Council - Special Meeting

Hello. All right, you guys ready? Let's see. All right, everybody ready? Yes.

Okay. Calling this meeting to order. Welcome everybody to a special called meeting of the city council of Homewood February 16th at 5:00 p.m. We are calling this meeting because we have published um our intent but our clerk has published in accordance with Alabama law. Our sole purpose tonight is to determine which finalists for the position of city manager if any will receive an offer of employment as city manager for the city of Homewood and certain proposed terms of the offer. Um Mr. Seagris can you call roll please? Yes, ma'am. Councelor Simmons here. Councelor Sims here. Councelor Lane here. Councelor Armstead here. Mayor Andrew here.

Full house.

Okay, we have a complete team up here and so we will begin. Uh we have one item tonight. 080226 request to consider and deliberate which finalist for the position of city manager, if any, will receive an offer of employment as city manager for the city of Homewood and the proposed terms of the offer. the city council may take such action as it deems appropriate regarding these matters brought to us from Mayor Andress. Um we have a proposed resolution authorizing the mayor to offer the position of city manager to a candidate to be selected by a majority vote of this council and add a salary to be determined by a majority vote of this council. The resolution contains blanks for the candidates's name and salary and also includes certain fringe benefits for the position. The proposed resolution is not intended to set out in detail every provision that a city manager's written agreement may contain. Our intent is to have a negotiated written agreement that the council may consider for approval during pre-consel and council meetings on February 23rd, one week from tonight. To be clear, the council is not voting at this meeting to appoint a city manager or to approve a written city manager agreement. Our vote today will be to authorize the mayor to offer the position to a specific candidate at a specific salary with certain fringe benefits to be included in the offer. And I will now open the floor for discussion. Okay. Um I just wanted to um just make a statement as we get started too. Um, you know, obviously the significance of this meeting tonight, special call meeting, it's not um lost on me how far we've come to get here. Um, we've had the privilege and responsibility of naming tonight potentially the first permanent city manager in our city. Um, we've arrived at this time after a lot of

discussion about the value of a city manager role over the past few years. Um, we've had discussion regarding the structure. Um and we've also talked, you know, lot the past term even about transition to interim to permanent um city govern full-time city governance. So finally for the hiring for this role um grateful to Sam Gaston and Kim Kinder and all the service they've provided the city and ensuring that the position was posted both through local national um state resources and associations such as ICMA um and also the state city manager association. Um, so grateful to Kim and Sam and also to Brian Wallace who's been here in support for much of the time. Um, we've all spent countless hours reviewing resumeumés, listening to interviews, doing our own research about candidates. [snorts] Um, so, you know, I'm grateful to all of our co-ounselors and the mayor and staff for the time they've dedicated to this process. Um, in the end we ended up with more qualified candidates than were final candidates. And out of those final candidates, I think we have a number who we could offer this position to, who would do an admirable job and fulfill the requirements of the position. So really, it became for me an evaluation of who's the best fit for the role. Um, I'll tell you, you know, I really support Kale Smith in this um as our first city manager because after all that evaluation, I find that he has the experience working in local government, as a senior engineer, um, at a private firm working with local government and he also has worked in our city as a city engineer, a department head, and now as acting city manager, showing his not

only talents potentially in the permanent that role, but also his expertise that he brings with him, most notably in land use and storm water management. Um, and those skills, the way he's jumped in since being city engineer, addressing a lot of those issues and some of the plans we have in place and implementation underway. Um, I also find that really valuable for Kale is his um, one of his biggest strengths is his demeanor, his diplomacy he brings to the role. um listening to residents um talking through alternative solutions and fising finding resolution to matters. On top of that, I'll say he he can't always tell residents what they want to hear, but he finds a way to tell them what they need to hear. And sometimes that means an additional permit, you know, going to the permit office or additional regulations that need to be met. But he handles that in a professional manner. and I'm I've really been um grateful to to have him as part of my team um as we've been at the city. So again, I think there's a lot of people who are qualified for this role, but after careful consideration, I think Kel Smith is the best fit for um this permanent city manager role. Um so I'm actually going to go ahead and make a motion for Kale. Um, and in doing so, I move to amend the resolution by inserting Kale Smith in section one of the proposed resolution and insert a salary of $28,000 in section two. And then upon adoption of the amendment, I motion to adopt the resolution as amended. Um, I know I say this, please know that I'm just, you know, giving my motion. It opens up further discussion. I don't mean to curb discussion, but I wanted to go ahead and

lead off with, you know, what I have found um after careful consideration. Thank you. And councelor Sims, I will second those motions. Um with uh that in mind, I would like to also share some thoughts if that's appropriate. Um now that we have the second, you may do that.

