Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-08-28 Transcription August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 1 August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Correia, Elliott, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn Council Absent: Champion Staff Present: Dilkes, Karr, Mejia Other Present: Volland Selection of firms to be interviewed (Citv Mana2er search): Wilburn! Couple things before we get started, um, Dale is not going to be here tonight. I don't know if you all have noticed, but he is considering whether or not he is going to apply for the position, and so, um, it wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for him to be part of this. Also, Connie is not going to be with us this evening. Uh, the sheets that I passed out, there are two sheets here, um, one, the top one is just kind of what I thought we needed to walk out of here, or at least have done before we walked out of here tonight. The second sheet is a just kind of a list of questions that I thought, depending on what we agree on the format, that we wish to use to interview the search firms, urn, that those might be some universal questions that we could ask of all of them. Um, so take a look at those in a minute, but uh, maybe we can just start with that first sheet that it talks about the, what number we're going to go with and that. We had, uh, if you don't have the breakdown, I think there's a sheet over there on how they're scored, with our initial rankings. We had talked about initially three to five firms, and I was looking at where there's a natural break. Kind oflooks like there's a group in the thirties. There's the one in the forty-five, and then below that.. .I'm speculating that we probably wouldn't want to, um, consider, and then among those top two, I think it was the Brimeyer Group, um, their consultant could not be here on the 15t\ and so how do we want to handle that. Do we want to, um, does that exclude him, does that, um, does the Council wish to come up with another alternative date for him? If so, what date? And if we do that, does that mean we open it up to the others, uh, for another date there. So, I don't.. .under Item 1, let me just get conversation going as to where we go from there. Bailey! Um, I initially didn't rank them as a group that I wanted to bring in for an interview for two reasons. They weren't available on the 15th and then with the exception of Cedar Rapids, they've mostly concentrated on smaller communities, and I have a little bit of a concern, um, they don't have similar size communities, or similar communities.. . similar communities with similar opportunities like a college town, and so I was less concerned with bringing them in, since they weren't available on the 15th, or the primary consultant. I do feellike if we are interested in a group, we need to talk to the consultant who would be in charge of the project, because I think that chemistry is really important. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 2 Vanderhoef/ I agree with that part. Piece of information that I have on Brimeyer, just in general, is that they have a lot of contacts up in Minnesota, and the Minnesota state law sets, uh, how government jobs can be priced according to what the Governor makes. So there is an abundance, uh, I heard this from another city manager, of people who cannot move up, uh, unless they move out of the state. So that was something that mayor may not offer us an opportunity to get some rising ones, of people who have been in, uh, growing suburbs of the Twin City area and so forth, that might be of interest to us, whether other companies would have those same, uh, people on their list or whether they would be actually looking for a job versus the consultant calling them and saying have you considered a move. Correia! The thing about...I had the Brimeyer Group listed...! had ranked them at 7, or 6, and the thing that I noted about their application, or proposal, is that they didn't mention diversity at all, in terms of their experience with... Bailey! Small towns. Correia! .. . experience with recruiting diverse candidates, or the outcomes of.. .oftheir searches and diverse candidates. There were some that did a really good job of addressing that. I mean, that was specifically in our, um, RFQ, so that's why they ranked low, for me. I guess I was sort of surprised to see them at the top. So I don't know how others... Wilburn! Well, before we get into, uh, discussing why you did or didn't have them low, um, I mean, this is the breakdown. This is our. . . this is how they felled, however they were high or low for each of us, and so, uh, that's why I was kind of starting, well, here's the natural break point, uh, and so, if we. .. Correia! So are we going solely by points? I mean, when I was on the Housing Commission, we had points and we had rankings, but we didn't necessarily decide we're only going to.. .we were going to discuss why we did or didn't like, I mean, for some of us we might have.. .pay attention to something or... Wilburn! That's entirely up to the group. Again, for whatever reason and whatever criteria, um, this... this spread is how we, as a group, felt that they may. . . I mean, if the scores were closer, again, whatever.. .regardless of the criteria, if they were a lot closer, um, then that's where I saw, well, we're going to be spending a lot of time getting into the nitty gritty of each of these firms, but since in my opinion there seemed to be a pretty, a pretty natural break that... Bailey/ At 38.. . are you saying the... