The Jefferson City Council recently selected its new city administrator.

In a special meeting this past Tuesday, the Council unanimously approved the current Lake View City Administrator and City Clerk Scott Peterson. Peterson is a Lake View native and before being hired as the city administrator and city clerk in July of 1998, he also served as the Glidden City Administrator and was also a city clerk for Dayton. 

Peterson is a Lake View-Auburn High School graduate and has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public administration, both from Iowa State University. Peterson tells Raccoon Valley Radio he and his wife Nancy thought it was time to make a change in his career and talks about the progressiveness that Jefferson has had that drew him to apply for the city administrator position.

“The fantastic community organizations and how it’s driven by volunteers on a lot of that stuff, that excites me. I just really want to be a part of that and you’ll see me be really, really involved in the community. I just really look forward to that.”  

City Council member Darren Jackson says when the Council interviewed the three finalists last week, he describes what impressed him the most about Peterson.

“He really stood out as someone that has a very similar vision that the rest of us have for Jefferson. The things that he’s done at Lake View are right in line of what we want to see how Jefferson would grow. In Lake View, they’ve renovated their downtown and they’ve brought new businesses in. So we’re very excited to have Scott Peterson.”     

The Council hired Midwest Municipal Consulting this past December to help with the hiring process, after current City Administrator Mike Palmer announced his retirement. Peterson will officially start on June 15th and Palmer’s last day as city administrator will be July 7th.