Grant helps fund salary

By Bert Lehman

Zeinert

The city of Clintonville has hired Taylor Zeinert as a summer intern.

Zeinert is from Clintonville, and a political science undergraduate student at Carroll University.

City Administrator Sharon Eveland said Zeinert originally contacted her to ask if she could shadow Eveland for a day.

Eveland said Zeinert is interested in finding a job in local government after she graduates from college.

Eveland said she immediately agreed to let Zeinert shadow her for a day.

“Only about 13% of local government managers in the state of Wisconsin are women, and I would love to see more representation in that manner,” Eveland said. “Just the fact that anybody would reach out I love, but I was exceptionally happy that it was a female.”

After Eveland spent time and talked with Zeinert, she said she was impressed.

Eventually the two talked about the possibility of Zeinert interning with the city.

Clintonville’s 2020 budget includes a little over $4,000 to cover the salary for an intern.

That will cover about 300 hours of work over the summer months, with the intern paid about $12 per hour.

“Which is, based on what I’ve seen from other administrators, the norm for interns,” Eveland said.

Grant for intern

The city will pay half the cost to employ the intern for the summer, since it will receive a $2,000 grant from the Wisconsin City/County Management Association (WCMA), which provides grants for undergraduate and graduate internships.

Eveland said it is important for Clintonville to provide opportunities for people who will replace city staff in the future.

“My internship was critical for my education, and I think it’s important that we try to provide those opportunities to other students,” Eveland said. “And to support and generate interest in serving in local government. Our council and many councils really are encouraging and want to see more young people involved in government in their community.”

Providing internship opportunities is one way of working toward achieving that goal.

“And there are going to be benefits. This person is going to do some work,” Eveland said.

Eveland said Zeinert’s internship will begin in May.

Zeinert will work on special projects and grant work for the city, as well as spend time in various city departments, to help understand municipal operations.

This is not the first internship the city has had.

“We actually already have an internship in our Wastewater Department,” Eveland said. “We do a paid internship for that every summer as well.”

Eveland said she would like to see the internship program in the city grow in the future.

“Again, I go back to its value to the city and its value to the student,” Eveland said. “These internships could potentially result in a pipeline for employment for new individuals, especially the one at the Wastewater Department.”