Council - Special Meeting

Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. We're going to go ahead and get started. The meeting is now called to order. We will stand and have a prayer invocation by Mr. Spence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let us pray. Father God, we just thank you for this time together as we come together to look at the future of our city for our city clerk, Lord Jesus. I just pray Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 that we just trust in you, Lord, with all of our heart and not in our own understanding. That you'll give us the wisdom for... over any personal preference, emotions, or even any pressure outside, Lord, any noise, and just give us the discernment for choosing the right individual to sit in this seat as a city clerk for our city, Lord Jesus. We ask that you... Protect our city, just a hedge of protection around us and each and every one of us on the council and the mayor. And we just pray at this time that you're with the mayor and his family as they're walking through something together as a family, Lord Jesus. We just pray for healing in that family, Lord God. And we just give you all the praise, glory, and honor for it's in your name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Lighty, if you will call the roll, please.

Councilmember Hendricks, here. Councilmember Dixon, here. Councilmember Bolling, here. Council Member Spence. Here. Council Member King.

Here.

Council President Simmons.

Here.

Madam President, all six council members are in attendance and therefore a quorum is present.

Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here again. You okay?

Okay.

The purpose of this call meeting this afternoon is for us to review and talk to the potential candidates for the city clerk position. And each council member, we're going to have an opportunity to ask each candidate two questions. And at the end, the candidates will have an opportunity to give a closing statement, a two-minute closing statement. We do ask that the candidates do not go over that, because we're on a time constraint with that. And we're going to go by districts, the way the council is set up, the way we'll start this. We see that we do have Mr. Williams here, so thank you for being here. If you will, come and take the center seat.

All right.

All right.

Okay, so what we're going to start now, again, thank you for being here. If you will, state your name and tell us a little bit about yourself.

All right, all right. Well, my name is Richard Williams. I go by Ricky, so whatever. I have been in municipal government. I had a 40-year career. with two cities. I began at the age of 20 with the city of Russellville as the city clerk treasurer. I was there off and on for a little over eight years. And then I got out of city government and pledged never to go back. But I did. And I went to the city of Muscle Shoals as the assistant clerk. I worked in that position working with Claire Stratford, who was the then city clerk treasurer. And then in 1998, I became the city clerk treasurer and remained in that position until my retirement in 2022. Since that time, I have tried to remain active. I've been a member of the city's civil service board. And for the last two years, I've been the chairman of the board. And I really enjoyed that. In January of this year, Mayor Hudson asked me to come back to the city and work on a part-time basis, which I was happy to do. The only downside to that was because I was now technically an employee, I could no longer continue serving on the Civil Service Board. So I had to resign from that. so i worked there during the month of january mostly about 20 hours a week just providing review of financial statements if the mayor wanted something researched i would do that for him and he you know being new was still learning the ropes in that capacity so um since that time i left at the end of january and uh i've been home just minded my own business and doing whatever she says, so.

All right, thank you. So now we're going to go ahead and get started with the questions. As I stated, each council member will have an opportunity to ask you two question seats. And if time permits, we may even go with some more. But we want to make sure to ensure that each council. So we're going to start by district. I'm District 1. I'm Katrina Simmons, council president, and I also represent District 1. And each council member will introduce themselves as they're coming up next. So we're going to just dive right in. And we do have your resume, so I know everybody has had an opportunity, so your answers need to be detailed, but don't have to make them long and drawn out. You've got 30 minutes, and we're trying to keep time with that. Yeah, so my first question is, What do you, why do you want to serve on the city of Florence as a city clerk?

Why do I want to serve? Well, I think when I went back in January and worked, I realized how much I missed that kind of work. And when I left at the end of the month, I really didn't anticipate coming back in any capacity. And then friend of mine who lives over here mentioned to me on the phone that Bob was retiring and I hadn't seen that Bob but nevertheless then I got a call from someone else and and mentioned the job and so I've been praying about what my next step was going to be and It just kind of felt like that was what the Lord was leading me to so I I talked with my wife about it, continued to pray, and then within a couple of days I went online and did the application. So here we are.

Okay, thank you. So my next question would be, how do you ensure accuracy and accountability in official records?

Well, that's a good one because that's very important. It is. Records retention is a big issue. And the city has an abundance of public records. The good thing or bad thing, there is a retention policy that the state dictates. And it allows you to dispose of certain records after a suitable time frame. And they outline what those are. There are other ways, digital recording of records as well. They don't always replace the public record that's maybe in paper form. But those that have to be retained, and there are a number of permanent records, have to be kept in such a way as they're not corrupted. Either fire or water or whatever means could be a problem for them. And of course, with public records access, you also have to ensure that those coming to inspect a public record, do so in an appropriate way. And there's a process, of course, for that as well. So I guess that would be my answer how it is a very important and it's important that staff also understand those kinds of requirements.

Okay, thank you. So those are my two questions. Next, we will call on Mr. Hendricks.

Hi, Mr. Williams. I'm Jackie Hendricks, District 2. My first question is municipal clerks in Alabama serve as the chief municipal election official. Describe your experience with elections or how you would get up to speed in this area.