Thank you. Um I I do agree. Um Kale in my opinion um after reviewing countless um interviews, resumeumés um and then also you know having the guidance uh from Kim and Sam um you know just going through all of those things in my opinion you know Kale has you know a deep firsthand knowledge of Homewood's infrastructure. I think that's extremely important. Uh zoning constraints, I think that's also um important as well. And already engaged in the capital improvements. Um I'd also like to uh add that, you know, he's currently right now managing ongoing projects. He's already established, you know, staff relationships. That's important. I know when we we we've heard and you know I've heard from several citizens u that Kell is the right person uh for the job. I know we listen to those citizens but we also have to be mindful of the staff as well and their needs and in doing so we've heard from some staff that Kale is that right person. Um so I I say that to say that you know staff relationship is is is extremely important to the flow of our our our governance. Um, also council workflow. I mean, he's been excellent and he's done a great job um, in communicating with us and when we communicate with him on any issues that we get from citizens, he's been, you know, Johnny on the spot. Um, respond quickly with not only, hey, I I got your note, but I'm going to respond quickly and we get a quick resolution.

um you know, you know, honestly, there's, you know, there's really no learning curve in this situation because he's very um he he clearly understands the neighborhood sensitivities, right? Uh and also the citizens expectations. Um you know, I would say specifically for Homewood, um I don't I I feel that we don't need a reset here. Um he's got the background that we need. He has the temperament that we need. Um and bottom line for you know growth management, infrastructure and council continuity. Um and what we feel the city needs, Kale is that strong candidate amongst all the great candidates that were uh provided to us at that time. Uh so again, I second that motion.

Okay. Thank you. I have a motion from councelor Sims and a second from councelor Simmons to amend the resolution to insert Kale Smith in section one at a salary of 28,000 in section two. Um, continuing down the das, Mr. Lane, councelor Lane, may I? Yeah, please just get a point of clarification for Bose's purpose. Do we have a second to the motion to amend and the motion to approve as amended? I actually said a second to the motion. Okay, I apologize. Thank you. Sorry. Okay. Councelor Lane, would you like to speak or we can

Yes, be fine. Um, I'd like to go on record also. Um, ditto to everything both counselors said down there. Kale, outstanding communications, outstanding work he's been doing the past three months and um, I can't say anymore about how well he's done for our city. Okay. But in the meantime, I'm personally looking for when I ran to to pick the most qualified city manager out there. And in my in my impression, uh, Eric Brackens, who is from Pigeon Forge, 17 years experience, finance background, Michigan graduate in, um, with all the degrees come with this gives you an experience that we haven't had here in our city. I personally feel like he has the leadership. He's run budgets, $90 million budgets. He's done these things. Now Kale on the other hand, he's part of Homewood. Okay, which his skill set will be there as far as it like I guess that communications, his engineering. Now the question is what does Homewood really need? We need finance backgrounds. We need economic and development backgrounds. Those are the things I look forward into the uh the applicants that are here. And um so for me, I'm going to give if it goes I personally would like to see Eric, but if it goes with Kale, I'll give him 110% of my support. And just like I've been already, I think he's fabulous. When if you need Kale, he's right there. I mean,

I don't care. A matter of fact, I I get so many crazy emails from people. I mean, nothing personal, but guess what? He gets them right there and he is right on jolly on the spot. But I personally are looking for somebody with experience who's been ran who's run budgets and we're going to have that problem going forward. Now I do feel Kale will be very good with thank goodness with the support of Sam Gatston with him. Okay, that's the reason that will make Kale a better city manager as he goes because the experience he's lack of he'll get passed on to him through Sam. But I just want to share those thoughts um how I feel the city needs to go one direction and we'll see what happens. All right.

Thank you so much, Councelor Lane. Councelor Armstead, would you like to speak to these motions?

