Council - Special Meeting

Edward.

[clears throat]

Thanks for watching. Brian, you ready? Yes. Okay, you ready to get started? Winslow is coming, so he is a few minutes late, but we can go ahead and get started. Is there any special intro, Brian, or we just we just getting right to it?

Right to it. Okay. Well, I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is a special called meeting of the city council today, January 29th at noon. Um, Mr. Secrets, can you do a roll call, please? Yes, ma'am. Councelor Simmons here. Councelor Sims here. Councelor Lane here. Councelor Armstead is out and Mayor Andrew

here. Um, okay. Thank you. So, we do have a quorum and we are expecting uh councelor Armstead to join us momentarily. Um, we are here for one item and one item only. So, the only item that we will be able to discuss today is item 150126, request for consideration to establish next steps in the city manager selection process. I'm going to do a quick recap of where we are and how we got here. Um, this is Yep.

A notice was provided uh according to our open meetings act I think 48 hours ago. So, I think we were ahead of schedule on that. Um and so we are here to establish the next and final steps in the city manager selection process. Um just a quick update, we received 61 applications for the city manager positions. We had applications uh all from all across the country as well as here uh locally. Um on January the 12th, we met as a council and voted four to zero to establish a process for our applicant interviews. Um I want to just say I want to commend uh Sam Gaston and Kim Kinder. They have done an outstanding job. Really so professional. Um, decades and decades of experience. Kim comes with over three decades of experience in human resources and Sam Gaston of course comes with over 40 years experience in city management. And together you are quite the team. Um, my favorite part of every interview is when Sam recounts the 10 people they know that he knows from the community that is the applicant is from. And um, it's it's I love it. no matter where how far away the applicant has come from, you have known at least five people in that uh community and that's been great. Um Sam joined us of course in December as our special assistant to the city manager. Um Kim came to us from the Jefferson County Personnel Board. Um and so we all agreed again unanimously to lean on their expertise and their experience and we are so grateful to have them here. Um just again both of you, we're so glad to have you at the city. Um so as authorized by our resolution, Sam and Kim reviewed every application. They selected 14 potential candidates for interviews. Two of those candidates have backed out. Um we have had nine interviews. Uh I think most of us have been uh observant of all nine of those interviews. Um we have three more tomorrow. Um every counselor has the right to attend the interviews. Um we're not participating in the interviews. We are quiet. Our cameras are off. Um and they have been recorded for us to watch

up here at city hall. we missed. I know I have one that I need to catch up on tomorrow, which I will do. Um, and then after tomorrow, we are expecting a list of candidates from uh Sam and Kim. And so that I believe the number is between three and five. This was also set in our resolution that we passed on January the 12th. Um before we take the next step, um I just want to again say thank you so much and again the level of professionalism has been amazing and thank you for coming here today to share any of your experiences that you want to talk about um and your uh thoughts about moving forward. Um just want to let you know that we are open to hearing what you have to say about that. So here we are to determine um the next step that we are uh moving forward with and so I'm going to open it up for discussion. Um, as a reminder, um, I am a facilitator as and council Armstead has joined us. So, Winslet is here. Um, I will remind everyone that I am a facilitator as the council president. I do not make motions and I do not make seconds. So, just everyone knows I'm here to facilitate the conversation. Um, with that, I will open the floor up for discussion. I believe we have two resolutions that have been we've looked at to consider and so if anyone has um thoughts that they want to share on that moving forward.

Well, I'll start and just echo what you uh mentioned, Mayor, which is it's been great to have Sam and Kim facilitate the process. very grateful for that. Um learned a lot. I think as we look forward to um the second phase of interviews, I think we definitely need to um be mindful of how we can dig deeper into each candidate's experience. So the follow-up questions will be important. I know that most of the resolutions um that are both that are proposed, you know, provide the opportunity for council to at least provide follow-up questions. um even if it's Sam and Kim who continue to facilitate the interviews and I think that those follow-up questions will be key um because each counselor needs to think thoughtfully about what they're looking for in a candidate and directly ask those. And I also think that even if we collaboratively come up with that list of phase two questions um that you know we can rely on Kim and Sam's expertise to polish that uh by working with them. So been I think the process has been great so far and um I think the next you know the next few days it'll be important for everybody to come up collaboratively with follow-up questions whether we send those to them or in some manner end up asking them directly um I think that people just need to put in the time to be prepared to come up with those questions and um for me personally um I think working collaboratively on a setup all questions and having Kim and Sam continue to ask those um is a good process uh because they have the you know HR experience and expertise uh to facilitate that.