Well, I have done a number of elections. The difference being in the cities that I was in, they were at large elections. The mayor and the council members ran at large. So the process is fairly streamlined if you can consider elections that way. The Alabama League of Municipalities does a great job trying to prepare the municipal clerks when an election cycle comes around. I know we just came out of a five year, which is extraordinary. Typically that's a four year. cycle, and they conduct November training, and then they're working you toward the process of holding that election the following summer. Because there are a number of things that you need to look at before you call an election, and that's everything from mayor and council salaries, all of those things have a six month requirement. prior to the election that you must act or you're not able to for another four years. And in your case, there may be questions with redistricting. I'm not familiar with that enough to be aware of it. My time in Russellville, I was just beginning to get into that when I left the city. I heard a little bit about the process, but as far as redistricting goes, I know there are a number of people that you can rely upon from the Council of Local Governments and some other groups to help you with those issues. But the whole process, there is a manual that the league puts out that gives you the calendar of events, the timing on when things happen, what the process looks like for qualifying candidates, what their requirements are so you can communicate those to the candidates. Because there are a number of things that they have to do as well. And the last thing you want is a candidate to be disqualified because they didn't know. And I always took the chore of qualifying the candidates myself. And we had, in Muscle Shoals, we had five council seats and then a mayor's race each time. That could have been, depending on the election cycle, a number of candidates. And of course, then the other clerks around are always helpful. Bob and I talked a lot during elections about different issues and such. So the clerks could also be a great help to you when you're working through those.

Okay, thank you. My second question, along with its other responsibilities, the city clerk also manages personnel. What are your ideas on maintaining a positive and productive work environment for your office, especially during periods of high workloads, stress, or change?

That's a great question, and that is very important. My attitude toward working with people is, I don't emphasize I'm the boss and you work for me. That's just, in my view, the wrong way to approach that. But I tend to look at the people's, at their skills and abilities, or in HR, as we say, knowledge, skills, and abilities. And as I gain confidence with them and them with me, hopefully during that whole time, we're communicating what the requirements are, what the needs may be, and sometimes they know as much if not more than you do about a topic. And so it's important to listen to them as well and get their input as you're deciding what the course of action might be. And then just as you're moving through that to kind of monitor that, because delegation is important as well. And sometimes the first contact with the public may not be you as the clerk. It may be someone in your office.

Thank you. Now, Ms. Dixon.

Hello. Hi. I am Lisa Dixon in District 3. Thank you for being here. Okay, so this question is a little bit, it's got a few levels to it, so I'm going to ask it all at once, and if you need me to repeat, that's okay. Okay. All right. Thinking of someone you highly respect, you don't need to mention who, but thinking of someone you highly respect... What is something they would tell me you could improve upon? And then what would they say sets you apart that would cause them to recommend you over everyone else?

Okay. Well, that's kind of asking me what my weakness might be, isn't it? Well, I can think of someone just right off who I had great respect for. They're no longer with us, but... As you learn to work with people and develop a rapport with an elected official or your coworkers or just people in the general public, it's important to listen to what their issue might be or what the directive might be or what the communication from the co-employee might be. to be able to adequately respond to that. And what you're only trying to get to is what is to be the goal here or the end result that you're seeking from any of those parties. And so I do ask a lot of questions to be sure I understand what the issue is. And sometimes the answer from me initially may be, I don't know. But I will find out and get back to you. Which leads to the second part of your question. And that is, I don't like to leave something lingering on my desk. The city attorney always told me, he said, well, don't ask Ricky something, because he'll give you an answer the same day. You're not ready for it. And I tried to give people the information they need on a timely basis, because I think that's important, because you don't know what else, what they're going to use that information for. Of course, nor is it important to you, but nevertheless, I never want it to be said that, well, I can't get an answer out of City Hall. I just think that's the last place you want to be. Now, that being said, there are times that there's issues that requires a sit down with some other people. That may be the city attorney or a phone call to the attorney general's office or secretary of state. I mean, there are a number of issues that there aren't easy and simple answers to. Fortunately, a lot of times with experience, well, I've crossed that bridge before. So you're able to relate your previous experience to them to provide an answer. So I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

And the second one, when you come across a challenge you've never encountered, walk me through the process of how you get to your possible solutions.

OK, well, I've sort of mentioned a little of that here. Sometimes it's a matter of investigating further. If you're aware that there's an applicable regulation, be it an ordinance, a resolution of the council, some state regulation, you may want to review those details so that you can adequately deal with the issue. Frankly, the city attorney was pretty much always my first call. But sometimes it was another clerk because I knew they had been through a similar situation and could provide me some insight. But sometimes you just had to get the books down and read them and try to digest and interpret what the solution is or the answer to the question might be.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dixon. Mr. Bowling.

Hey, Josh Bowling, District 4. My first question is, what do you believe is the most important responsibility of a city clerk? Ooh, wow.

Well, that kind of puts everything else second and third, doesn't it, when you answer that? You know, in some ways, the part that gave me the most angst, I guess, was elections because they were so infrequent. You know, with most clerks, that's every four years. And so you're going back now and determining, well, what has the legislature done in the last four years that I need to know, you know? But I don't necessarily think of that in terms of the most important thing, because day to day, you have citizen inquiries, you're dealing with issuing business licenses, alcoholic beverage licenses, and there's procedures for following each one of those. And to me, that seems to be the more important thing on a day-to-day basis. But at the same time, you're working with a group of people and you've gotta work together. And so the goal is for this all go along on the same path and with the same understanding of something. So I would just say that it's the day-to-day interaction with the general public.

All right. And my next question, what would your first 90 days in this role look like?

Well, I need to find out where to park and where the coffee pot is and a few things like that. Right, Bob? But it's going to be a learning thing, learning who is who and what's expected. I've been online looking at your rules of procedure. I've looked at your municipal code. I've gone through and read some of the sections of the code about things that I knew would be under my purview. And those are the kind of things that you want to hit the ground running on. You're going to be dependent on your staff a lot. And that's good. But you're also trying to learn what are the differences from what I'm used to to the way you guys do things. For example, you guys do a consent agenda, and we did not do one of those. Now, I like that idea, particularly with the level of business you guys take care of on a biweekly basis. i would i would not be someone to come in and start changing things i i just think that's that's not a good look when you don't know what you don't know and so um i try to limit important decisions and if those are required in that first 90 days then they're going to be after you know we huddle up and talk about it and i figure out what the process has been in the past what the answer has been in the past and then deal with that at that time because In my previous life, there were folks who would come in and try you, if you know what I mean, to see if you're going to be different than the way Bob did it. And so I want things to be as consistent as possible. And then if there's something that needs to be addressed or changed in the future, it can be after we've had time to go through that learning curve.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Boland. Mr. Spence.

Good to have you, Mr. Williams. Thomas Spence, City Council District 5. I'm going to piggyback off that question to say, how do you feel about making that recommendation once you've been here, been settled, and you feel good about making, looking, or having a conversation with someone regarding a change? How do you feel about that? And would you do that?

Well, in a smaller community that I came from, That's something that the mayor often looked for. He wanted options. Is my only choice here, yes or no? And oftentimes there may be a plan C. And so I felt like as the clerk, because it was a lot piled on the clerk in a smaller community, that you would look to see if there were other options that you might offer. But as far as making a recommendation, I wouldn't be hesitant about that if I know we've adequately looked at it and talked to the right people. And I would come to whomever that is, if it's the city council or to the mayor or whomever, with what the change would be and why.

i i would i would definitely provide justification for it rather than just simply well i just think that's better and that's good i was thinking about chain of command and going through the proper channels and making that happen so right um the city clerk plays a critical role in maintaining public Trust through accuracy, transparency, compliance and organization. How would you ensure the council records, public documents, meeting procedures and communication with elected officials and citizens are handled efficiently, accurately and in accordance with legal and ethical standards? You've kind of answered some of that, but let's revisit that. Okay.

One thing I learned to do early on in my life was to come up with a list of things to do and then to prioritize those things to... You know, level of importance for one thing, but oftentimes it came with the idea of what's the time frame for this. Now, city council meetings are regular, and there's deadlines to have things to people or to get items from individuals. And so those have to take priority. And if that means you stay over to do some of the other things, then that's just what you do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Mrs. King?

Hello, I'm Chapel King. I am the district representative for District 6. You've already answered one of my questions in your introduction, so I only have one.

You can still have two if you have another one.

Yeah, I think you've answered most of them just between the questions that have been asked. What makes you feel that you are the best fit for this job?

Well, OK, that's a question you have to kind of take with a grain of salt, because I don't know the other applicants, OK? And so you tend to measure against someone else. I do know, when I looked at the posting and read the job description, I didn't see anything that I haven't done before, OK? I noted the city was asking for someone with a minimum of eight years of experience. And as I've already mentioned, I far exceed that. It's been a passion in my life to work in public service. I finished at UNA in accounting, and I thought for a long time I was going into public accounting. But my father-in-law got elected to city council in Russellville when I was a junior in college. And he said, hey, we need a city clerk. And I was 20 years old, and I said, well, what is a city clerk? And so I learned real quick because they did appoint me. And I've been learning ever since. You never quit because things are always changing. There's new technologies. There's new ways to do things. Or you're told you're going to do it a different way. So those are all things that come into play, I guess. Did I answer your question?

You did. And I will ask one more. How organized do you feel that you are?

Well, I will have piles on my desk, but I know what's in that pile, okay? I think it just comes with the territory. In all my years, I tried to be more organized. And we did a few things like digitizing our minutes so I could just do a quick search of them. The building official came in one day and wanted to know about something that happened in the 70s. And it was a rezoning. And I said, could you tell me about where it was? And so he did. And when I put it in, it gave me seven responses, and the third one was the one he was looking for. So those kinds of things can really help speed up your job. And so I'm always looking to see if there's something that can help in that regard, because there's never enough hours in the day. You just have to set those priorities and work through it and work till you get it. That's really kind of how you have to do it sometimes.

Thank you, Ms. King. Okay, everybody has asked you their questions. You've got about two minutes to give us a closing statement.

Okay, I can do that.

As to whatever you want to say in your closing statement.

Well, may I ask a question?

You interviewing us? No, I'm just kidding.

Well, it's only fair, right?

I know, right?

Sure, go ahead.

Well, it's a real simple one. Is there anything that I have said or shared with you today that gives you some concern or, what's the word, pause about my fit for this role? Is there anything that just you're walking away with? I walk out the door, well, he said this. Is there anything I can expand upon that would help to alleviate any concern that you might have?

Not for me.