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 3 Wilburn! Yeah, the 30's, 38 would be the cut-off that, you know, here's, again based on whatever individual criteria we have preferences or not, this seems to be a natural break, so do we need to go any further than... Elliott! Your first. . . Bailey/ I guess I had agreed, and was skipping to this consideration of this, the lead consultant was a firm that I wasn't really interested in seeing, or making accommodations for. Elliott! Your first question was how many? I'm hoping we don't have.. .we don't pick any more than two. I think if we interview more than two, we waste our time and theirs. I think we ought to be able to get down to two, and invite them for interviews. Bailey! See, I agree with the natural break. There's a natural break here. Elliott! Pour is far too many. Bailey/ Well, then lop off the top one, because they're not available. O'Donnell/ I would like to eliminate the top one, you know, we're setting the conditions here, and if they can't make it, in my opinion, they're out and we go with...I came in with my mind set on three firms. I agree with Bob.. . you go beyond that and you. .. Wilburn! And I was looking at the natural break, and I agree with your assessment that if.. .if they can't make it, then... Bailey! If you don't make a deadline, I mean.. . and I think that they don't meet some criteria that some of us had. Correia! Well, and the....I didn't see that they identified the lead consultant, which I thought...in their application, which I thought was... Elliott! I think that.. .you're talking about the Brimeyer Group. If they were.. . (several talking at once). . .if they were. . . (several talking).. . Correia! ... they had somebody but they couldn't make it, but the Bennett, I didn't see, because I wrote down, didn't identify the consultant. Elliott/ I'm saying that if we, if we chose someone as the best firm, and that firm can't make it on the date we set, I would think we'd want to have the best firm, and we pick another date. Yeah, but there are a number of reasons why I would not be in favor of this Brimeyer Group. I think their instrument...I didn't see any validity reliability studies on it. It just. ..it said they had an instrument, and who knows. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 4 O'Donnelll Well, we can eliminate them very quickly. Elliott/ Yeah, I'd be...it seemed to me their emphasis was on advertising, and I want an emphasis on people who know how to reach candidates who would not otherwise apply. Wilburn! .. .did you have any reaction to what was suggested, or... Volland/ No, I think it makes sense if you set a date and somebody can't make it, that that could be, you know, a preconceived thing that maybe their not a priority, and I think the City wants to be a priority, so I think that right there eliminates them. Wilburn! Or it may also be a capacity.. .maybe they don't have the (several talking) to do multiple searches at once. Bailey/ But once again I go to that small community focus, and... Elliott! Have we dumped them... Vanderhoef/ I have been impressed with Jim Prosser that was.. .Brimeyer did the, the, uh, search for. . . Bailey! I'm certainly not faulting Cedar Rapids (unable to understand) I thought they did a good job, but just in looking at the other cities, there's just nothing comparable to us. You know, 8,000, 30,000, I mean, I'm sorry, our city is too special! (laughter) Vanderhoef! I'm okay if you want to. . . Elliott! They also said the firm was formed in 92, and the Vice President joined them in 91, which is kind of interesting. Wilburn! Well, if we lop off the Brimeyer Group, uh, back to my initial premise there, that leaves three in the thirties. Now whether or not those are the three we wish to go with, you know, we can... Vanderhoef/ I am totally not interested in Waters Oldani. Uh... Elliott! They tied for one with me. (several talking at once) O'Donnell/ I liked them. Vanderhoef/ They. . . they did not follow our request, and it still bothers me that their list of, of, uh, searches that they have done, they're carrying them out to over twenty years ago, which... