Rock County Star Herald editor Lori Ehde received the Bob Wright Editorial Award during a weekend conference of the Minnesota Free Papers Association in Bloomington.She earned the award for an Oct. 30, 2003, editorial she wrote about the City Council’s decision on its city attorney contract.Entitled "Leap-before-we-look decisions are bad sign of Luverne leadership," the column was chosen for the award among statewide newspaper entries in all circulation classes."Editor Lori Ehde’s commentary about the Luverne city attorney’s contract features insightful analyses of complex government procedures while raising important public policy questions on behalf of readers," the judges wrote."This well-written editorial forcefully confronts recent actions by the City Council and argues for more reflective ways of ‘doing business.’"MFPA editorial entries this year were judged by journalism faculty at Minnesota State University, Mankato."In fine fashion, Ms. Ehde’s column articulates the values of the Bob Wright Award: namely, ‘a strong message … with fearless expression of opinion,’" the judges wrote."This is a hallmark of responsible community journalism, and her editorial deserves recognition."The column is reprinted here.Leap-before-we-lookdecisions are bad sign of future city leadershipWhen we bade farewell to two long-time city department heads and a city administrator this year, the idea, partly, was to nurture new leadership rooted in healthier working relationships, both inside and outside city hall.Unfortunately, somebody forgot to brief our new city administrator and the rookie council on that part of the deal.What’s worse is it’s becoming increasingly clear they don’t have time for that sort of dialog. They’re far too busy proposing sweeping changes to long-standing arrangements with local government entities.Tuesday night’s City Council action on the City Attorney contract with Skewes, Klosterbuer and Vajgrt is a classic example of this leap-before-we-look leadership.Earlier this month the City Attorney’s job performance fell under scrutiny with regard to timely response on assignments. Also, the fact that this office also holds contracts with the county and school raised questions about conflicts of interest.So, with little regard to more than 20 years of loyal service from the firm, the council unanimously voted to seek requests for proposals for a new contract.As a press person who’s worked with the Skewes, Klosterbuer and Vajgrt office for more than 10 years, I’d say the move was not only a grave mistake, but a sad prediction of future city leadership.Had anyone gone out of their way to have a personal conversation with Attorney Don Klosterbuer about their concerns, they may have cast a more educated vote.Not only would this have been prudent, it would have been, at the base level, polite — a somewhat rare concept these days in city business.They may have been reminded that the City Attorney’s Office had been swamped with recent lawsuits, union grievances (brought on by other leap-before-we-look decisions) and severance packages. Raising the conflict of interest question isn’t out of line, considering the same office represents three government entities at once.There’s a risk the law office could play favorites among the public bodies, but I’d argue we’re all better off for having Klosterbuer in that position. To his credit, we have several cooperative city- county-school ventures that save taxpayers’ money, not only in redundant legal fees but in combined government services.It’s not as much a conflict of interest, but rather a case of an informed firm perfectly positioned to mediate and coordinate the legal affairs of three government bodies at once.In one seemingly uninformed unanimous vote, the council asserted that this valuable legal history is irrelevant.And to what end?We can all hope the Skewes, Klosterbuer and Vajgrt firm rises above the insults to bid on the contract in the interest of taxpayers it’s served so many years.We can also hope that this ordeal isn’t a sign of other leap-before-we-look city decisions looming on the horizon.We have a talented pool of rookie aldermen on deck, and a gung-ho city administrator, obviously well-versed in taking charge. At this point, all we need is a little more listening and a little less independent leadership.