BP administrator offered Freeborn job

The City of Blooming Prairie held an emergency city council meeting Monday night to extend a “merit retention offer” to the current city administrator.
That’s because Melanie Aeschliman, who has been in the role since June 2023, has been offered the job of Freeborn County Administrator.
“We should all kind of just talk about … why we’re making an offer to the city administrator, because the city of Blooming Prairie needs to know why we’re doing this when we’re in the midst of a lot of things going on,” said Councilor Greg Johnson.
He referenced the U.S. Highway 218 reconstruction project that has been put on hold because of ground and water contamination, “plus a lot of other irons in the fire.”
“I just want the public to know we’re not just here to throw out numbers to keep somebody,” Johnson said.
Bill Newman spoke of the gridlock in the Minnesota Legislature this session: “Maybe we can use her assistance federally,” he said, “because we’ll also be looking for federal grants. She gave us very good documentation of why, and what we need that for, and those are important things.
“Her leadership – we need it during this time for the projects we have going,” he said.
With that, Newman moved the council approve a merit retention offer to Aeschliman, to increase her annual salary to $150,000, effective March 2, 2025.
The salary adjustment will remain in effect until the city’s wage pay scale is restructured, at which time the salary will be subject to a new pay scale and structure.
She has until Feb. 4 – the next Freeborn County Board meeting – to decide which offer to accept.
Following the unanimous vote, Newman said it was imperative residents understand “we’re not just giving out salaries to retain people, we’re giving out salaries to retain quality people that are going to effectively help the city throughout this next year.”
The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on Jan. 15 to extend the offer to Aeschliman after a second round of interviews with her and candidate David Stiernagle.
Fourth District Commissioner Chris Shoff was the lone dissenting vote.
Aeschliman was one of four candidates when she interviewed for the job in BP; she was also one of four candidates for the Freeborn County spot.
The county’s human resources department was tasked with entering into contract negotiations to determine benefits and wages, which have not been made public.