City Council - workshop

turn it over to Nicole.

Thank you everyone for allowing me to come before you. This is the first time in 12 years since a clerk has addressed the council in such a presentation, so I am extremely nervous. I am extremely grateful. I am grateful that I presented an executive summary to the chairman and he said, bring this before the council. And because he felt like this was strong enough for you all to hear the thing that I will, I do have an ask. And it's coming at the end. But again, I just want to say how grateful I am to be here. This presents the five-year strategic modernization plan. And when you hear modernization, We're still using paper around here. We're still using books, and we're still scanning things vaguely. But this presentation marks a pivotal turning point, tracing the journey from the early statutory role of the clerk, which did not exist until the 1900s, even though the city itself existed prior to that. But we have become a fully modern, technical, and able governance institution. So if you see my beautiful slide there, apparently departments use this, and I didn't know that. So everything beyond this looks nothing like that. I'm going to start with going over from the 1900s to 2026. It's important to know where we were to where we are today in order to know where we need to go in the future. And the past is extremely important. And the only person who was here to actually, and I should thank you, Councilman Henderson, because you were here during the restructure of this office. In the 1900s. I was just going to say that. I was just going to say that. I was just going to say that.

During Teddy Roosevelt's administration.

During the restructure of 2014. Okay, all right. Sorry, I had to work that one out. Yeah, I set myself up for that one. So I should thank you because there were things that took place that I don't know if you necessarily saw it back then, but it has come full circle. Full term, it is, you set up something that I don't think you even realized. You were one of the people who were a part of the restructure of the office. And I'm thinking right now for that. And hopefully you understand what I'm talking about. The 1900s, I'm starting at the 1900s, even though the city was founded. charter loan in the 1800s after the Civil War. But I'm starting with the 1900s just because that's the first time you will start seeing references. 1911, for instance, when the city became a commission. you start seeing references to a clerk. You never see a reference to a council clerk, clerk to council. You don't even see anything secretary to the administrative office. You see no reference. The only references at that point you see to a clerk were all for the From my research, and I did send a historical preface to the attorney, perhaps he could find some information about this. My only references were, that I found were for the city court clerk. Whenever you see clerk, it's always in reference to the court and the person who's handling the judicial documents. And for the most part, definitely through the 1800s, through the early, maybe possibly 1930s, the auditor did a lot of what you consider to be the work of a clerk. But it started after the... Chattanooga became a commissioned form of government. Yes, you did start seeing the duties filtering out more towards what we now call the clerk to counsel. Formerly, it was called City Call. It was 813, formally established the duty to preserve the legislative records. Major city reorganizations during the era that is 1900s through 2002. And that's a lot of, that's a century right there, where there's no reference to the clerk. And that's why it looks strange, but that's true. All the way through 2002. And then when City Code Section 813 formally established the duties, I'm sorry, major city reorganizations happened during that time. It left the office, the council office, administratively undefined. So there was somebody, groups of somebody that were working, but there was not an official clerk technically. And I shouldn't say there was not a clerk, there was a clerk. It was here in the 1990s or whatever. I knew. But actually represented in the city code that, as far as I can tell, did not exist.

And that's actually a charter provision. So the charter was amended to include that. So that 8.13 is a charter section. It gives you charter official authority.

Thank you.

So that's from 2002, though. And the city was started in 91?

The charter was actually, I believe, in 89, I believe, was the first year. The first elections were in 1990. And they were, at that point in time, there was a charter that was in effect at that point. And it was amended in 2002, I believe, was the last amendment to the full charter.

Thank you. And I apologize, Mr. Chair. I didn't mean to shout out. I apologize.

2013 through 2014 this is what I'm calling the first modern activation of what we think of as the I'm calling the office of clerk to counsel and that is not an official title yet but it is the first minor activation this is where I said you know councilman Henderson was a part of the restructure that took place during this time it began in the end of 2013 it was completed at the end of 2014 the first modern Activation occurred at this time when the council formally appointed Sandra Freeman was the clerk. I was deputy clerk at the time in 2013. I became clerk in 2014. Shortly afterwards, a citywide HR restructuring formally classified the roles in the office included the clerk position and the three other positions that were there at the time. This shifted the office away from informal oversight toward standardized HR governance and established a contemporary foundation for our operations. So saying that, we were not a part of the HR structure as other employees were. In fact, when I came in 2013, somebody mentioned, I think the clerk was considering asking for a raise. And one of the employees who had been here for decades said, we never had to go to HR for a raise. And I said, well, how did you get a raise? He said, we just had some chairperson. And, you know, at the time, I just brushed it off. Until just recently, I found an old email from the, I think it was 19, no, it might have been 2003, around that time. where the chairperson wrote HR and asked that the council employees be included in whatever bonus they were giving out that particular year. Because that did not happen. We were an office that was here. What that means, I have no idea legally how that was happening, but it's just that... far as my research I have not been able to find how we were defined as far as our job descriptions and I think that was one of the main things you were very hands-on about getting job descriptions for the positions in the office 2014 through 2019 this is under my leadership I began in 2014 as clerk to counsel achievements and Achievement is under my leadership, hopefully . The office has achieved strong institutional standing over a decade. I'm sorry. Well, I should talk about myself. At this point, I am 21 years with the city of Chattanooga. I've been with this office for 13 years. Yeah, about 13 years. I'm dedicated to public service and this is something that hopefully the work that I produce for this office that you all see that you know that you understand um in the individual relationships that i have each have with each one of you is because i am fully invested in city of chattanooga and i try to help my employees feel the same way i want them to i want them to stay here and the ones who left me

That was that thing. It's both of them too. Both, yeah.