Thank you. Any other comments?

I agree with that, Councelor Sims. Uh my apologies for being a few minutes late. Um I I guess one I guess burning thought I have is um do we collectively um do we collectively can we collectively agree that the process that we're following will what we arrive at and vote on we can all get behind and support uh sort of in solidarity. I feel like we've had a lot of back and forth over the past couple weeks over the process itself and obviously we had spirited conversation Monday about this at our pre-consil meeting and um I want to feel comfortable about uh whoever this job uh whoever gets this job has the full support of of us and of the city and that we don't have um sort of a um sort of any any feelings of the process being in question I guess as we move forward. even after we make this higher. So I want that person to have the best best footing they possibly can and we can support them sort of as a a unified front.

Other comments?

Um I'll make just a brief comment uh and I'll echo all that has been said here. Um, but I but I I do want to to thank publicly uh Sam and Kim for all that they have done and the work that they've put in. I mean, I know it's not easy. Um, but you guys make it look easy because of your experience [laughter] and and and I've honestly I've learned a lot through listening in during the interview process. Um but also I I have been very impressed by both and their knowledge in their rightful fields, Sam and his knowledge, but also his connections um which I think is very vital and honestly one of the reasons why um we asked him here, but I'm thankful that he said yes um to it. And so, um, I think the city should be pleased with, um, their professionalism and their efforts in this process. Thank you.

I would like to add a thank you to Brian. Uh, Brian's done a great job as far as managing the technology. Um, the Zoom calls have been um, you know, each one of them has gone off mostly without any hitches and, um, that is a lot of work on our end, and I appreciate that, Brian. So, I want to let you know that. Oh, Sam. Hey. Yes, please. I thought you were saying yes. I agree about Ryan. [laughter] Sorry.

Well, it was very well. First of all, speaking on behalf of Kim and myself. We we greatly appreciate the confidence that you have given given to us and we want to make sure we're doing the right job for you uh to hiring the best possible person. Uh and uh you know, Kim is been a delight to work with. I knew her for a long time and I knew she'd great hire for the city of Homewood, but whoever gets the position is going to be inheriting really a a good opportunity. You know, you don't have a lot of things broken here in Homewood. So, it's going to be a great opportunity for the new city manager and we will be sending you hopefully today a list of proposed questions for the second round of interviews. So, hopefully we'll have them to you today. We're of course running by Mr. Keith, Keith and Jay, too. And but feel free to make any comments. You know, don't take our word for everything. You know, you have comments and suggestions, please let us know. We're open to to taking those and we want to do the best job possible for the city of Homewood.

Thank you, Sam. Appreciate it. Kim, you want to add anything or

I know you are you're all situated with your laptop, but come on up. So, I guess I do feel thank you for all the praise and the welcome. It's been great to be here. It's been two months, feels longer, but it was wonderful. And um I would like to just echo like the follow-up questions just to make sure that we do get some good follow-up questions from the council members. And also, we screened all the applications that we received on those minimum qualifications. And so we've talked a little bit about that in some of the other council meetings and some of the other qualifications that you might want in your ideal candidate or some preferred qualifications. So if you could take some time to kind of think about what is important to you because I want to get it a good new boss

and I want the best for the city and for the employees and for the citizens. So, I think those two things are important, just the ideal candidate, what those preferred qualifications are, and then our follow-up questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

I would also like the uh ditto everything councelor Simmons said about the the young couple out there. Uh but uh I've enjoyed sitting through the process through the interviews and it's been remarkably so professional and I really appreciate that. Uh going forward uh the only question I would have is at what juncture or if there is a juncture where we go public do we do it where where does it uh are or do we go public with any of these further um interviews and um whether it's the three to five or how they've done in the past. uh that was they were done publicly and just curious if that's going to happen going forward or are we going to stay the same process we are right now.