Uh, yeah, absolutely. Um I would say I guess a I mean a little bit um to I guess what everybody's spoken to u some things that I came back to uh many different times as we sort of deliberated through this is um a personal investment in the community and how we have so many long-term long-term running or anticipated long-term running projects that are even comprehensive plan beginning uh our storm water management plan which he kale established the divergent diamond fire station number two, Brookwood Village and what happens with that. Um there are a lot of things that give me pause with someone that may be coming into Homewood and whether or not they will be here through the duration of set projects. Um having a personal investment in the community, personal investment in our schools with family does give us some some more anticipation for stability, right? and 20 years of history tell us that that that anticipation for stability is probably not one that we're assuming uh without some sort of evidence. Um I would say councelor Lane I I looked at Eric Brackens quite a bit too. Um the the assistant role to city manager um gave me pause a little bit to whether that responsibility for the budgets and things were actually there, especially following a 40-year uh 40-year uh city manager that uh was retired last year. Um I it gave me a little bit of pause just in knowing that there might be also uh some questions or some some more things that need to be I guess that are to to be desired uh from his role. Um you know there's something also be said about our staff and staff stability. Uh a in in Kale establishing the very first in a hundred years really it's pretty amazing to have a first HR manager for our staff in 100 years. um to have uh stability for our staff, not to have 14 department heads um trying to get uh traction with a brand new department

lead. Um for us to have uh some hires that are coming up, right, a finance director and so on. Uh I do believe that this does give us the opportunity to hit the ground running on a lot of the projects that I already mentioned and not have a transition period of time where we're really not sure what what will happen next. Um the last thing I'll say uh aside from final comment is um another reason for pause I guess on brackens that I just have to kind of point out is Homewood City Schools are a massive part of the draw for Homewood and they are a I guess a distinguished mark for us right a point of pride. uh and to have uh someone that we hire in as city manager um value those schools is important and to have a school system that is uh in the county or not a part of the conversation in Pigeon Forge does give me pause as to whether or not that would be prioritized here. So, u that's kind of my final comment on the on the comparisons. I'll just say in final closing, Mayor, um I really do appreciate Kim and Sam um working very hard to um do a a a job of of interviewing and trying to be uh completely unbiased and I and and separate from the council uh to come up with a a solution here and to present us with the most qualified candidates for us to evaluate. And uh I just really appreciate the time it took. And I asked Kim earlier if she would like to do it again. And of course it was a very very very positive uh no. So uh with that said I would also um support the hire of Kel Smith.

Yeah. One more one more um statement that councelor said um Armstead said about the gentleman up in Pigeon Forge been there 17 years. Okay. I was sitting in that interview uh speaking uh with when afterwards after the interview not during the interview

after the after the interview with Sam with Sam Kim and I sat there and I I started doing some homework while I was there and I said why didn't this gentleman after 17 years why didn't he get the city manager's job so I went immediately started doing my homework I find out that the gentleman that took his place was the mayor. Okay. In the state of Alabama, that could never have happened. He had had to sit out a year as of that. But he didn't. It wasn't I know you second guess and I second guessed it, too. We were wondering that's weird. Why didn't he get it after 17 years? Well, the most popular person in the city, like the mayor, [laughter]

I don't know about that. Like the mayor. Don't think that's true. They vote. They wanted the mayor. He got the job. So, he still stood there. He's still there and he's doing an adequate job. But his his background is second to none. So, I just want to clear the air that he didn't have anything funky going on there. I mean, it's because the city wanted the mayor over him as an assistant. Okay. So, just I just want to clear the air on that because I Sam and I they wanted the same thing. So, had to do some quick work there. Did anyone down here have

Okay, I have some thoughts now that I've heard everybody speak and I want to thank everybody for their thoughts and um and their time. This was a really um big endeavor and I want to thank everybody up here especially, but I also really want to thank our HR director Kim Kinder and Sam Gaston. I don't know if they're out there somewhere. I see Sam. I know Kim's out there somewhere. Um okay. Um and I also want to thank Brian Wallace and I want to thank Mr. Jackson, Mr. Merl. Kim and Sam have over 70 years of combined experience in hiring and human resources and management, and their process was a successful one. We received 61 applications. Kim and Sam selected 14 qualified candidates for us to offer 1-hour interviews, of which 11 accepted. With Brian's assistance on technology and our attorney's guidance on setting procedure for each phase of the interview process, we observed 11 hours of initial interviews. After that, five were offered an additional 90minute interview and the majority of the final candidates are qualified and can start tomorrow. I agree on the experience of the majority of those candidates. Um, I spent a lot of time this weekend watching city council meetings from other cities, sought out publicly available information. Um, each candidate, what struck me about the interviews, I mean, you could almost close your eyes and hear it. Each candidate without exception outlaid his or her approach to this job. Spending time meeting staff and council, listening to council's priorities and goals, taking inventory of infrastructure, looking at our own storm water infrastructure, examining the budget, looking at capital improvement plans, getting to understand the local and regional players, having an open house to meet our citizens, meeting with the chamber and our business community, and putting together a communications plan for internal and exter external stakeholders. Several, not all, of the final candidates referred to our comprehensive planning process which got underway last month. Literally, I felt like there was a point where Kim asked a question about