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 5 Bailey/ Is that.. .what you're referring to is they did not follow our request... Vanderhoef/ Right, you know, did they even read our prospectus. Uh, whether it's right or wrong, I have recently also read this absolute same prospectusfrom this same company that it just, it didn't narrow it down to anything for me, and I don't even know if any of those same principals are ones who carried out some of these, uh, groups, so I absolutely put them at the bottom because they couldn't follow what we asked for. Bailey/ Well, if we were looking at following the rules, we wouldn't have a consultant to interview. Vanderhoef/ They certainly, uh, didn't go out of their way to.. .to gear it for us and what we were asking for. Bailey/ But I was under the impression when we talked about request for qualifications, which I've never done, that it wasn't...I mean, it wasn't the most dramatically specific, uh, document that one would ever receive. I don't know. Vanderhoef/ What I wanted, really, was the person who was going to do the search would, I would know which, uh, projects he had worked, or she had worked on, in the last seven years. So that I had an idea whether this person had done only small city searches, whether they had done, um, medium, whether they had...I know they do some with diversity, but, you know, when you get twenty year old information and nothing about the searches that they actually did themselves. Elliott/ Well, my top three were the same top three as the collective Council, and on closer look with Waters (-Oldani), I agree with Dee that they listed those recent placements, and one of them was Iowa City, which was placed twenty one years ago.. . Vanderhoef/ That's right! Elliott! .. .which isn't terribly recent. Uh, they also appear to again place most emphasis on advertising, and looking for people who are applying, as opposed to most of the best candidates will not be applying for a job. They'll have to be contacted. So.. .I'm left with Slaven. Bailey! Oh, see I'm comfortable bringing in these three. I think three...I mean... Vanderhoef/ I would be interested in hearing from Bennett Yarger, just because of their west coast and east coast presence, um, I have a call in but I haven't heard back from the Mayor of Flagstaff who is a friend of mine and they just recently did that study, or placement there, and that is, uh, a university town. And has a lot of similarities - not for landscape, shall we say, but certainly similarities in, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 6 being a little bit more remote from big industrial areas, but, uh, certainly competes well with the Phoenix-Scottsdale-Glendale area. So, I would be interested in hearing from them, and I can report to you that I've been working with the Slaven who is doing the search right now for Iowa League of Cities, and uh, he is doing things in a timely order and responsive to, uh, phone calls, suggestions. One of the things, actually I talked with Bob Slaven this morning and he said there seems to be a gap, not just for, uh, executive directors, but for city, uh, managers right now, 00, that there's a bunch of baby boomers that are retiring, and in that next age group, uh, it seems the pool, the pool seems to be very small. So that's just a, a comment that he made this morning. Wilburn! Okay. Correia! Because I was thinking we were going to.. .three doesn't seem like enough of a selection. You get them all here, and we don't, we like two and one, we kinda like, we're not quite sure...! mean, it seems like, I mean, I guess...I was thinking we would interview five. We have the day blocked off. I don't... Elliott! I think if we do that, we waste their time and ours, and search firms so frequently you look behind the scenes, you check with some people you know, you find one or two that you look, you talk with them and go with them. I guess I certainly wouldn't.. . Correia! ... I mean, I want to do this. . . Elliott! This is different than selecting a city manager though. Correia! No, I understand, but it's really important to select the right firm that we feel really good about. We're going to be spending taxpayer dollars. At this point we don't know how many dollars, I mean, to get to a position where, I mean, I know this is different than selecting, um, that, the city manager, or a personnel hire type of a deal, but I mean, I've been in situations in hiring personnel, you know, you've got who you've got, or you interview who you think are good on paper and then they get there and they don't meet up to your expectations. Seems like it would be more of a waste of all of our time to interview three, not have a sense that we really like one of them, and then have to go back and bring two more back, or ask two more in... Bailey! I don't think five is unwieldy. I mean, I think we interviewed four or five for radio consultants, and maybe four or five for architects for the communication center, and...I mean, we did the radio consultants in a morning. Wilburn! Well, if you think about it, uh, you know, one we did, theoretically we blocked off the day. Secondly, um, whether some presented themselves well or responded to it, they've all done searches. So, we're... we'll really be at a point that day, um, I was talking with Sylvia that it's really a matter of chemistry at that point, who This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 7 we feel is going to blend well for us in that, um, and our community, so if you, if you feel one or two is enough for you to determine chemistry, maybe that can drive your decision. If you'd like one or two more than that, then maybe.. .so, um... Bailey/ So what would you suggest, Amy? Are you suggesting going down to the.. . score 45, or this, I mean, what are you suggesting for process? Correia! Well, we took out