overpay yet again for another incompetent yes man disaster? You can count on it.
Looks like he owes the city at least $50,000 or so, make sure he pays it back!!!!
https://www.myracinecounty.com/?p=162
“The City of Burlington offered Lahner a five-year contract with a base salary locked for all five years. Miller said the contract is worth about $133,000 in base salary. There is no cost of living increase or merit increase.
Lahner’s base salary on Jan. 1, 2012, would have been $116,000. The original offer from Elk River, stated in the ad for the position, would have started at $125,000.
There is, however, a clause in the contract, according to Miller, tying Lahner to the city. If the city administrator should choose to leave any time in the next five years, he would have to pay back any money gotten through the raise.”
And lets not be made a laughingstock again at the expense of the taxpayers:
http://archive.postcrescent.com/article/20130126/APC019803/301260126/Municipal-salaries-vary-throughout-Wisconsin
“What does it pay to be a city administrator?
Quite a lot in Burlington, a city of 10,000 in southeastern Wisconsin that raised Kevin Lahner’s base salary 13 percent to more than $133,000 in 2012.
Not so much in neighboring Racine, where Thomas Friedel was paid $33,000 less despite overseeing a city nearly eight times larger…”
So many of you people posting rude and assinine comments are nothing but HATERS.
Lahner is a good guy and I should know, as being a reporter, I dealt with a lot of jerks in my career, especially in Mequon, where they ran rampant!
Being an administrator in Burlington isn’t as easy as you’d think. In small communities like Burlington an administrator is like being the de facto mayor, comparable to Tom Barrett in Milwaukee.
As a reporter for Chocolate City for many years, if he was a jerk or slime like his predecessor, I’d be eager to let readers know about this.
I call them just as I see them, no holds barred, and Lahner was a good man. Read about what he did in Texas before coming here. He’s intolerable of fraud and corruption in local governmet.
Maybe he’ll whip Waukesha into shape. So before you hate, examine the facts and don’t jump to illogical conclusions because you’re jealous of how much money he made. In the grand scheme of things, this was chump change.
Those who criticize him wouldn’t be capable of doing the job his did for more than a week. Burlington was blessed to have him here for seven year.
So again, Kevin, all the best to you and your family.
Mark Dudzik
A TBI survivor
Unfortunately, all your posts have shown are personal opinions and many invectives against others. The other posts have listed facts. Many peoples lives and pocketbooks were and will continue to be badly affected by a poor choice in this position as is shown by those facts. I commend them for speaking out to keep vigilance over our government at all levels – something that is sorely lacking and in decline. Best of luck to them and also to you in your recovery.
I think people are being factual here in their posts. There is no reason we as taxpayers should have paid any administrator that much money for being a “good guy.” I commend Kevin for offering to pay back the $50k he owes this great city and shame on the city counsel if they look the other way and forgive this debt.
Also don’t forget about the Train Horn Fiasco he was responsible for.. How anyone in that position could have made a mistake like that and kept his job is beyond me..
Any other organization and pulling a boner like that would have had you fired.
He was good at showing people what they wanted to see and hiding the true person he really was. Too bad it took so many years for the true Kevin to be shown to all that were willing to take a good look. Over 200 years experience was wiped out in the years he was in Burlington. May karma smile down on him in Waukesha.