MOORHEAD-Moorhead residents seemed mad at their City Council after city manager Mike Redlinger was helped out the door for reasons that have still not been made entirely clear.

They were mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore.

This is embarrassing to our city, they screamed.

Throw the bums out, they urged.

Boy, that seems a long time ago.

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There are but a couple of days left for citizens to file to run for contested council seats in November's election, and the pitchforks and torches seem to have been replaced with yawns and apathy.

It looks like business as usual in Spud Town.

There are four seats up for grabs, one in each of the city's four wards. Only in Ward 1, where longtime council member Nancy Otto is not running for re-election, does there seem to be a little fire in the residents' bellies. Six people have filed to run. We'll see how serious some are.

In Ward 2, where Heidi Durand wants to keep her seat, only one person has so far filed to challenge her.

In Ward 3, where Mike Hulett is not running to retain his seat, two people have filed.

In Ward 4, Steve Gehrtz is seeking re-election. He thus far has no challengers.

It's odd. Otto and Hulett were the two council members who stood up for Redlinger. They lost that battle, but at least they fought. Durand and Gehrtz were part of the gang that worked to get rid of Redlinger. And they have a total of one challenger between them. Gehrtz could run unopposed.

The outrage over Redlinger situation only went so far, it seems. Like two weeks. Maybe three.

At least one new candidate hasn't forgotten and is willing to put his money where his disgust is.

That'd be John Rowell, who is challenging Durand in Ward 2.

If the name sounds familiar, that's because it is. Rowell served 12 years on City Council before losing a re-election bid in 2009. He's since retired from his fulltime job and figured it's time to run for office again.

He's angered by the council's handling of Redlinger.

"I was happily retired, doing the things I've wanted to do for many years and was too busy for, then I noticed the Moorhead City Council needs help," Rowell said on my 970 WDAY radio show last week.

Rowell was involved with the hiring of two previous city managers, including Redlinger, and said the council's ouster of Redlinger will make it difficult to find a qualified replacement. Redlinger and the city parted ways in March after a controversial chain of events that included an unexpected closed-door meeting about his job performance and accusations that Moorhead's business community wasn't happy with him and assistant city manager Scott Hutchins.

Redlinger accepted a $75,000 severance package. He soon found work as Fargo's assistant city administrator, a job that included a hefty raise over his Moorhead salary

"What they have done is create a big cloud of distrust and ill will among the people, the city staff and their colleagues and that has sent a big signal to anyone who might be interested in being a candidate for the job of Moorhead city manager," Rowell said. "You're working for people who in September of 2015 gave the city manager a stellar job review and six months later showed him the door.

"How many good candidates for city manager, the key position in Moorhead, will want to apply? They are looking at the fact that two council members who opposed this ousting of Mike Redlinger are no longer going to be on the council. That leaves only the incumbents who created the problem in the first place. Do you really want to go to work for these people?"

Rowell insists that Redlinger was fired, despite public statements that it was a mutual parting, because of the buyout he received. Rowell said the severance pay was part of Redlinger's contract, to be paid only if the city wanted to get rid of him.

"The proof is in the pudding, is it not?" Rowell said. "He got six months pay. It looks an awful lot ... like he was ousted. He was fired. That's why he got six months' severance pay. The city of Moorhead was not being generous with taxpayers' money. They paid him six months' severance pay because they had to."

Rowell is channelling the anger many in the city felt in the midst of the Redlinger kerfuffle. At least he's one person following through.

It seems like the rest of Moorhead moved on rather quickly. Maybe the citizens, and not the council, are the ones who should be embarrassed.