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CITY, ND – (NewsDakota.com) The city of Valley City held a special city commission meeting to consider retaining an attorney for the purpose of investigating the grievances filed against Mayor Bob Werkhoven by four city officials.

Valley City resident Bob Drake asked the city to check their own policy and procedure manual before hiring another attorney for the city.

Valley City Commissioner Duane Magnuson told Drake that the city has the right to protect its employees who file grievances against an elected official.

Magnuson says being the current city attorney has a conflict of interest the city needs to hire another attorney to address these grievances.

The city commission approved a motion to get more clarification on the 5 day grievance rule filed by four city employee’s concerning their rights in the city employee personal policy and procedure manual.

The entire meeting was recorded by reporter Steve Urness and is available by clicking on the arrow below.

The recording above was from a morning special city commission meeting on Thursday, February 11.

A second special city commission meeting was held later in the day on Thursday, February 11 and the city commission approved of hiring the Vogel Law firm to help the city clarify the procedures of handling these four grievances filed against mayor Werkhoven.

Some people in the audience questioned why the city isn’t using the services of the North Dakota Reserve Insurance Fund to handle these grievances? City Auditor Avis Richter says the services provided to city governments by the North Dakota Reserve Insurance Fund can not be used for grievances but only lawsuits filed against the city.

The commission approved of the all these motions above on a four to nothing vote. Mayor Bob Werkhoven was not present at either of these meetings on Thursday, February 11.