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CITY, ND – (NewsDakota.com) The city of Valley City agreed to hire a law firm to help clarify how to handle grievances filed against Mayor Werkhoven by four city officials who accuse the mayor of creating a hostile work environment.

In a special meeting on February 19th, the city commission approved of allowing Commissioner Duane Magnuson to see if Mayor Werkhoven’s public apology is acceptable to those four city officials. Earlier this week Mayor Bob Werkhoven issued a public apology.

Under the motion approved, if any of the employees do not accept the mayor’s apology the city will hire an attorney to help the city through the grievance process. The name of the law firm will be announced in the near future according to city officials.

City Auditor Avis Richter asked the commission if the city should move forward to provide more clarification with gray areas in the city employee manual that address the grievance process and the city commission code of ethics.

Last week the city made a motion to hire the Vogel Law firm but the firm told the city they could not represent the city due to a conflict of interest. No details about that conflict of interest were released.

Meanwhile if the mayor’s apology is unacceptable and none of these steps resolve the grievances, the city will hire attorney Pat Monson to handle a formal mediation process to work toward a resolution.