Yes, but, you know, I tell everybody coming in, one of my first conversations is that, you know, do what's best for you and your family.

You know, I love the city of Chattanooga and I want you to stay and we have great benefits.

You know, that's what I always say, do what's best for you and your family. She did that. Went out into the world because I trained her so well.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay, this is the digital transition that we went through in 2020, 2021. I consider it a horrible time. It was hard for everybody. So I cannot pretend that my life was harder than anybody else's. But this is a time when we went into crisis response, where we began virtual council meetings, where we had, and if you would see the note at the bottom, June 9th, 2020, city council held a 7.5 hour virtual meeting. It ended at, it was almost 1.30 AM. And certain people were here during that time.

That's wild.

I remember being...

I thought you were Chet.

I was Chet. Yes. It was a budget public hearing. Mind you, we had 146 people that spoke. We had over 500 people that came in the first go-round, and I think the system started shutting down because our account wasn't... for it, you know, that volume of participants. And I think at some point the technical difficulty was, but we had to keep it at 500 just because of the type of count that we had. So it was an amazing memory. Never want to go through that again. Is that back when you decided to start signing off that public comment? During that time is when we actually went, the city went to budgeting for outcomes. The BFO process, that was very, that was a difficult process. That first year, my budget was returned to me by the team, they said, they gave me points, do better on this and that, and I did better. So they did accept the budget, but that was very difficult for an office that does not have programs to explain how the outcomes we have for what we do. And I was not explaining it well enough the first go round and the team that was reviewing the budget was kind enough to send it back to me and say, this is what we need. But that was a very difficult time learning how to do a BFO for an office that does not have programs with initiatives and outcomes. And other protocols you can see that maintain the essential operational continuity. We went through remote work schedules, even though we had executive orders telling us when we could come back to work. I would have to come in and make appointments with the GIS division down in regional planning just to make a large format scan. We have some maps that are half as big as this table. And I would make an appointment with the GIS specialist at regional planning in order to get those copies to – to answer open records requests because that did not stop. Executive order did not stop. We should have gotten in touch with our lobbyist or somebody about this. No, the open records request did not stop during the pandemic and I came in with my mask and gloves and did the work that had to be done to fulfill those requests. We did not have any of them that were late, did not have any excuses, maps or anything for why we could not complete those requests that were coming. I think I just went back to the same one. Okay. The Institutional Development. This is 2014 through 2024. Just to go through, reflecting on a full decade of growth from that time period, the team transformed the office into three major ways. We expanded the operational workflows, administrative team, and the budget management. We fully integrated the statutory duties of modern HR structure, digital preservation tools. We standardized the standard operating procedures, daily readiness, and I had the civil rights compliance, which included, for instance, the ADA and all of our compliance related to that. to set clear predictable operational expectations during this time frame. We entered the codification era 2024 through 2026 and of course beyond. When I say codification, I'm meaning bringing the office into the city of Chattanooga first as a fully operational office of the clerk. bringing us to the present day. We have fully documented operational manuals. We have workstation manuals. We have a legislative operations manual. We have codified our statutory guardrails, formalized all of our ADA and other compliances, our Title VI duties. I am the Title VI liaison for the department. Today, 2026, the Office of the Clerk to Counselor stands as a fully mature, clear, and accountable municipal institution is what I would call it. So the future begins from this point, 2026 through 2031. Why am I saying a five-year plan? It's because one of the main things within the next five years, we've already began working on this, but this office needs a succession plan. Five years from now, I won't be the clerk. I am preparing for retirement within the next five years and I am I'm looking at five years out but I And I know people do not talk publicly about these things, but I have to, because I don't have the, legally, I don't have the right to show up and say, here's my two weeks notice. We had a clerk, and I want to show you this, the heart of clerks. We had our clerk in, when I became clerk in 2014, the past clerk, Her last day of work, the one thing she did, she sent an email to everybody saying, it's been great working with you. The second email she sent was to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She sent the rezoning notice for that next, the council's meetings the next morning. She was walking out the door. I had took her job sitting in her chair. That was the last thing she, the last act she did on behalf of this city. And that is the heart of clerks. As we're going out the door, I'm not leaving this office unmanned. Amen. I'm not leaving and hoping Phil and his team can take over the duties. So I hate putting my future out like that, but I do want to prepare not only the council, I want to prepare my staff. And one of the things that I have not mentioned between 2026 and 2031, there's a thing called an election coming. There's an election that's coming. This council may look different before 2031. I need to prepare my team for that. It takes us several months to prepare for that. I know Phil's office much longer because they're the ones who make contact with the election commission and ensure that the council has whatever ordinances and everything in place for the election. That is a process. It takes a lot out of my office. It takes a lot out of his office. It's a great process though, being on the inside, seeing how it works, it's a great process. It's a great process working with the office of city attorney, working with the election commission, the administrator. It's a wonderful process that I look forward to, not people leaving the council, I just look forward to the election, the whole, it's just a different vibe at that time. And so I'm trying now to prepare the office for that. What we'll need to do, what we'll need to have in place, for instance, we will need training for newly elected council persons. I know that was a big issue this time around things that worked, but a lot of things that failed. So we're working now to try to ensure that those who are coming, the new council members, that they will have a better experience than the ones who were before them. So, and yes. Thank you, Jean. We have no time.

