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Home My WebLink About2003-01-27 MinutesSpecial City Council Meeting January 27, 2003 Page 1 of 5 MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 27, 2003 { A special meeting of the Fayetteville City Council was held on January 27, 2003 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain i Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT: 'Aldermen, Marr, Reynolds, Davis, Rhoads, Lucas, Jordan, Thiel, Cook, City Attorney ICU Williams, City Clerk Heather Woodruff, Staff, Press and Audience. CITY CLERK: Special meeting to interview the Nominating Committee's selection from the City Clerk applicants; and to appoint a City Clerk. Alderman Marr presented a packet of information. In the packet there is the list of questions the nominating committee came upwith to help us be objective in listening to each persons answers. List 1, 2 or 3 on the answers given by the candidates. We asked that each applicant fill out the City application which is attached. Resumes and letters of recommendations for candidates are also attached. You have everything the City received. There is ',also a recap of, the nominating committee meeting and their recommended process. la There will be two minutes per question, Michelle from Human Resources will be the time keeper Reference checks on each of the applicants are also included in the package.' The committee recommended they draw,for numbers and we will interview them in the order drawn. -We have allowed 15 minutes for each applicant and we will mterview them individually. The eight questions are based on the job descriptions that Heather gave them.' They, also met with Gina to get any ideas or skills she thought should be considered. ' Alderman Davis asked Heather to explain to the full Council the duties of the office. City Clerk Heather Woodruff stated the clerk takes care of the Council agendas, City archives and maintains a variety of different filing systems. It would be helpful if the person is well organized and can work with a variety of different kinds of filing systems. The clerk is on the Fire and Police Pension Board as secretary and voting member. The clerk works with the City staff on bonds and makes sure on elections that everything goes smooth. The clerk handles a lot of the advertising for the City and has to work very close with the City Attorney's office. Alderman Marr stated the person needs to have supervisory experience, must be able to multi task, must be able to work well with other people and have good customer service skills. They need to be independent thinkers, have the ability to tell people no, be detailed and organized. Alderman Davis asked that Alderman Marr explain the process. Special City Council Meeting January 27, 2003 Page2of5 Alderman Marr said there are eight questions so each alderman will ask one questions and they will just go around the table starting with Alderman Rhoads There will be two minutes for each question to be answered. There is a stop light that will be used, it will be green when they start, yellow when they have 30 seconds and red when they need to stop. When the stop light turns red the applicant will be allowed to fimsh their sentence and then must stop speakmg. Alderman Davis asked Michelle to explain to the applicants the process and to go ahead and bnng in the first applicant The apphcants were interviewed in the following order: Sondra Smith Claudia Smith Maureen Hoover Renee Thomas Kay Swanner Barry Herzog David Hansberger The interview being completed Alderman Davis asked what the direction of the council is at this point. Alderman Thiel said she thinks the applicants should be narrowed down to the applicants that know the job, know what it curtails and has some experience m the public industry. Alderman Marr stated the nominating committee used a screening process, looking at the supervisory experience of the applicants. He thinks the persons understandmg of the job should be looked at. Alderman Rhoads agreed. I would boil it down to two Sondra Smith and Maureen Hoover. I would also talk about the positives of the candidates Alderman Thiel stated that unless they wanted to go into executive session she thought they should stay away from the negatives. Alderman Reynolds stated they might want to go into executive session to talk about what they have in front of them. Alderman Davis asked if they would like to make a motion to bring it down to two candidates. Alderman Rhoads moved to consider two candidates, Maureen Hoover and Sondra Smith. Alderman Thiel seconded. 1 • 1 '1Special City Council Meeting . January 27, 2003 Page3of5 Alderman Marr would like to amend the motion to include Claudia Smith. Alderman Jordan agreed. r •• r t ' { i r Alderman Davis asked if there was any discussion on the amendment. Alderman Thiel stated she felt Claudia Smith had not worked with the public. Alderman Marr stated she was the strongest applicant that was not a City employee. He felt she had skill sets that could be transferred to the City. Alderman Davis agreed with Alderman Marr. Alderman Jordan said another thing with Claudia Smith was that she has lived here all her life so she understands Fayetteville and that makes a big difference. Her organization skills were excellent. Given the chance she would be as good as the rest. City Attorney Kit Williams stated that the only vote that is going to count is the vote that you are going to do at the end to select the actual person. Alderman Davis asked if there was any more discussion on the amendment to the motion. Alderman Reynolds stated they if everyone wrote the scores on their sheets they could add their scores up Alderman Davis asked if there was anymore discussion regarding the amendment. Upon roll call the amendment passed unanimously. Upon roll call the motion to discuss three applicants, Maureen Hoover, Claudia Smith and Sondra Smith passed unanimously. Alderman Reynolds moved to go to executive session. Alderman Thiel seconded the motion. City Attorney Kit Williams stated if you do move to go into executive session you will immediately go into executive session with only the alderman present. You are not to take any votes, even straw votes while in executive session. You can talk about personnel issues and who you support but you must reconvene in public session and at that time a vote may be taken, no votes in executive session. Alderman Davis asked if there was any discussion. Alderman Marr asked why Alderman Reynolds felt they needed to go into executive session. ' • 1' • • 4 r • • • Y 1 1 i i Special City Council Meeting January 27, 2003 Page 4 of 5 Alderman Reynolds stated he felt questions among them could be solved in executive session. He felt when then come out of executive session they would have a candidate in their minds. Alderman Marr asked Alderman Reynolds if there were sensitive issues or pros and cons that you don't want to discuss in public, if not Alderman Marr would choose to keep it open. Alderman Cook said he did not want anyone to feel as they are being dragged over the coals. There are some things I would like to say that I would rather not say in public. City Attorney Kit Williams stated the reason behmd executive session is that the Alderman as a group are going to have to work with the City Clerk, so sometunes it is easier not to have been an opponent of the person that gets selected. Alderman Rhoads felt executive session should be used sparingly. Perhaps if you are gomg to discipline or fire someone you might be more apt to go into executive session. When you have three good candidates you should be able to speak to those candidates in a way that you are only talking about the positives. Alderman Rhoads stated he would probably vote against executive session. Alderman Davis stated the reason he would go to a closed session is that people have applied for a position and this is on the public airways and the press and media are here and anything that could be said about that mdividual could reflect negatively and could possibly affect job opportunities in the future for them if something was said wrong. If we all speak nothing but positives we have no reason to go into executive session. The problem with doing the rose colored glass is if someone has a view and wants to express it they may not express it in front of the camera and media. Alderman Davis asked if there was anymore discussion about going into executive session. Upon roll call the motion failed due to a tie with Alderman Marr, Rhoads, Lucas and Jordan voting nay. City Attorney Kit Williams stated any motion requires five votes. Alderman Davis stated he would like to let the applicants go home if they wish and have Michelle call them when the selection is completed. A discussion followed on the applicants. Alderman Davis asked if there was anymore discussion. 1 li 4 • Special City Council Meeting January 27, 2003 Page5of5 Upon roll call Aldermen Cook, Rhoads, Davis, Lucas, Reynolds and Thiel voted for Sondra Smith. Aldermen Marr and Jordan voted for Maureen Hoover. City Attorney Kit Williams stated Sondra Smith has now been selected and if there was no further discussion the meetmg would adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 6:55 PM. -�- 4▪ 0 • f • • • , 1 t •