Milford council selects new city administrator

The current city manager of Madison, Minn., was approved Wednesday night as the next city administrator of Milford.

Matthew Skaret emerged from 49 applicants for the opening and is expected to begin Jan. 18.

Madison is about 160 miles away, on Minnesota's western border and near Watertown, S.D.

"Madison is a small, farming community up here in Lac qui Parle County in Minnesota and Milford is a very different setting," Skaret said. "Tourism is a big industry down there. Milford is a larger community than Madison, and with that brings different opportunities and different challenges."

Skaret will succeed outgoing city administrator Bryan Read, who announced in October that he was leaving Milford to become city administrator of Brandon, S.D., a suburb of Sioux Falls.

The applications were reviewed by a search committee that included Read, Milford Mayor Virgil Wahlman and council members Mike Anderson and Rick Kilts.

Interest came from Washington, Montana, Vermont, Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas and Iowa. A top five emerged from the applications as all four search committee members identified the same five candidates to advance in the process.

"After we interviewed all five of them, we picked out two to bring to the council for an interview," Wahlman said.

Skaret has been the Madison city administrator for about three years and said he learned about the opening through the Minnesota League of Cities Web site.

"I was not aggressively pursuing other employment -- as I'm very happy here in Madison -- but I was very intrigued by the location of the community, so I decided to do some more research," he said. "It seemed like a very strong and vibrant community with a lot going on and a lot of potential."

Skaret also had internships with U.S. Sen. and Congressman Rod Grams as well as U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad. He returned to the Midwest and earned his master's degree in public administration from the University of South Dakota.

"It looks like he's done a good job," Wahlman said. "He's had some good experience up there and he was looking for something bigger and better. He just happened to have the right attributes and the interview went very well with him. He was our number one pick."