Yes, so we have been working on documents

somewhat of a roadmap on how to get them through the first whatever days. It's a process that I just look so forward to. I really do, and I know for all of you, it's one of those bittersweet things. Because you're like, do I want to do it or not? If I do, whoo! But the modernization vision, let me, to summarize, the operational posture July 21, 2026, the Office of the Clerk to Counsel stands as fully articulated, highly capable governance division. We are ready to execute the strategic plan to deliver the next generation of transparent public service to the people of Chattanooga. I mentioned the strategic plan. In your folder, you should have a copy of the executive plan. summary of it the actual plan is many more pages than this executive summary i got it down to three pages but some of the things that i plan to do within this next the next um five years leadership development is a big part of it a lot of the leadership development requires um requires not necessarily creating budget line items but we do need funding for training and now that we are moving into uh succession planning we have i have to maintain my continuous state certification i am also working on my international certification I almost finished with that. But we also have someone else in the office who is very close to becoming a certified municipal clerk as well. And that, yes, very close. She's very close. And that is part of the succession planning, ensuring that you always have a clerk available. Even though I'm in the role of clerk, the legal responsibilities, the statutory duties of clerk, we have someone who can step into that role to complete those duties when, if I leave.

Nicole, can you ask a question? I think this is amazing. You've given us like a five-year warning, so my heart is like right on the table right now. I'm like, why would you put that on us on a Tuesday? Because I do, in working with you, and I've Don't mean to interrupt this presentation. I know that you are very meticulous And we rest well at night knowing that when we leave here, it is done correctly. And when I hear succession, I noticed that there was a deputy clerk's position. And I guess my question to you would be, when someone in our office becomes close to being certified, can we reclassify their position as the deputy clerk? uh since it did exist um still same roles in the council support whatever stuff but is that possible or something that you would consider in your strategic plan um if the council will fund that position to a deputy clerk's classification i think that was probably yes i i would rather the council tell me

The same way you said we need a director of legislative affairs, I would rather you all tell me that you need that position. I don't think in order to perform, to step into the role of the clerk, for instance, if I go on a two-week vacation, those legal things need to be done. I don't think that person needs to be a deputy clerk in order to do that once they have a state certification. um but yes if the council is interested is looking at a deputy clerk position i would have no problem with that but that is something you would recommend as a part of a succession plan i would not recommend a deputy clerk necessarily just because i believe that person could in the past I'm just, from what I, the research I did, I don't even know if we had a deputy clerk in the past. We had assistant clerks, and they were part-time.

But you were deputy.

I was the deputy, and I wanted to say, I don't know if I was the only one, but I believe possibly I was.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't think that was, I think that might have been the only time. And the reason why that was phased out is because of... When we did the job, we did desk audits and the job analysis. The deputy clerk position was too close to the job description of the clerk. So it just felt really redundant. And I'm repeating things. The council members were saying that when they discussed this during the restructuring.

So part of what you'll be doing over five years is creating a succession plan.

Yes, sir. So let me follow up. And Nicole hit on, we started toward the end of 2013, 2014, reorganizing the office. Part of the reason we reorganized was HR said the deputy clerk was really and part of that problem then was that it put the deputy clerk in a lower classification pay scale and we were trying to raise that position up so what we did was reorganized and separated the duties out so we had a distinction between clerk and administrative system so that that actually put that position in a higher classification. Which position? The administrative, the position that Melissa's in now.

Council supports. Council supports.

Thank you. I couldn't think of the correct term. But it separated and clearly made a distinction between the two so that we were able to raise that pay scale.

Yeah, I mean, I think you can finesse the language. I mean, we have deputies all throughout the city departments. I mean, a deputy is what it is, right? It's the number two who can't, even though it may be classified differently with a different job description, but the purpose of a deputy is to have a secondary support that can do the job because it's not doing the job.

Well, I think what McCullough does a great job train, cross train all the positions down here so that sometimes we'll see Crystal out there taking those. That's part of the cross training that Nicole set up so that really any of the three could do that position. Now obviously You need your clerk certification in order to, I guess, have the legal ability to require them to follow.

To execute certain statutory duties.

Yeah, yeah. Of course, if you have someone in that other office that now has their clerk certification, you, in essence, have a deputy clerk. Right, yeah, in essence, yeah.

That was my point. I mean, I don't think there's wrong with having deputies. I mean, but just as I'm looking through these focus areas and the strategic – succession plan sounds like now, is that I'm just curious. I think because of the statutory specific duties of the clerk, that's not something you pick up overnight. And it keeps our council within legal standing, even when we have to do our utility trainings. And so I was just curious. I believe in growing the council staff. I know some of my colleagues are conservative in that way. But I believe that we do a lot of work on this side of the house, and that when we can grow the support because you do so much, like Nicole does a lot, that sometimes support helps improve and enhance the job duties itself. So anyway, that's just my two cents on that. Sorry, Nicole. I know you've got some more slides.

