Month four, first purchase of note: $2,500 of spray foam so no one can hear the administrator's office.
Four months into the job, the administrator's first purchase of note was $2,500 of spray foam for the walls of his own office and the conference room. The council approved it 4-0 in the same meeting that ended a taco truck's lease over "perception."
Scott Lehner went on the City of Kenyon payroll on December 14, 2024. On March 11, 2025, his fourth month, he brought the council a quote from Reichel Insulation for $2,500 to spray-foam the walls of the administrator's office and the conference room. It passed without a dissenting vote. It is a small line in a year of large ones, and it is the kind of small line a town of 1,894 people remembers.
What he told the council
Mayor Don Kirchmann was absent that night and Mary Bailey presided as acting mayor, so every vote carried 4-0. The minutes, approved in the April 8, 2025 packet, record the item under the heading "Insulating Office for Sound Control." Lehner "stated that there is no insulation in the internal walls of city hall. Conversations can be heard through the walls even when the doors are closed. He is recommending the walls of the administrator's office, and the conference room would be insulated with spray foam insulation." Lee Sjolander moved to accept the quote, Kim Helgeson seconded, and the motion carried.
Conversations can be heard through the walls even when the doors are closed.Administrator Scott Lehner, as recorded in the March 11, 2025 minutes, April 8, 2025 packet.
Nothing about the purchase was improper. A city hall that also houses the public library and the municipal utility has personnel conversations in it, and an administrator who cannot close a door on them has a real problem. The quote was small enough that the council could approve it from the floor. The point is not the foam. The point is what else the walls had been carrying.
If Whitney was here she would tell you that she can hear all my conversations through the wall.Scott Lehner, March 11, 2025, recording at 41:20 (auto-captions), source
What the walls had already heard
Two months earlier, on January 14, 2025, Lehner had stood before the council and explained why he wanted authority over Kenyon Municipal Utilities. Part of his case was what he had picked up in the building. "When I have had conversations and overheard conversations in the office from some KMU staff," he said at 1:00:44, "they're under the impression that we don't report to the city administrator." Later that night he told the room he had heard the utility's superintendent, Randy Eggert, say he held the only key to the utility's files. Eggert denied it, the finance director confirmed the substance, and Lehner apologized. The thin walls had been evidence in his first fight. In March they became a line item.
So this is all about just privacy, confidential conversations.Scott Lehner, March 11, 2025, recording at 42:38 (auto-captions), source
The rest of the March 11 agenda
The insulation vote sits in the minutes between two larger decisions the same four members made that night. They directed the engineer to gather quotes for a chip seal project estimated at $80,000 to $90,000, a larger job than usual because preventive maintenance had been deliberately undersized in earlier years. They authorized Liquor Store Manager Matt Bartel to begin expanding the municipal liquor store into the former NAPA building at 641 2nd Street and to register to sell THC drinks and gummies. And they voted not to renew the city's land-use agreement with Luis Tellez's Taco Express, the food truck that had parked beside the liquor store for years and paid for its own water, power and an annual fee.
The reason for ending the truck's agreement, in Lehner's words as the minutes record them, was "the perception of the city renting space to a food vendor for a minimal fee when there are several other food businesses in town that own their lots and pay taxes." The owners were not told before the vote and learned of it from the Kenyon Leader. On April 8 he apologized to them in the council chamber, and the council reversed itself to let the truck stay through 2025.
So the March 11 record holds two judgments about how things look. A food truck paying its way on city ground was a perception problem worth ending an agreement over. Twenty-five hundred dollars to quiet the administrator's own office, in month four, was not. Both may have been the right call. Only one of them was made with the affected party in the room.
Before and after
- Dec. 14, 2024Scott Lehner goes on the city payroll as administrator.
- Jan. 14, 2025Lehner tells the council he has "overheard conversations in the office from some KMU staff" as part of his case for authority over the utility.
- Mar. 11, 2025He recommends insulating his office and the conference room for sound control; the council accepts the $2,500 quote 4-0.
- Mar. 11, 2025The same meeting declines to renew the Taco Express site agreement, citing "perception," without telling the owners first.
- Apr. 8, 2025The March minutes are approved; Lehner apologizes to the Taco Express owners and the council lets the truck stay through 2025.
People in this story
- Scott LehnerCity administrator, on the payroll since December 14, 2024
- Mary BaileyCouncil member, presiding as acting mayor on March 11, 2025
- Lee SjolanderCouncil member, moved to accept the quote
- Kim HelgesonCouncil member, seconded
- Whitney KylloFinance director, whose office shared the wall
- Wayne EhrichPublic works, researched the contractors
Sources
- Minutes of March 11, 2025, in the April 8, 2025 council packet, "Insulating Office for Sound Control," motion Sjolander, second Helgeson, carried 4-0-0.
- March 11, 2025 meeting page and recording.
- City of Kenyon recording, January 14, 2025, 1:00:44, on conversations overheard in the office.
- Kenyon Leader, "Changes coming to Kenyon's municipal liquor store," March 2025, and "Taco Express agreement continues through 2025," April 2025.
More from the record
Lehner evicted the taco truck for "perception." The owners found out from the newspaper.
Kyllo tried to take her resignation back. The council handed her letter to the boss she was leaving.
Staff asked the council to fill two audit seats. The council deleted the committee instead.
All 27, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording