Chaska Mayor Gary Van Eyll has resigned his post to take a job as a regional manager for the U.S. Census Bureau.
Van Eyll, 59, has been mayor for seven years and also served as a City Council member for four years before that. "I'm not leaving because I don't want to be mayor," said Van Eyll, a former auto parts and auto service manager who has been looking for work for the past 16 months. "I had to do something, and this is an opportunity to do something."
He will be responsible for supervising about 2,000 workers as they gather census data in all of Carver County and the areas of Hennepin County outside of Minneapolis. A requirement of accepting the federal job is that the employee cannot hold elected office, which forced Van Eyll to resign, he said.
Van Eyll handed in his resignation at Monday night's City Council meeting. The council has not decided how it will fill his post. Among the options are appointing a mayor, elevating a council member to the post or holding a special election.
The council will decide how to fill the vacancy in the coming weeks, City Administrator Matt Podhradsky said Tuesday. In the meantime, City Council Member Chris Schulz is acting mayor.
Van Eyll has been a Chaska resident for more than 30 years. "He has been a wonderful servant to the city of Chaska," Podhradsky said.
Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280