Oh, no, no. I'm finished. I do want to close. Every initiative in this modernization plan is anchored by core values of integrity, transparency, accessibility, continuous improvement, community stewardship. And I just thank you for your leadership, your leadership of me individually, new chairpersons always. I look forward to new chairpersons each year because that's when, if you don't know me, that's when you'll get to know me. I told you that today. I'm sorry, you're going to get to know me.

Yes, you do.

So, yeah. That's an opportunity for me, but I really appreciate the continued leadership of this council. I appreciate the process you went through with the new employee that's coming, the director of legislative affairs. I look forward to working with that individual. I've already got their workstation manual written up, and they will have to tell me from that point what they do. But I'm ready for them. And I thank you for this opportunity to address you. I do want to, and one of the main reasons why I gave the executive summer initially to the chairman is because the first thing I told him that we have an identity crisis. People think we are an administrative office because the sign outside the door says administrative office, basically. And because, as I told you, the history of the clerk, the clerk didn't exist, technically. Not even in the HR structure. So there's an identity crisis where people think we are basically secretaries. And we do those things that a secretary would do. I have great... I know many secretaries, many executive assistants, even, and, uh, their work is, um, amazing. They're diverse work. What we do as what I do as a clerk is very monotonous is the same thing every day, same way. And I love it. I get excited about that, doing the same thing over and over again. Um, but, um, I felt like there's an identity crisis where because people say, it's just admin people, there's a disrespect. There's a great disrespect for my authority as the manager of the office. And this is part, it's an identity crisis. No one in the city of Chattanooga can blame anybody except for me if I have not established the identity enough. But I need the backing of the council. The one thing I am asking is that you give me a formal name for this office. I'm asking that we be recognized as a form of division. I am not stepping into the mayor's territory. He's the one who creates departments. I'm not asking that. I'm asking this council to recognize what the office of clerk to council has been doing since I've been clerk. I'm asking you to recognize it officially that we've become a division of the city council. We are not, I am not asking for a budget, a cost center. I am not asking for a title. I am not asking for anyone to call me administrator. I am clerk to council. I'm very proud of that title. What I am asking for is that I need that title for the authority even if it's just the prestige I needed. I'm asking for it. And I have written up a resolution here. I sent this to the attorney, such short notice that he has not had time to go through it probably. But I did send it to the attorney. I have spoken to the chairman about this resolution. um it's just basically saying that we will be known as a division of the city council the office of clerk to council i want you all to when you see that at the top of my letterhead that no one questions what does that mean and we'll have a resolution explaining it mr yeah

Is that all, Nicole?

Yes.

Okay.

So I know we have, I saw first Vice Chair Elliott and then Councilman Henderson and Councilman Donovan. I'm good. Oh, you're good. Okay.

She answered my question.

Okay.

Councilman Henderson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nicole, I can certainly support this and be happy to sponsor it. I'm going to ask the chair if he'll go ahead and put it on the agenda. Okay. One of the things that I remember 13 years ago or whatever it was, there were seven new council members coming into this office with a new clerk. The clerk that had been here for 20 years prior had decided to retire at the end of previous council's term so we were literally all the blind leading the blind and I mean it to me it became obvious that we needed we needed to do some restructuring and when we restructured we decided to put it out for hire and and and we got several candidates the lady that was serving as the clerk at the time applied and there were several others that applied but but Nicole I'll tell you Nicole stood out head and shoulders above everybody else I mean she and from the time that we hired her and placed her in that position she took control of that office she organized She made sure that we had the things that we needed as a council. All I can tell you, I don't know if it was almost like you had been doing that job for 20 years. Like you started day one with experience that I don't think anybody else had or could have had. And I've seen the job that you've done over the years and the way that you've kept the records. We've done an audit on ourself, come back with glowing reports. You have really been the face of that office. And I remember one of the things, one of the first things that you asked me whenever we hired you is, Or when we were interviewing, we were interviewing for several other positions, and I don't know if you remember this or not, he said, let me let me get in the clerk's office and be established before we begin hiring anybody else and And that really I think worked out. Well, I mean like I said you came in knowing How to do this job and it has shown down through the years You've done a great job and and I certainly if this if this helps you and this is what you need that I'm more than willing to Make it happen

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and I echo the sentiments of Councilman Henderson. You do a great job, especially for newcomers coming in.

We don't know anything.

So I appreciate you and the work that you've done, and I do support this wholeheartedly. I had a question about, I think Councilman Henderson mentioned auditing, and I know, thinking I was the chair, I think it was an audit, and we had talked about some of these things. So did some of these things come out of that audit, or... How did you, how did you kind of come to this? I guess for me, like, I just, you gave a backstory of the clerk and even coming now realizing it's not a division. It's like, we should have probably already did that. kind of how did you come to, did some of that come out of the audit that was done? Because I think I remember Councilwoman Hill asking when the audit was done, you had to know what's next? Like what do we do? Do we audit ourselves after this? Who keeps track of these things? So I guess from that, and that was three years ago or so or something like that.

We're up to be audited again, right? Yes. So what happens?

