Osseo Assistant City Administrator Relishes New Role in Familiar Surroundings
After 2024 saw multiple jobs within Osseo City Hall change hands, and multiple resignations on city council, former council member Alicia Vickerman said she accepted the job as assistant city administrator last fall to help bring stability back to the city administration.
Osseo’s historic water tower.
“I really felt like I could bring that, but going down a different avenue, being here full-time,” she said.
Vickerman resigned last summer. The assistant city administrator role came about partly because the city decided to name Police Chief Shane Mikkelson as city administrator in a dual role.
Osseo City Administrator and Police Chief Shane Mikkelson at a city council meeting in January.
“There are administrative tasks I can step in and take care of, and also just the leadership and the supervisory role, having a consistent presence in the office all the time,” Vickerman said. “We want to make sure everyone is taken care of and comfortable and we have support for the staff really at all times during our business hours, so that’s a big focus for me, just to work on that culture to make sure that everyone is here and comfortable and has what they need.”
Vickerman said she believes Osseo’s unique size–about one square mile–makes it a place where people feel very familiar with city staff and elected officials.
“We’re almost like a neighborhood that operates in and of itself and we have these services that we can offer people who are really close by and they’re going to be affected by the things that happen and those services that they receive, and coming in here and seeing people at the desk who are able to help them and just watching the process of government work a little bit more closely than you normally get to,” she said.