communication and almost every candidate said, "Do you mean external or internal?" I mean, it really was like pressing play. Like, every candidate had the same startup goals, startup steps that they were going to take. Kale Smith in his role of director of engineering and zoning for over four and a half years and as interim city manager for the last several months has already embarked upon every one of these listed by all the candidates as part of his strategic plan. It was Kale who began our citywide comprehensive planning process last year, the first one since 2007, as well as planning our storm water infrastructure improvements that he's been working on for several years. Kale meets bi-weekly with our department heads and has begun an employee newsletter that went out for the first time at the first of this month. Kale sought out guidance from Sam before Sam was here, before he agreed to come here about doing a first ever citizen survey that will go out uh I think this week. Is that right? I think it's going out this week. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I thought it would be March, but I think it's this week I heard. Um to be used along with our comprehensive plan to guide our priorities based on what our citizens want for Homewood. Kale sought out a firm to do a fleet inventory, something councelor Sims can agree that we have been asking for for years. Um, Kale is doing the same for an improved employee organizational chart. He has been instrumental in improving the city's external communications with our citizens and is in focused on improving our customer service experience for our citizens. Kale is the only candidate that presented a two-year management plan in writing. Kale has excellent relationships across the region with our partners. Steve Ammons included Kale on an economic development trip last fall for the Birmingham business alliance. Kale has close relationships with the county in roads and transportation, the county manager's office. He recruited Amy Zerry to come work at the city because he knew her from his work working with the county and she has been a great asset for Homewood. He has excellent relationships at ALDOT. And I will quote our former mayor, Alex Wyatt. He is the only reason we are finally

moving forward with a diverging diamond after one decade. He is the only reason that we are moving forward with that. Kale was selected by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to represent the region at a Harvard University walkable city workshop. He meets regularly with other city managers in our area and our special assistant Sam Gaston has agreed to stay an additional year past his previous commitment of a year to continue his guidance. He was selected by an application process to the prestigious ICMA leadership program that starts in April. He has served Homewood in one capacity or another for almost 20 years and he has served the city with the utmost professionalism and highest character and he will make an excellent city manager for Homewood. So those are my comments. Okay. It has been moved and seconded to amend the resolution by inserting Kale Smith in section one and inserting 28,000 in section two and to adopt the resolution as amended. Under our rules, we will first consider the motion to amend. So the motion, the first motion is on the amendment to insert Kale Smith in section one in a salary of 28,000 in section two. Mr. Seagris, may we have a roll call vote, please, on approving the proposed amendment?

Yes, ma'am. Councelor Simmons, yes. Councelor Sims, yes. Councelor Lane, no. Councelor Armstead, yes. And Mayor Anderson, yes. So that passes, so stay with me, guys. That passes 4 to one. And is that resolution 2619? Is that right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, all right. Thank you. All right. Step two, the amendment is adopted. The resolution is now before the body on a motion for approval as amended. So, we need a roll call vote again. Is that right, Mr. Seagris? Yes, ma'am. Okay. [clears throat] Councelor Simmons. Yes. Councelor Sims. Yes. Councelor Lane,

I'm not sure here. I'm lost here. The the first vote was to amend the resolution to put in Mr. Smith and the salary. This vote is to approve the resolution as amended with Mr. Smith and the salary number in it. Okay. So, it's okay. I got you. Yes. Councelor Armstead. Yes. Mayor Anderson.

Yes. So, that passes 5 to zero. So, I apologize. Is that resolution 2619 or was the f is or is that So, the first one was just a vote, not a this is resolution 19. Okay, I'm sorry. This is resolution 2619. So, first was a vote that passed 4 to1. This is the resolution 2619 that passes 5 to zero. Okay, y'all. Thank you. It's been a long journey, but I appreciate you all. Thank you. Meeting adjourned.