OK, well, good. I said enough, I guess, or too much, maybe. Well, let me just say this. Thank you for speaking with me. I came to one of your council meetings a few weeks ago just to see what the process looked like. You guys seem like you get along great, and everybody's very cordial. And I would love the opportunity to work with you. Many years ago, the league does their regional training for newly elected officials. And one of the league attorneys said, well, you know, one of the jobs of the city clerk is to make the city council look good. And I had one council member who never let me forget that. And so we were redoing the website, and we were putting everybody's picture on. He said, Rick, you're going to have to do something to help that. So I went out and grabbed a picture of Robert Redford and put it in his spot. And he said, well, that really wasn't what I was talking about. So anyway. But anyway, I've always enjoyed this. I enjoy working with the city council, with other clerks like Bob. And it's been a real joy in my life to do that. And I would love the opportunity to do it again. And that's really all I have.

OK, that's good enough. Thank you so much for your time and for coming and sharing with us and allowing us to chat with you.

Well, I wish you guys the best no matter what, OK? Thank you. We appreciate you. All right, bye-bye.

Did y'all need a break right quick or anything?

But you have some good ones. Yeah, everybody has something.

I put some alternate ones in case I need to, you know.

I mean, you asked stuff that we didn't ask. Yeah.

And it may change.

Depending on the candidate. That's why I picked you back off of that one.

Mm-hmm.

Hey, how are you?

Hello, Mr. Russ? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for being here. We're going to make this easy peasy for you. So what we're going to do is chat with you a little bit about the position. And each council member is going to introduce themselves. And we're going to ask you, each council member has the opportunity to ask you two questions that you can answer. And then at the end, you will have an opportunity give a closing statement. And so we're gonna turn it over to you now. And what you'll do is identify yourself, give us your name. And what did I say? In your opening statement, that's right. And I'm looking right at it.

My name is Matthew Russ. This is going to take it and use it. My name is Matthew Russ. I grew up here in Florence. I went to Schultz Christian High School, graduated in 2014, and then went to Mississippi State for four years, got a degree in political science, and then a law degree at Ole Miss. I practiced law in Huntsville, doing corporate law for about three and a half years, and then... My wife and I have twin girls, and our entire family was here, so we were wanting to move back closer to home. And so we moved back here about, I guess, six months ago, and I've been working remotely for a firm in Birmingham for the past year or so. And so... Yeah. That's my introduction.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. And one of the councilmen said something just a minute ago. Let's do it reverse. We was going by districts, and we're still going to go by districts, but we are going to change this up a little bit. And so we're going to start with you, Ms. King.

I'm Chapel King. I'm the District 6 representative. And so, kind of starting this off out of nowhere, but what makes you feel that you were the best fit for this job?

Yeah, so I think for me, one, like I said kind of in my introduction, I did corporate law for three and a half years. And reading the, I guess, job description, it seemed like a lot of, there was a lot of parallels between the two jobs. For example, one of the things we did was take minutes. It was for companies, but minutes of the board and resolutions and things like that. And so drafting resolutions, minutes, all those kind of things I have a lot of experience doing. And then a big part of that job, too, was sort of not as much record keeping, but there was a lot of record keeping in terms of the corporate documents and having people files with you know all the company's information and things so that when they come back and are asking for it you have easy access to it and keeping all that stuff organized so um you know reading the job description i just thought there was a lot of parallels there that i have experience doing and then also you know grew up here love this city and just saw that as a really cool and good opportunity to work with a bunch of great people get to meet a lot of people and uh Yeah, just maybe find ways to help y'all do a better job with or make y'all's jobs easier and things like that. And I think with my experience and everything that I have the ability to do all that.

Do you have any experience with elections?

No, I do not have the, you mean like running elections and things like that? No, I don't have any experience with all that, but I will say, and that's another thing, I guess, with having the law background is a lot of, for example, with elections, you know, it's following laws and ordinances and things like that. And so the ability to research and figure all that stuff out and understand it, I think I could pick up on a lot of that stuff relatively quick.

Thank you. OK. Thank you. Mr. Spence?

Hey, Thomas Spence, District 5. I'm going to ask a strength and weakness question, OK? What is your greatest strength you would bring to this role, and what is one professional weakness of area of growth you are actively working to improve?

So I would say my biggest strength, kind of piggybacking off the previous answer, would be the ability to research and figure things out if I'm not 100% sure when given a task or a request is made. The ability to figure it out and figure it out quickly. And then I think my ability, like quick learner, all those sorts of things. And I also think I'm good with building professional relationships and good with people and being respectful and all those sorts of things. As far as professional growth, I would say that the biggest thing, I guess, understanding the importance of communicating. Like when I first started practicing law, I think... You get in these periods where you have this task and you do it, and then you're kind of in a waiting period where you're waiting on somebody to respond or all those sorts of things. And being proactive about following up with people and saying, hey, just letting you know we haven't forgotten about you. We are still working on this. We're waiting on X, Y, Z. I guess that's one thing I realized, like the importance of just letting people know if it's been a week or so. You're still waiting, but just letting them know, hey, I'm still waiting on this. And then as soon as we get it, we'll get back to you. And letting them know that you haven't forgotten about whatever request they made or activity that you're doing on their behalf.

Good.

