By Don Murtha
For Jennie Messmer, city government is nothing new. She has been involved in government one way or another since she was 21 years old.
Messmer recently retired from the League of Oregon Cities, only to land another government job. She is the interim city administrator for the city of Mount Angel.
The irony is Susan Muir, who was city administrator for almost three years for Mount Angel, is taking Messmer’s job at the League of Oregon Cities as member services director.
“The job involved training elected officials and their staffs on rules and restrictions of city government, charters, public records, public meetings and other city business,” Messmer said. “I went to every city in the state of Oregon including Mount Angel.”
At 21, Messmer’s first job was as night 911 dispatcher.
“I don’t think I realized how nervous I should be. I just did the job,” she said.
She worked for the Oregon State Forestry Division manning a forest lookout tower as a smoke watcher and then worked on a mapping project. She worked for the school district in La Grande and at the Eastern Oregon University in the office of the registrar and the office of the dean of education.
In Klamath Falls, she worked with the Area Health Education Center then she became finance director and assistant city manager for the city of Klamath Falls.
She ended her career when she retired March 1 from the League of Oregon Cities.
As interim city administrator, she will assist the Mount Angel City Council in hiring a new city administrator and fill in for the duties of the city administrator.
She will be involved in background checks on candidates, interviews, and working with agencies outside the city government that focus on recruitment. The new administrator is expected to come on board by July 1, which will be Messmer’s last day.
Messmer said she will not be one of the candidates for the job.
“Since I am retired and drawing benefits from PERS (Public Employees Retirement System), I am not eligible for the job,” she said. However, she said, she’s eager to use her knowledge to assist the council in finding a permanent replacement.