How does that track? What happens there?

Yes, we were audited. For the first time in 2019, there were, I think, maybe two things that were called out, and they weren't negative at all. They just said, you need workstation manuals. That's something we did not have. We had documents spread all over the place, how to do things, but they said you need workstation manuals. So we completed that. There were some other, I think it might have been one or two other things that were called out, and we had a post-audit. and we successfully completed the things that were recommended in 2019. We had the next audit in 2024. I can't remember if there was any – I'm really not sure if there was anything major that came out of that as far as things that we needed to correct. I don't even remember the details on it. But from that point on, I believe we will probably be on possibly a three-year – audit schedule so I am anticipating an audit in 2027 you know and it might be in the document it may be in the full strategic plan document but um yes the information in the executive summary that you have Other than the fact that we are moving, we now have the workstation manuals. We have advanced to the standard operating procedure. We have that document now. And we also have the legislative operations manual. And that particular manual is going to be the most important with the new employee that's coming. You have an employee that's a GS-17 employee. that's a higher rank than the manager of the office, this person needs to know that word direct in their title, what does that mean? Now the job description says, it's very clear what their position is as far as the office, but the legislative operations manual is our, I call it our no-fly zone document. I'm not getting any of your legislative affairs, your community affairs, your constituent affairs. You're not getting into my statutory duties type document. And that way, the administrative support office will be able to have a document they can go to and say, now, who do I go to for this? And I'm glad I mentioned that because one of the things that I talked to the chairman about when I met with him in April was, was that I felt that the clerk, the Office of Clerk to Counsel is the foundation of these. We have the legislative body, we have the legislative branch. I feel that the clerk position is the foundation of all of that. It's the one position that is, it is an appointed position. My job description still says an appointed position. It is one that does not change with elections. It does not change with the mayoral term. So I feel that the Office of Clerk to Counsel is your foundation, not the most important. I'm not saying that. But it's the foundation, the thing that stays, that remains steady, the continuity of government that is needed. I felt that, and the reason why I was asking for the resolution, that with a new director of legislative affairs coming, Phil, you're looking towards different divisions in the council, the office. You're looking for that legislative, that policy research component, that whatever the constituent community affairs components, you're looking for those different divisions. Those will come, but they cannot come into your basis correctly. The foundation has been wobbly because it hasn't been recognized in the right way. It hasn't been established in the right way. That's what this resolution is trying to do. And that's what all these documents, the legislative operations manual, the workstation manuals, the standard operating principles, all of that is to give the foundation a really firm base so you can bring up that division, your legislative affairs division. You can stand on our backs. That's what the clerk is here for, for these people to come into the office and stand on our backs. Well, you know, I'm talking, It may be five, ten years out when you bring in the next employee. I don't know. If you're bringing in aides, things of that nature, you know, we're not as big as in Atlanta, so you won't have, you know, 30 employees. But I'm just saying I do not believe you will have success with other employees, other divisions, until you get the base right, and that is the Office of Clerk to Counsel.

I believe you.

Thank you so much, Nicole.

I appreciate that. And then my last one, I know that you are a state certified municipal clerk, almost an international clerk, but could you tell us what other certifications you have or what other organizations? You're like the secretary of...

Yes, I am the secretary for the Tennessee Association of Municipal Clerks and Recorders. I call it TAMCAR. I have been the secretary for... I've I went in a filthy and unexpired term, and then I was elected to two consecutive terms, so I'm termed out. I'm termed out. So yes, I will leave that position in September is when we have our annual meeting. But, yes, I have been the secretary for TAMCAR, and it's one of my honors, one of my joys. I am also the chair of the communications committee. Whenever you look at the TAMCAR website and see a newsletter, I did it. That's me. Yes, when you look at TAMCAR's Facebook and Instagram page, those things, my committee is responsible for all of that. I am, and just to brag a little bit, I am about to participate in the, and this is something you're, I think both of you may be aware, last year I was invited to the local government leadership program, UT NAFA, I think that's the organization that does this, and I was not able to attend that because we had flash flooding and I was afraid to travel. And so, and it just so happened, we became, the Office of Graduate Counsel became one of the intake organizations for FEMA. We were taking applications. And I can thank you for that because I woke up and I was like, oh, I'm doing this.

I appreciate it.

Yes, yes. That was a very good, that was a wonderful experience. But I am going to participate in that again because I didn't have an opportunity last time. They invited me again to participate this year, so I'm happy with it.

Well, congratulations, Nicole, and thank you for all the hard work. We appreciate you so much, and that is it, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Councilwoman Nolan and Councilwoman Hill.

Okay, thank you. You know I appreciate you 1,001%. You and Karen, Karen is over there, when I first was appointed and then elected, you all held my hand and you walked me through. a lot of different scenarios and situations that was really, really good. I have always advocated, even not so far in the, well, hadn't been that long in the past, that, you know, the question was brought up as to what's the job description and what do you all do? And can we, you should be able to do this, add this to you, add that to you, which I have never ever, ever felt that that was anything that needed to be done. You do an amazing job, very efficient, all of y'all do here, and adding on to you does not, I mean I don't know what that was about to maybe establish what you're being paid, but you know I've always advocated Don't put no extra work. Give them extra money. That's what they need. So I'm 100% on board with you with this. And I appreciate you. I mean, you react on the drop of a dime. I can call, boom, and it's just like that with no problem at all. But I try not to tax you so much. When I can do it myself, I do it. But sometimes I do need your expertise and maybe to even check something for me. But I appreciate you and just never know what you did and the work that you have done has never been a question in my mind that you could not and should not. And still right to this day, Kevin needs an increase in pay. Thank you. Councilwoman Hill.

