Coffee With Del Rae and a Special Guest

Moorhead Mayor Del Rae Williams invites her community to drink coffee with her on the third Wednesday of every month.

And this time, she has brought with a special guest.

“It’s an opportunity for people to casually meet David Schmidt,” Mayor Williams said.

City council members approved Schmidt as the city’s interim city manager late last month.

He’s temporarily replacing Mike Redlinger, who left his position in March.

“Moorhead has a lot going for it, I mean, the museums, the parks, I mean, a lot of the things here have really been done well,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt adds that he’s working with council members to learn about the city.

But don’t expect him to stay around forever.

The city council approved a six–month, $75,000 contract for Schmidt, and Mayor Williams says he will not take on the role permanently.

“That was one of our criteria as we looked for an interim one is that they all understood that this was interim, that they would not be considered for the full–time one after this,” Mayor Williams said.

Mayor Williams says the earliest we could see a permanent city manager is October, but it likely won’t happen until the beginning of 2017.

But for now, Schmidt seems to be enjoying his time.

“The development in this area is amazing,” Schmidt said. There’s a lot of cities in the Twin Cities and in the suburbs of the Twin Cities that would be jealous to have this kind of development.”

Mayor Williams says the search for a permanent city manager has yet to start.