the Brimeyer, correct? Bailey! Right. I mean, we've got three that I think there's general consensus that we want to bring in, and you know, I agree. I think we need to find a match on the ISt\ and I'm not totally convinced that our match is in these three. Wilburn! How many are, uh, if those in the thirty again, based on whatever our initial reaction was, um, how many are wanting to include one or two more than those next three, the Waters (-Oldani), Slaven, and Bennett? Bailey! I think I ranked PAR Group, there was some good qualities that I liked about PAR Group that I would like to explore a little bit. Correia! I ranked them higher. (unable to hear) Wilburn! So... O'Donnell/ I think three is... Wilburn! Again, how many are willing to consider one or two more than three? Just show of hands. (several responding) There's only three of us, so... Bailey! Well, it's going to be hard to get a sense...we've only got six. So, you were the tiebreaker. Wilburn! Well, we... we do have, we do have Abbie here. I don't want to put all the pressure on you (laughter). V olland/ I would do four. I would just include.. .like, I'm in agreement with Amy that I'd rather see more than less. I wouldn't go past four because I think then you get into the fifties, but I don't see any harm in including. Bailey! I remember what. . .here are my notes from the PAR Group. They had a... their consultant has also served as a manager, which I thought was an interesting.. . (several talking at once). Um, little concerned about the participatory, uh, participatory process, but they're very committed to pro-active recruitment, which you are interested in, Bob. Not just looking for people who are looking for jobs. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 8 Elliott! Right, right. Bailey/ And they said that they will, they will do no fewer than five candidates interviewed. No fewer than five candidates, which I just noted. I didn't know how I felt about that. It was just.. . and they have a lot of experience in Illinois and the Midwest Council. . . Elliott! Carbondale, Elgin, and Peoria. Bailey! Yeah, and the Midwest, just because I believe there is a unique Midwest work ethic.. . Elliott/ That was their Midwest. . . .my negative on them was they had a poor reference list, considering a pretty good list of clients, and their reference list was either poorly thought out or something. Wilburn! Um, how many are willing to go with those next, those four then? Elliott! What are we talking about - Slaven. ., Bailey! Adding the PAR Group. Wilburn! Adding the PAR Group to those three. Bailey/ And I still think we can get through that in a timely manner, um, just given that we had technical consultants through in a morning. Elliott! So, what are.. . Slaven, Bennett (Yarger), PAR? Wilburn! And that.. .yes, and that's... Vanderhoef/ Thirty to forty minutes. . . per. . . Wilburn! .. . and that's... Bailey! Much larger group. Wilburn! .. . and that's a sort of compromise between those who were, yeah, between three and five. Elliott! If you spend thirty or forty minutes with each group, that means you do an incomplete interview with everyone. Wilburn! Um...I was thinking if we, if we did, uh, if we gave each of them a ten to fifteen minute presentation. That block out an hour for the interview, give us This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 9 thirty minutes in between interviews. That's four, five.. .how many hours is that? Uh.. . four. .. Vanderhoef! Pour hours per. Bailey! Six hours. Wilburn! About six hours. Bailey! Or you know, you can run them almost back to back, and then talk about... Wilburn! Ifwe wanted to have, if we wanted to have conversation and/or break in between, if you took. . . yeah, if you took fifteen minutes just to sit down with each other, here's our initial reaction to this presentation and this set of questions, take fifteen minutes just to walk away to get a drink, let the next group come in, sit down, let them... Bailey! I'd run them back-to-back and do the talking at the end. Wilburn! Which is fine... Bailey/ Right. Wilburn! I'm just trying to.. .the conversation was how much time are we spending total, and so that was just a... Correia! Do two in a row, take a break, have some time, and then do two. Wilburn! And that's fine, but.. .but whether we're capable of getting four interviews. I know what was the initial. . . yeah. Vanderhoef/ I don't think the interview.. .max on interview will be forty-five minutes. So if you block, sayan hour per interview, that ought to do it. Wilburn! Okay. So, we're going with Waters (-Oldani), Slaven, Bennett (Yarger), PAR? Vanderhoef! Okay. Elliott! I'd like to know if Sylvia has anything to add to this? Bailey/ Yeah. Elliott/ Sylvia's the pro here. (several talking and laughing) Mejia! Um, no I think what you're doing makes a lot of sense. Um, I think if you get the interview too long, quite frankly, you're going to lose your audience, and put This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 10 them on the spot that people are starting to ramble, so...! think a forty-five minute interview makes a lot of sense. Urn, and, I agree with Ross. You are looking for chemistry. They all