Well, we have two resolutions that have been presented to us. So, one is one and one is the other. Okay. So, if you had read those, you will know that the first one is going to be um the same process that we've been going through with Kim and Sam and the second one is where the council attends and has the right to ask follow-up questions and they are public meetings. So, there are two resolutions to consider. Any comments on resolutions or anyone ready to make a motion?

Council councelor Lane, just to clarify, um did you did you see both resolutions that are being referenced? Do you have this? Yes. I just I just kind of combined my apologies. Okay. I'm just I just want I summarize it actually. Okay. So, I just want to make sure that you had that information between which reference those two. Thanks. Okay.

Mayor, if I may, for the council's benefit, we have the resolutions in word. We can change, we can revise. You're not limited to those two resolutions. We can pivot for whatever the council decides to do. I guess for for um between the two, is there one that is a I guess a standard or recommended versus another for this meeting? Between these two,

from our perspective, they are all legal, legally unimpeachable. Any of these processes are valid. The only cautionary note on the timing is if the council elects to go public with the interviews and a quorum of the council is present that is a special meeting under the open meetings act and it would require 24 hours public notice. Okay. And to clarify then that would be 24 hours public or that would be public notice for each occurrence which would mean each interview. Correct.

Correct. I just have a question about um you know resolution one which would um be with Mr. Gaston and Miss Kender continuing to facilitate the interviews um and would not allow for council follow-up questions or time or obviously deliberation either. Um, but in stipulation B 2B, it does say Mr. Gaston and M. Kinder shall retain sole authority over which questions are asked during interviews. Um, which I think is makes sense. I mean, we we're obviously sending questions to them. Um, it's reviewed by you, um, Keith and then and then they have the list. I guess they'll be getting a lot of information from different ones of us and then kind of consolidating questions that are similar. Um so even after uh you review it, Keith, I think having the opportunity for all council to see those questions um maybe 24 hours in advance and ask if anything is excluded and getting a reason why. I think that would be helpful for the process. um just to if if any if someone submits a question they think it's important and then it's taken out that there can be rationale given to kind of um discuss that in advance um to either state you know how to clean up the question so that it's included or to um understand why it's excluded. Does that make sense? just kind of a I don't know that it needs to be in the resolution, but just speaking for all counselors to have an understanding of what the process could be if that does occur.

It it does and the only time variable there that that I would bring to the council's attention is how quickly you get the questions to us, Mr. Merl, and I will make them the top priority and we can turn them around in 15 to 30 minutes. So, we're we're not a pinch point, but we do have to receive the questions. And just for clarification, um, Council Sims, you're in reference to resolution one, correct? Is that That is correct. Yes.

Okay. Does anyone want to make a motion? Reminder that I cannot make a motion or a second. I mean, I've obviously conveyed the direction that I'm heading, but I'm also just respectfully allowing time for any further discussion. Yeah. If if anyone has anything else to add,

I guess feasibly like talking through if it was resolution to the time you got this sort of special meeting set up, right? Are you try we trying to schedule them all for the same day or when we talk about how we get to sort of some finality like how does that play out? What do you guys think? And and I'm sorry if I may, but I have to be available too. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's that's really the the juggle of the resolution too is um all of our schedules, the candidate schedules um and alignment of all that.

I believe Mr. Gaston and Miss Kinder may be anticipating offering the opportunity for in-person interviews to candidates who can get here. So that is also a factor. Okay. meaning they could not be on the same day unless Sam and Kim were really, really good. They are really, really good. It seems to me that we have um a lot more definitive and clear uh path for resolution one, especially given the opportunity to have questions be reviewed by council and [snorts] submitted. Um I would motion that we move forward with resolution one.

All right. I have a motion from councelor Armstead. Is there a second? Second. All right. I have a second from councelor Simmons. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? That passes 5 to zero unanimously. And that is resolution 2611. Thank you all very much for coming in the middle of the day. No further business. We're adjourned.