Nicole, I want to thank you for the strategic plan executive summary. I've been excited to read it. and in studying it there's a lot here that i do see is going to modernize our office i mean you talked about the foundation and you and i chat you know my deep respect for for how you do what you do um and It shows with this document, and so I don't want it to be 12 years before we all sit down at his table again. I think it's important for council to know the work that you're working on. And especially as we're moving into additional technology, I anticipate there may be some budget asks related to that because of MOU you're looking at with DTS. The digitizing of those, it seems like there's always something being digitized. But also, the standardization of the legislative document templates, I thought it was a really useful thing. The legislative, the library finalized the way that you're planning for the public to be able to get to those records themselves is a really smart move. And I think will be a win for everybody. Because how many times has somebody won that ordinance? And if they'd be able to get it themselves, that would be terrific. The other thing I wanted to just comment on was the council member orientation packet. Something that I appreciate about you as a leader is this way that you walk this fine line between running a steady office while also dealing with elected leaders, all of whom are individually elected and have no boss, right? And I think that some of our institutional hesitation about having some type of council orientation is speaking to that. You're like, I'm not your boss, but you know how things run well. And we know what has worked well, right? So this looks like we're headed in a cool direction with some of the information in here and how different things work. And I'm excited to see how that evolves. I'm happy to help as you need council input. So thanks so much.

And I neglected to tell you all about this. Council 101. This is almost a civic education program that I came up with because we have people who will call us on the phone and they say, where do I go to pay my taxes? Then we'll tell them where and give them the phone number, directions, and they'll say, well, what do you do? And then we'll tell them, well, this is the Office of the Clerk and we'll go through what we do. And then they'll start asking more questions. So Crystal was very helpful with this because she's the person who answers the phone from the public most of the time. And she gets calls all the time. People will call for one thing and then they'll go into, well, what are you doing? What is that? And what happened last night? Explain that to me. So that's what Council 101 is about. I've been doing a soft launch on the landing with this. Yes, city employees have been able to see me, and I've been trying to do it weekly, haven't reached that point yet, but where I explain different things. I take those questions that Crystal's giving me, and I just explain them. I think the last one I did, I was explaining the administrative law judge, that whole process. with your notice of appeals. And it wasn't about the appeal process. That's an HR function. But it was about, and I shouldn't say that, that appeals come to me. So I spoke on that part. And that's just something I've been doing, just said, like I said, a soft launch just to see if I can get more questions, what people need to know about the office, what we do. The things that people don't know about, I think one of the, I did a post about, ordinances different between the ordinances and the resolutions and just that type of Education. And so that's what that is. This is something that if I choose to go to, I know I'm invited to high school sometimes to, they have different fairs, job fairs or fairs where, you know, you're teaching students about different professions. And I wish I had this back then, but this is something I can take with me when I am going into community settings. Yes, and that one, this is, I actually created this comparing the clerk position to Lieutenant O'Hara from Star Trek.

I saw your connection. I love that you come out.

Is that all, Councilwoman? Yes, sir. We have Councilman Harvey and Councilman Clark.

Yeah, thanks, Nicole. You are the epitome of professionalism, as is your staff. So thank you. It's been just a great experience for me since I've been on the council just a little over a year. So thank you. I don't know if this needs a second to get on the agenda, but I second and support it wholeheartedly. So thank you for what you do.

I just have a technical question. First of all, I support this. I think anything that we can do to raise the prestige of the office, I think it's worthy of that. I think of what you do in the foundation. But I do have some technical questions as it relates to the charter and the resolution language. Maybe this is a question for Phil. Are we allowed to introduce resolution language

that's not in the charter when it comes to the supervision of the authority because it's outlined in there is my first question and maybe that's a research item yeah i'll be glad to look at it i was looking as we were speaking okay i was speaking to 8.10 which is the quorum and majority section of the charter and then 8.13 which talks about committees and clerks as well and clearly the authority at least regarding committees and clerks is that the clerk is responsible and it's her duty to preserve and retain all the records of the council and to certify the correctness of such records when necessary or requested by a citizen. So that's a charter requirement here in the code that you can't get away from. We are clearly in an electronic world which is dramatically different than 2002 when the last amendments were made to the charter. But any changes to the charter will also have to come in by a charter amendment. A resolution here just certifying that you have an office, I think that's already established in the code that there is a court position. There is an office.

By the charter establishing the position itself, that in itself is the establishment of the office of the clerk. Is that correct?

It would be, but it doesn't hurt to have it.

It doesn't hurt to back this up. Okay. Is this, and Nicole, maybe you know this, but is this similar to what other municipalities have done? Like, for instance, we have the city court clerk, Anthony Byrd. And that would be the office of the city court clerk. That is an office. This would be a replica of that that they established at the judicial branch, but we have not established that at the legislative branch, correct? Would you say that he is an established office of the city court clerk of the judicial branch?