The city clerk plays a critical role in maintaining public trust through accuracy, transparency, and compliance in organization. How would you ensure the council records, public documents, meeting procedures, and communication with elected officials and citizens are handled efficiently, accurately, and in accordance with legal and ethical standards?

yeah so for as far as like the organization and the record keeping i would say the biggest thing would just be not letting things get behind doing it as you go um and just being proactive about it not letting things build up to where you're and having to scramble to get things done because then you're having to work on other stuff and then it would kind of affect other parts of it. So just being proactive. And then the organization part, I think, is just, it kind of goes in line with being proactive and where you come in and you kind of have a system in place to where it's easy to just, You don't even have to think about it. Like, you know, hey, this is where this goes. I'm going to put it here and I'm going to do these things and just be proactive, things like that. And then. The same part of your question was about communicating and things like that. Kind of going with the previous answer, I think that is the biggest part of probably y'all's job, I would say, is just communicating with people and letting your... constituents know like hey we hear you and this is why we're doing what we're doing this is all the things we're taking in place and just being upfront about and honest with them about you know what it is you're doing and why you're doing it and like for example i came to the i was hearing about the water rates and things like that and one thing i appreciated that mayor tyler did was he got out at the start of it, kind of went through why we're doing what we're doing and all the kind of pieces of it. And I think that's important for people who just see, oh, the water rates are being raised and don't know the reason why to be able to see, hey, this is why. And if we don't do it, this is what's going to happen and things like that. So I think just being open, being proactive with it, responsive, and not just responsive in the sense of, you know, hey, I saw it, but being responsive and, like, here's a firm receipt of your request. We will have it to you within X amount of days. Or we're busy, so it could take, like, letting them know on the front end of, like, when to expect like that setting expectations on the front end so they're not just wondering what happened and if their request is out in the void somewhere okay thank you mr bowling hey josh bowling district four um my first question is uh i know um

you, you haven't been a city clerk before, but I, it sounds to me like you, you've done your research and you kind of understand the responsibility. So what do you believe is the most important responsibility of a city clerk?

So from my understanding, it would be the main part of the job would be record keeping. Um, and I know they get, you know, public requests or document requests and things like that and producing those. Um, handling elections being at the city council meetings kind of taking the minutes and going through the agenda and all those sorts of things um and then along with that and going to the communication part which we talked about but just being communicating with public when they are making requests or when they need something from the city clerk office and just professionally communicating with them and sort of being that person that is quickly responding and everything's running efficiently and they're getting what they need and all those sorts of things.

So with that being said, what would your first 90 days look like in this role?

I would say the first few days would just be figuring out what the priority items are. You know, if there's something that... is behind or that needs to be handled, kind of figuring out the list of priorities. And then I would say tackling all of those priorities as quick as possible, and then when Sort of trying to think of ways to get systems in place to make everything run smoothly and efficiently. I don't know how it's currently set up, but just taking the systems that are currently in place and maybe tweaking them or improving on them to make everything run smoothly. And then one thing, just talking with y'all and figuring out what are the priority items from y'all's perspective and trying to figure out what maybe I could do to make your jobs easier or to make it easier for y'all to do your job and where you might see some room for improving certain ways that maybe the current I guess, system is set up, the ways to improve all that. Thank you.

Ms. Dixon?

Hello, thank you for being here today. Appreciate your time coming in. I am Alisa Dixon from District 3. I said Sumption. Did I say Sumption? Dixon. Oh my gosh, I thought I said my maiden name all of a sudden.

Okay.

All right, you have answered one of my questions already, but I do want to, so I'm going to just throw in a different one. Tell us your experience with supervising staff.

Yeah, so in terms of being a direct supervisor, I don't have, I guess, experience in the sense of I'm directly over these people. I will say with the first law firm I was at, the way it's kind of set up is you have your higher level or senior associates, mid-level associates, or new associates. And so at the end of my time there, I was kind of a mid-level associate. And we had younger associates that the mid-level associate's job is basically, it's not directly supervising in the sense of I can't really tell them what to do. But the job is mentoring, basically, pulling them in on task and getting them up to speed on how things are done and how this person likes it this way, this person likes it this way, and then sitting down with them, giving them a project, reviewing their project, going back to them and talking through them about it. And so it was supervisory in a role of you're kind of When you turn in the final product, even though they might have been tasked with this thing, it's like the responsibility ultimately falls on you to make sure it is as good as it can be before it goes to whoever it's going to the next. But with that said, I think for The way I look at the supervising role would be clearly communicating expectations to the people you're supervising of, hey, this is what we got to do. Here's what we need it done by. And here's how we need to get it done. And communicating that, I think a lot of it is communicating that on the front end and not just saying, hey, we've got to do x, and then not telling when we need to get it done by, so they're not, you know, because I think sometimes it's like, hey, we need to do this, and then there's not, like, if it's urgent, them knowing it's urgent or them knowing that, hey, we have a week to do it, so by next Monday, you know, it needs to be done. Just being communicated on the front end of what needs to be done, expectations and all that kind of stuff. And I also think it's... have experience with people who are my supervisors and so there's a different methods that people they all did and the ones I appreciated were the ones that were approachable willing to help and respectful and to where you're not well you know there's bad supervisors where you're walking on eggshells and you don't really want to approach them about this problem or this thing And I don't want, if I'm supervising people, I don't want them to feel that way. I want them to come and say, hey, I don't really know what I'm doing. Or, hey, can you help me with this? And not feel scared to do that. I want them to come and see me and let's figure it out and things like that.