have qualifications. Any of these four people that you have chosen has an excellent reputation in the field and will do a good job for you. It's a matter of who you're comfortable with, who's going to represent you in getting the best candidate for the job. So...! think you're right on track. Um, you know, plan a forty-five minute interview, allowing fifteen minutes.. .or, you know, allowing fifteen minutes. If it runs a little long, or if you need to have questions or you know, time to yourself, but I think you're right on. Should be able to get it done. Wilburn! Okay. Great. Vanderhoef! (several talking) What time are we starting? Mejia! Can I give you one piece of information, just a little off track? You had asked me at the last meeting how much the City of Cedar Rapids spent. You were just curious, and I did follow up on that, and they spent $18,000 on consultant fees. That does not include any expenses, so any of their expenses, or candidate expenses were above that, and I also checked with Des Moines because they did one about a year ago, and all of them came in right around $20,000. So, you're probably looking in the range of$18,000 to $23, $24,000 for consultant fees. That's a guess on my part. Elliott! Now, is that in addition to taking a piece of the salary, or are they not doing that much anymore? Mejia! My understanding is that is their straight fee, that there is not a.. .it's not based on the salary, that they... Elliott! They used to take a percentage of. . . Vanderhoef! There's. one company that (several talking) a percentage off... Mejia! ...I don't believe they're any of the ones that you're.. .yeah, so, these are just straight fees. Vanderhoef! ... the one thing that was different as far as fees that I saw that they're very sticklers on, Waters-Oldani have these other kinds of testing to do, if you want them done. However, you're going to pay for them, where some of the other companies, that's part of their standard, and they told us exactly what they were going to do. So, Waters-Oldani more than likely will come in more expensive. Mejia! Well, Danny used to be on his own. In fact, he is the firm that placed Steve with you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 11 Vanderhoef! Uh-huh. Mejia! So.. .he's since joined up with Waters. Wilburn! Okay, thanks. That takes care ofltem 1 on there. The second was to decide on the interview format. Um, what I was kind of, I mean, kind of foreseeing...I mean, every firm will be prepared to do a dog and... Bailey/ Need to be very direct about what we want to see in the presentation, and that'll be another test of whether they can follow our directions. Wilburn! Um, all right. Bailey! I mean, that's my opinion. I think we need to be very clear about what we want them to present and I don't want just their normal dog and pony show. I want some very specific, what, you know, if we're interested in diversity, if we're interested in pro-active hiring. Wilburn! I guess I was saying that in the questions, as opposed to.. .because then aren't we asking for another. . .isn't that just a, an on-site RFQ that we're doing? Elliott! I agree with Regenia, in what their presentation.. . for instance, I would like for them to be sure to give us a number of relevant, appropriate references. People they have placed, so we can talk to those people and say, how did you find out about it, how did you get placed with the firm, so we could follow up on the people they have placed. Is that what you're talking about, Regenia? Bailey! No, I'm talking about just being directive in what we expect in their presentation. You know, we want them to cover particular sorts of things, and then we have follow up questions. I mean, they're not going to do that, but I think it's really important to give them the parameters of what we want in our presentation, otherwise they will just present their RFQ. Wilburn! Um... Bailey! We have priorities, and I think they should hear them from the front. Wilburn! That's.. .if you'll hear me out for a minute, um, I think some of the things you just referred to, what I was envisioning, there would be a small set of questions that we would ask of each of them to respond to, to make sure that we're getting some consistent look from each of them, or particular area from each of them, and then after that, allow Council to ask a follow up question, um, to any of the answers they may have given from those universal questions, and also any follow up questions to the information that they sent to us, and that list of questions that I was, that Ijust kind of brainstormed - it's that second sheet. I don't know if you want to take a look through those. Maybe some of these might be in the format This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 12 you're suggesting. Maybe some of these might be part of, you know, this is your. . . this is part of your presentation. Elliott! I would really like to have the opportunity for us to provide you with our suggestions of items we would like covered in their presentation, and then I think we need to decide on also some, some significant questions to ask and be sure that we don't ask something that tips them as to what we're