He's actually an employee.

Gotcha. Okay. So He's an employee of the mayor, but the judicial branch is separate from the executive branch.

Because of the collection of funds for the city.

Okay. And that leads to my last question. And this is... I love this type of work when it comes to different language and policy stuff, because it references city council as a department, as if we are, the use of the word department means that we are an auxiliary of, and city council is not. So we have the executive branch, the legislative branch, which we are, and then you have the judicial branch. Those are three branches of government, not a department. And so my question, and this is just a technicality field, but with us being listed as a city council department, which I don't think we're a department or an auxiliary of, I would like maybe for that to be considered for some language change. But as the legislative branch and establishing a division of the legislative branch, of the clerk's office, does that open the door to create other offices? Because there's a distinction, I think you mentioned this, Part of this is in the third, whereas the responsibilities of the clerk to the council have evolved to require a highly specialized operational identity distinct from the general municipal administration. So there's the clerk portion, which is the legislative indexing, the record keeping, but we still have the administrative functions that we use to support us as council with legislative stuff. With this, if we're establishing an office for the office of the clerk, does this open up the door to establish other offices within the city council legislative branch? Or is that kind of how the language reads? Or what's your opinion?

I'd like to say that it did. It just specifically talks about the clerk position here in the charter. It was broader than that under 8.15, but those provisions were repealed in 2016 and were approved by the election. So you did have a position at that point talking about management analysts here in your office that was removed and was further gone by the beginning.

And I do also want to note in the first stanza when it referenced a strong mayor, council, form of government, that language is not in our city charter. So I just want to reference that. But I support this. I think this is great. The other last but not least, where I want to mention, I think this could be the opportunity to really talk about the pay for this office. I know other council members have brought it up, but I have in the past raised concern about what the pay is for this. The office in general for the support staff and the clerk, and there has been no movement on that. And so I think this will be an opportunity for us to discuss that. And I'll be honest with you. I support this, but I want to support this and. The rest established in the rest of the foundation for this office, and I have been on the record several times and say, I believe that the pay for our council administrative staff and our council support staff is low, but we use the. the HR governing system for this office. But I'd be curious to see what that HR governance looks like as we establish this office. And so if that would be something you would consider, but that's something I would like to help champion in support of this resolution.

I'm McBrief.

This is great. Got my support all day, every day.

I want to give kudos to Phil. I never get ceased to be amazed how you can just ramble off sections that got scratched away or this is created. Like, with no hesitation. Kudos to both of y'all, but I thought that was funny.

Good to live in an electronic world. Oh, okay.

She should have just kept it.

I thought she just had that in her head. I lived through a lot of it.

Yeah, I know. You probably wrote a lot of it, too. All right, but this is great, Nicole. Thank you.

Councilwoman Johnson.

I guess I had a question kind of leaning into what Councilman Clark was mentioning about City Council listed as a department, which then lends itself to the division language. So I think that's a valid point in that if shifted the right way, you will be considered an administrator, which would then change the pay. No, you don't want the title as administrator doesn't mean that that doesn't apply to the department. So I guess in essence, I guess we just have to figure out some language in that because right now, technically, Chairman is our administrator. The chair is our administrator. So just looking at that and maybe working kind of with Mandy and seeing how does that language shift in that way so that then the pay aligns differently. So that's my only comment, I guess, moving forward. This is how to what does the language look like based on the charter and based on, because I went to section 8.13 since you brought it up. And so, because I think I was a lawyer in my past life.

The legislative branch of government. Okay.

The legislative branch of government. And then we have that role. I don't know. It's getting a little bit much for me. But I just wanted to kind of lean into what Councilman Clark mentioned because that's a valid point in that in that sense, especially when we're looking at pay right, yeah. And then I think then that moves to the adjustment of those pay. So thank you, Councilman Clark, for that. And that's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Phil.

Okay.

Council, any other questions? Phil, the charter.

I believe the only thing the charter states is that the council will hire a clerk.

And it gives the responsibilities for the clerk.

Yeah, but I mean, it gives responsibilities, but it just says council will hire a clerk. It doesn't say how to set up that division. I mean, we're just establishing, I think, that office.

You're establishing things that are showing people that they have that certification is dramatically improved in that regard because that's the official records of what y'all have done either by resolution or by ordinance here in this body.

But I do agree with changing that from department to legislative branch.

I'll do that. Any other changes y'all have?

So maybe the thing to do, because we certainly want to get this right, and it's important to do that, so If everybody just wants to give a real good close look at the language of the resolution over the next week, and if you have any...

I'll stick it in the folder, the electronic copy of it.

If you have any proposed edits to get those to fill, and let him... Sure, Councilman.

I'm so sorry, Chairman Davis. I hate to do this, but Mandy is in the room. As it comes to HR... Because I think this is important, that while we're establishing authority, maybe this could be another clause in here. Because I'm real finicky about our distinction between the legislative and executive branch.

You are?

Yes, I am. I'm showing you. But because I believe that although we function through our payroll system, I do believe that your authority is based in the legislative branch. But yet we are tied to that system. Mandy, my question to you. Because I think in transitioning authority to our office administrator of the clerk to the council, once it's established, can we establish our own HR pay scale that's separate? And everybody's going, like, and then Mandy goes, I mean, my point is, is that I would. Trying to figure out how to ask this more directly. No, no, no.

