Shonna Childs will serve as Babbitt’s newest city administrative assistant. Childs will fulfill supplemental administrative duties under the supervision of deputy clerk-treasurer Sara Powell and clerk-treasurer Kirsten Traut.
The city administrative assistant is the primary contact for members of the public visiting city offices. The assistant also takes payments for utility bills and city fees, maintains and posts official meeting schedules, assists with council agenda creation and more.
The hiring occurred at Tuesday’s regular council meeting, immediately following a special council session to hold second-round interviews for four of six first-round interview candidates.
The narrowed pool additionally consisted of Erica Anderson, Amber Beatty and Michaela Jaeger.
“I could see myself working every day with Shonna. She seems very trainable. She seems very open to our policies and how we want them done and how we want our office run,” Powell said.
Council member Joe White said he appreciated Childs’ honesty when answering the interview questions.
“She wasn’t afraid to say, hey, this is more of a learning curve for some things. I’m not afraid to ask for help,” Lossing said. “What I’ve learned in all these interviews for the clerk-treasurer position and everything is that no matter how good your resume is, if you don’t have a job that works for city government, it’s all a brand-new thing.”
Powell acknowledged the strengths of the other candidates but said she thought Childs would be best for the role.
“I think what we really deserve in this city is greatness at this point,” Powell said.
Childs will begin with a oneyear probationary period, paid at 90% of the $30-per-hour wage she will be able to claim following the successful completion of her first year in the role.