Good. let me see okay so when you come across a challenge you've never encountered walk me through the process of how you get to your possible solutions that's a good question uh i would say one understanding what the problem is i think sometimes

I know I've dealt with this of you have this problem, and you think you know what it is, and then you start doing it. You get halfway through, and you realize you just completely went the opposite direction of what was actually supposed to be done. So I think one is just understanding what the problem is, taking your time and figuring that out first, and then that makes the job easier on the back end. And then I think when you understand the problem and then, you know, if it's like a research problem or, you know, you're researching, we'll go to elections and we talk about that, reading what the election laws are, Looking at the elections in the past and looking at the forms and documents and everything like that, understanding what it is, talking to people who maybe have done it or have dealt with something. You're essentially doing a puzzle, in a way, sometimes, and just looking at different ways to find the puzzle pieces and get them in the correct order. But, yeah, researching, understanding everything, and then following up with people to make sure, like, hey, this is how I'm seeing this problem. Is this how you see it? Yeah. Does that answer your question?

That's great. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hendricks?

Hi Mr. Russ, I'm Jackie Hendricks, District 2. I think I definitely like to go in earlier in the order. Okay, so for my first question, you had mentioned you had some experience with minutes and such with boards, and so tell us what software platforms and technologies that you've used for agenda packet preparation, records management, or finance, or possible licensing function, and how comfortable are you to adapting to new systems used by the City of Florence?

To answer the second question first, I feel very comfortable with adapting to new systems. I think, you know, I grew up on the internet and so it's, I don't know, it sort of maybe takes a day or so to get accustomed to it and find it out. But just clicking through it, I think I could pick it up super fast in terms of what systems I've used. We used a system called world docs, um, which was, I guess the firm had like its own internal servers and you have it listed out by, and the, I guess halfway through my time there, we switched to a system called iManage, which is like a cloud-based document management system. And then now I use one called Clio. And they all kind of operate similarly. You would have a client. In the law firm case, you'd have a client's name, and it would be sorted in alphabetical order based on our last name. You'd have a client name, and then they would have a matter number. And so you would go to the client name, and if there were 10 matter numbers, you would go down to the different matter numbers and put it in that correct folder. And then within that, you could have subfolders of drafts or finalized documents and things like that. So that was kind of how we would do it. And then also when you're dealing with corporate... entities, you would have their corporate books, and so you would have a big, I can't remember what the name of, like what the folders are called off the top of my head, but this big corporate book, and it would just have all their corporate documents in it, and so you'd go in there and put it in the correct, it would have like the tabs, you know, and you flip to the tab and you put it in the right tab and all that sort of stuff.

So, Tell us about a time you had to manage a highly visible or stressful public process, potentially an election, public hearing, something controversial, and how you balanced legal requirements, transparency, and customer service. So basically one of those, oh my gosh, how do I tackle this? Right.

So I don't know if it's necessarily, it is technically public, but it wouldn't be as public as an election or things like that. But currently, I'm doing family law, so dealing with divorces. And so you're dealing with people who are going through a very difficult time. And they, especially starting off the process, they are wanting they're very angry at their spouse and they're wanting to get one over on them or they're afraid the other one's going to try to get one over on them. And when they come to you and they're talking about all the things they want is... being honest with them about like the potential outlook of the case, even if it's not what they want to hear, but it's what they like need to hear and letting them know, like explaining what the law says and here's the standard and here's what we have to meet and all those sorts of things. And, uh, so in terms of dealing with people who are in a difficult time and the client, uh, Feelings and all that sort of stuff with. You know what the job is, I think it's being honest with them in a respectful way and letting them know, hey, I'm on your side and here's how I see it, just so that they can get the best outcome for them in terms of. you know, having a difficult problem and tackling it like more public facing, I would say doing the corporate law stuff. One of the, I guess our big clients was a public company. Um, they're probably traded. Everything they had to do was public record essentially. Um, and in terms of this business, you know, they're wanting to avoid bad PR. Um, and they would do deals in all over the world and, being, I guess I was like their main person and communicating with, you know, they would do deals in Mexico and whatever. So coordinating with people in Mexico, like the large there to help us out. Um, and letting, I think a lot of it is just communicating on the front end of, Hey, here's what we need to do when you don't want this to, I guess in that case it was like reiterating the confidentiality part. But, uh, We're wanting this to be the outcome. Here's how we want to get there on the front end so that they know throughout the whole process what needs to be done and how we are wanting it to be done. And then with I had a specific example that popped in my head and I'm trying to remember that part. But anyway, so I think a lot of it is just communicating the front end. Oh, in terms of balancing legal requirements with the customer facing things, you know, you have to do I guess it's about explaining what the law is and letting people know, like, hey, I understand your concerns or your frustrations or whatever, but it's letting people know of, hey, here's what the law is and here's why we're doing it this way. And, you know, we're sorry for any inconvenience or feelings you may have, but, you know, it's just we have to go by what the law is and things like that, and especially with elections. Elections, obviously, are a huge issue now, more federally. But it's just following what the law is and explaining that to people who have concerns or maybe frustrated with the process. And being respectful and open and honest and understanding their feelings, but also sticking firm to what the law is.

Thank you. Okay, my turn. I'm Katrina Simmons. I'm the City Council President, and I also represent District 1. My question is, what is your understanding of Alabama's Open Meetings Act and the Public Open Meetings Act and the Public Records Law? Do you have any understanding of that?

