West St. Paul City Manager Matt Fulton submitted a resignation letter on Wednesday, citing calls from some City Council members for his departure.
"It's just one of those things where the council decided they wanted to have different leadership," said Fulton, who has been West St. Paul's city manager for 3½ years.
"I was a little surprised, and I was really interested in working with the new City Council."
Fulton said he found out the City Council wanted a new city manager in discussions over the past month. The council will consider his resignation and a separation agreement at Monday night's meeting, he said.
Former Mayor Dave Meisinger said he believes the council wanted Fulton to leave because Fulton had his own ideas and didn't always follow the council's direction well.
"Matt's had problems at other cities," said Meisinger, citing Fulton's previous position as Coon Rapid's city manager.
West St. Paul elected Jenny Halverson as its new mayor and chose two new council members in November: Bob Pace and Anthony Fernandez.
"It's always a challenge to change cities and communities, but I also recognize that it's part of the job and part of the responsibility and the prerogative of the City Council to do that," Fulton said.