I think I have an answer to your question. I just mentioned this to Phil. So when we're looking at administrators, they're in an NPAP, which is basically not graded appointed person. So you would be turning your clerk's positions and support staff into appointed positions when they're appointed to determine their own salary. So you don't have to use the grading system or GS system.

So we determined Nicole's salary because she's appointed.

If you decide to go this way. What way? This way, the resolution? Currently, she would be under civil service employment. Then you would be changing her position to an appointed position.

But her position is appointed currently.

I don't think you're MDAP. I think you're a GS, don't you? No.

I thought her position was appointed.

I think under. She does serve at the will of the council.

She serves at the will of the council, but she's considered in the HR system as a civil service employee. So she would go on the GS bill and change her to an appointed employee. Then the council, chair, whoever it is, would determine the salary based on whatever you all agree. Appointed salaries can be set and whatever appointed salaries can be set at just like those upstairs.

then would the clerk and other positions lose those benefits that come along with being a civil service employee?

No. She already doesn't have none because she served with a little council.

Oh. Okay.

So right now, what civil service, what that does for you is it provides a due process. which means that if something happens, you can't just terminate. It's like the mayor today can terminate me because he doesn't like my outfit. That's his right to do, right? So that's what an appointed position can do. But you all already have that right. If you're unhappy with what she does, you can still decide to do it.

Okay, that's interesting.

But our civil service have a due process, which means they have a latter mail hearing. So they have to go through a process to defend themselves and say, give you the stuff that isn't so bad, and I can say why I wore it today, whatever else, and so that's, I know it's a terrible example, but I'm just giving you an example of what you can do. She kind of already follows along with that, so it doesn't really matter. So that's why I just said to Phil, before you ask that question, we should just turn them into appointed positions.

Okay. I'd like to get more of your opinion on that. I'd like for that to be added into this resolution, but after we have had some conferences with Nicole on that, because I would like for us to retain more authority in what they get paid.

That's where we were before we restructured and put you all under the pay scale.

It was similar to that. I could not find a resolution appointing the past clerks. That was the only thing. But I mean, it was essentially that, you know, that the staff was operating outside of the HR system.

So let me just clarify, because I heard you say that you were appointed, correct?

My job description says appointed. There is a resolution that was done when I was deputy clerk as well as when I became clerk. It does not contain the word appoint, but my job description still does.

Okay, but in our charter, it does not use the word that the clerk is appointed. Is that correct?

It did not use that word specifically as a person that is appointed. This position.

Okay. So for the record, Mandy, if we chose to convert this position to an official appointment position, that gives us more authority to move up the scale.

And just so you know, I've already asked HR to perform a comp setting just for your information. It may not look the way you want it to, but we'll do a comp of what our comps would currently have. So I know you guys are talking about comps, and I don't want to change those, but we'll get you just sort of a baseline of what it looks like. But you don't have to use that. That just works. Got you. Understood. But the appointment, yes, gives you 100% flexibility to determine salaries.

Yeah, I'm interested in including that language in the resolution, Mr. Chair.

I'll try to put that in a version in Section 2 and send it back to you.

But, Nicole, if you like, if you have opinion on that, if you don't mind... sharing that with us, maybe like an opinion statement that you can email to each council person. I like to understand your perspective and opinion on that, because it directly impacts you. But if you don't mind sending maybe your opinion, like an opinion op-ed or something, I don't know, like your opinion. And I don't think that violates any of our rules as far as deliberation. She's our council clerk.

Not as long as any decision is made in public meeting on this resolution.

But educationally, she considers her opinion about that move correct? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thanks so much. All right.

I'm done, Jeff.

That's it. All right. I don't think she does. All right. So, counsel, we'll again... work out kind of the letter of the law but i think we all agree the spirit of the law is something we all support and look forward to adopting it just as soon as we iron out those those details um and just nicole to echo everything everybody has said uh certainly highly value what you do um i i did before but in this role i certainly do have a greater appreciation and i remember probably You may not remember, this has been probably seven or eight years ago when I was leading a Boy Scout troop and we wanted to come and lead the Pledge of Allegiance as one of their requirements and called the office and you answered and that's not something I'm sure that's in your job description, but you were very helpful and met us outside and welcomed us and showed us where to go and And that's just the sort of character and quality of work I think that we want in this office. We all see on a daily basis. I'm glad that you had this opportunity to share with us today. And thank you very much for, in particular, all those policies and procedures that you mentioned. That's very important. You know, much in the same way that a court speaks through its orders, legislative branch speaks through its resolutions and ordinances and minutes. And as you know, I go through those minutes every week and find tooth comb. And they are always impeccable. And so there's not a whole lot of changes need to be made. And, again, that just speaks to the quality of work that you do. So thank you. And we look forward to moving into the future with you. I'll admit all the Star Trek references went right over my head. I'm with you.

I'm wearing my Star Trek dress.

There you go.

There you go.

I was so excited to get into Nicole's presentation. I forgot to ask for a motion on the minutes. All right. The minutes will stand as published and we will be adjourned.