So I don't have an intimate understanding of it. My current understanding in terms of the public meetings, I know if all six of y'all meet together, it's a public meeting, which is, yeah, obvious since we're all here and it's public. And there's notice requirements. I know, like on the website, it has city council meetings held every first and third Tuesday. I may be wrong, but I believe the notice requirements for a meeting, typical meeting would be 30 days. Special meetings like this one, I'm not entirely sure what the day requirement, but they're putting notice, giving people notice. In terms of public records, I know FOIA, I know there are some things maybe. The personal information, obviously, if somebody makes a request and it has personal information in there of somebody, then you want to redact that, obviously. But they can't obviously make a request for public documents, and you have to get it to them. But then redacting information that may be not public identifying information that's sensitive to people.

Okay. All right. Next question is, how would you build trust with the city council, your staff, and the community at large and maintain that professional manner? Even if you build strong relationships with certain individuals, but how would you be fair and keep that all into perspective and professional?

Yeah, so I think one in terms of better relationship with the city council, and I kind of touched on it in one of the earlier questions, but just meeting with y'all individually, maybe seeing where, in terms of like city clerk office, when I, or if I'm able, you know, lucky to get the job, would be meeting with y'all and seeing things that could be improved upon or things that, you know, I can do to make your jobs easier or to make, uh, it is a year for city council going forward. Um, and then just meeting with y'all and talking about whatever it is that we talk about. Um, because I would love to have a great relationship with the entire city council and, uh, staff and the community at large. I think in terms of which, to piggyback off that too, is part of the reason I guess I applied for the job in the first place was currently working remote. You missed that. interaction day-to-day, place to go, build a relationship with people, having that sort of day-to-day relationships with people that you work with. And in terms of the community at large, I think one, just in terms of the job itself, would be being responsive to people, communicating with people, understanding if people are frustrated or all that sort of stuff. And then just from a personal, I guess, work, pseudo work thing would be going to events, meeting people, getting to know people, learning about their families, things like that, and building relationships just with y'all and everybody.

Okay, thank you. Okay, so now every council member has had the opportunity to ask you questions. So at this time, I'm going to ask that you give a two-minute closing statement in your own way.

Two minutes. Well, that's your max. I know, I know. I'm just kidding. Yeah, well, one, thank you all for taking the time to meet with me. I would be really excited to get the job. I believe I would do a great job at it, and I believe that we would all be professionally friends. I think with the background, I talked about with the corporate law, I think there is a lot of crossover there that would benefit me in this role in terms of the attention to detail, the record keeping, the drafting of things, the reviewing. like looking at contracts and all that sorts of stuff, reviewing law, election law, for example, since we've talked about that a couple times. And all those sorts of things. I just think having that legal background and everything would greatly benefit me in my ability to do the job. I think that... I do a good job of, and I said this earlier, but just building relationships with people, being professional, and all that fun and exciting stuff. And I look forward to potentially having the opportunity to get to know all of you and having hopefully a long relationship with all of you.

Thank you very much. Again, thank you for coming and your time that you have invested to come and share with us all today. So we just appreciate you, and we'll be in touch.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you all.

Did I just say Sumption?

You did.

I did say Sumption?

You did. I don't know. You said Dixon. You did say Dixon.

When you asked me that, I was like, what is she talking about? Hello and welcome.

Thank you. Thank you for being here this afternoon and taking time out of your busy schedule to come and spend some time with the city council and let us chat with you. I'm Katrina Simmons, I'm the city council president and what we're going to do is each council member is going to have the opportunity to ask you two questions and at the end you'll have an opportunity to give a closing statement. So we're going to go ahead and start with if you will give your name and also an opening statement. And then after that, we'll start with the questions. Okay.

My name is Missy Michael, and first of all, I want to say thank you for this opportunity to interview. I was the clerk at Rogersville for almost 12 years, so that's what got me interested in this position. And I retired in the end of October, and I have missed it every single day. I didn't realize how much I would miss it, but I just feel like that's what I was meant to do.

OK. Thank you.

So I guess I'll start back. You all OK with that?

Okay. All right. Question number one is, why do you want to serve? Well, you just told us that, but you missed it. So I'm not going to ask you that one. Scratch. I'm not going to let that be my question. Okay. Next question is, um... How would you build trust with the city council, the staff, and within the community? Because as a city clerk, you would be involved with the community.

Right. I would want to meet with each councilman and just form a relationship with them so that they can learn to trust me. And with the public, you just have to be transparent. I think that's the biggest thing, is transparency.

Okay, and the next question, since you have experience in it, what your knowledge with the Open Meetings Act?

Well, I've actually taught classes on it, so. Okay. When you go to Alabama to our AAMCA, trainings. I was involved with that. I was the president of AMCA, and we did trainings on them. So that was one of the classes that I taught was the Open Meetings Act. OK. All right, Mr. Hendricks.

Hi, Ms. Michael. Hi. I'm Jackie Hendricks, District 2. My first question for you is municipal clerks in Alabama serve as the chief municipal election official. Describe your experience with elections or how you would get up to speed in this area.

I had two elections when I was at Rogersville. We didn't have to have an election one year, so I only had to do two. Training, training, training, and more training is the easiest thing to, and I actually learned a lot from Bob when I was the clerk.

Okay, question two, along with its other responsibilities, the city clerk also manages personnel. What are your ideas on maintaining a positive and productive work environment for your office, especially during periods of high workloads, stress, change, or internal conflict?

staying calm and asking them what I can do to help them, just forming a relationship and a bond with them. They have to be able to trust you.

Ms. Dixon? Hello. Thank you for being here.

I'm Alisa Dixon from District 3.

I have one question that's kind of a two-part question. This is how I sneak in an extra question.

But they go together.

All right. Thinking of someone you highly respect, you don't have to tell me who it is, but thinking of this person, what is something they would tell me that you could improve upon? And then what would they say sets you apart that would cause them to recommend you over everyone else?

That's a hard question. I can answer the second part first. I guess that one's easier. No order. I can even tell you, my former mayor, he was the mayor the entire 12 years, almost 12 years I was there. He loved how laid back, not really laid back, but how calm I stayed. If people from the public came in, and were screaming and hollering, I would just stand and listen and shake my hand because sometimes that's all it takes is you listening to them. So that was his compliment on me. That was what he always said. And as far as improvements... think the thing he always wanted me to prove and prove on um he didn't think i got and i guess it kind of double play he didn't think i got upset enough about stuff it's like you don't let anything bother you no okay all right when you come across a challenge you've never encountered walk me through the process of how you get to your possible solutions research, researching the problem, asking people for help that may know the solution. You can't ever be above asking for help.

Thank you. Mr. Bowling.

Hey, my name is Josh Bowling. I'm in District 4. What do you believe is the most important responsibility of the city clerk?

Being the records keeper, because that's the history of the town.

All right. So what would your first 90 days in this role look like?

I would like to come in and work with each of the employees from that department, learn what they do, how things are done, or how they did them. That would be my biggest thing, getting them to trust me, getting to know me.

Mr. Spence?

I'm a Spence District 5 here in Florence. Mine's going to be on making a decision, leadership maybe. Tell us about a time you demonstrated leadership in a challenging workplace situation. What was the issue? How did you handle it? And what was the outcome?

One of my employees, our court clerk and our police chief, their personalities clashed. tremendously when he first came to work for us it got pretty bad at times and I finally just took them and sat them down because he would come to me and want to rant about her she would come to me and want to rant about him and I sat them down and I said we've got to work this out it it got ugly but then it got better and after that we had no more problems

The city clerk plays a critical role in maintaining public trust throughout accuracy, transparency, and compliance and organization. How would you ensure that council records, public documents, and meeting procedures and communication with elected officials and citizens are handled efficiently, accurately, and in accordance with legal and ethical standards?

Well, it's set out the rules and the laws that we have to follow. And I feel like you cannot stray from that, that you have to follow the rules. And if there's questions beyond that, the city attorney.

He didn't hear that, I don't think.

Yeah, he's going out like he did.

Thank you. Thank you. Glad you came.

Thank you. Ms. King? I'm Chapel King. I am the representative for District 6. So with your former experience, what are some things that you would do to stay organized, such as the use of software and so forth?

I told Mayor Tyler we did not use the software that y'all use, but I am familiar with it. And I have a lot of friends that are clerks that still use it. And I have actually worked with them, and we were in the process of getting it when I left Rotterstall. So I know that everybody brags on it and says it is great software.

What makes you feel that you are the best fit for this job?

Having almost 12 years' experience being president of the Clarks Association and helping with all their education classes, and I just feel like it's what I'm called to do, and I feel like that I would be good at it.

Okay. Thank you. We're ahead of schedule. Does any other council have any additional questions at this time? Okay. At this time, if you will give us a closing statement in your own way.

Well, thank you all for having me, and you all had great questions. I wasn't really sure how this would go. I would love to come work with all of you. Like I said, I have missed it so much. I enjoy working with the public, and all my years of training, I think that I could really help the city of Florence.

Okay, then that concludes it and so we want to say thank you so much again for coming and sharing with us. So this is what we have to deal with. Thank you for coming and sharing with us and answering all of our questions. We appreciate you and they'll be in touch. Thank you.

Thank you. Nice meeting you.

OK, we have concluded the question and answer interview process for the candidates. We will resume again tomorrow starting at 4 PM. We have two additional candidates to do. And at this time, we can make a motion to adjourn, and then we'll have a closing prayer.

We're not going to do this with Bob, so that we've kind of got a standard to go off of before we do that.

Oh, Bob, I think, yeah, can we have you to sit front and center?

We can do it after we close. How about that?

Motion to close. All right. Do you want to give us a closing prayer, or do you all want to give us a closing prayer at least? Please.

Father in heaven we're grateful for this time that we've been able to meet with these potential candidates for this position as city clerk and we are mindful of the time that they have put in into applying for this position and expressing their interest in their experiences and explaining things in more detail for us and we pray that we take all of these things into consideration as well as that which we will hear tomorrow that we will receive guidance and know that as all of these candidates are very qualified that your will will be done that we will seek after that and know the best candidate at this time for this position and that that these things will be done in an orderly and timely fashion and manner. We give the great praise and thanks for this great city in which we get to serve and the community and the people that we get to be involved with on a daily basis. Help us to always remember that that is who we serve in this city, those that we represent, and that we ultimately serve you and seek after your will as we do those things within this city. And these things we say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.