wanting. I mean, if you ask them how. . .how much of their time is spent on pro-active recruiting as opposed to advertising, they're going to say, obviously, oh a great deal of our emphasis is spent on pro-active recruiting. So we have to make it, and inform...that we don't tell them what we're looking for. Bailey! Well, see and questions one and four, I would ask them to include in their presentation. Wilburn! Uh-huh. Bailey! About the diverse, I mean, talk a bit about how you recruit, diverse applicant pool, and naturally the question, two, as a follow up. Wilburn! And I guess, um, and you know, rest of the Council please chime in, because I guess what I was looking for, in terms of trying to get that chemistry, feel how they will respond, um, I was wanting to just ask them on site as opposed to.. .but whatever, and what I was looking for in responding to these, I thought this would give me kind of a flavor of who they are and how these items might be, uh, something that they value or not. It's certainly.. .you know... Vanderhoef/ Ross, I'm going to support you on this. Uh, the more folks prep of what we want to hear, the more they're going to tailor it. Bailey/ I want them to tailor it! Vanderhoef/ However, but I want to see how they react on their feet, so that we ask the question here. Bailey/ I agree. Vanderhoef/ It isn't a pre-canned answer that they're already focused on. I want to be able to jump around with these questions and see how these people respond, in the situation, on the spot, because that's what we see from that chair all the time at a meeting. Bailey/ But I want them to come prepared to work with us, and so I want a presentation that's tailored towards us, and you can tell ifit rings false, or if they're just, you know, saying things that we want to hear, because we'll have the follow up questions, and their approach or their plan will either be thorough and thought This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 13 through, or it will be superficial and they clearly have no experience. I mean, I don't want a presentation that's just their normal dog and pony show. That I will consider a waste of my time. I want something that's tailored... Vanderhoef/ ... a truly prepared person will have researched the city enough to have, uh... Bailey! So they'll talk about what a vibrant community we are, and what awards we've gotten, and we all know all that stuff. I want to hear them, um, talk a little bit, I want them to know that a diverse applicant pool is important to us, and I want them to know that we want a participatory process, and I think we can tell by how they present, how they will approach that, who they will talk to, how they will find those candidates, and with follow up questions, I think we'll get a much better sense if they can pull it off or they can't. Wilburn! Other thoughts... Correia! Well, do. . . we have a sense of the format that they do a ten to fifteen minute presentation of however we decide what that presentation is, and then we have our prepared questions. Is that the format? Is that what we're.. .because we're talking, I mean, we've kind of said presentation, but then we said questions only or not prepared, not a. . . Wilburn! That's not quite what I.. .presentation, but I guess it's just...in our different focus.. . Correia! So we are having a presentation? Bailey! I think we all agree (several talking at once), it's just how much we prep. Correia! Okay, and I think that's right. Wilburn! And otherwise it would just seem that it's a matter of, uh, how you view.. .you know, them addressing, and I guess Dee and I were looking at it as, um, for example, when you go into ajob interview, a lot is, I mean, when you've interviewed folks you kind of see how they respond to questions you ask on the site and, um, but Regenia's.. .well, I don't want to speak for you, but it seems you have a.. .you want to be more directive about... Bailey! ..about the presentation, I think it'll be a better use of our time. Correia! Well, I mean, I think there are benefits to that in that this is.. .this is an important selection. I mean, once, I mean, obviously if we hire somebody we don't like we have an opportunity to fire them, but we don't really want to go through that, so I mean, I think there's a way of asking them to present on specific issues that we want to hear from them about, without letting them know what the right answer is. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 14 I mean, I think we've put issues about participatory process and diversity in our RFQ, and frankly, we got a lot of information from some of them anyway, and so I think generally asking about the things that we think are important, and how they.. . Bailey! Doesn't that set up the relationship between the consultant and us more for success, if we give them some guidance about what we want them to overview, rather than say, oh, figure us out! I don't want somebody to figure us out. I want somebody to take direction. They're our consultant. I mean, if we don't have the chemistry and they can't, they don't... they can only take direction, they don't have the core philosophy of, you know, they wouldn't try to recruit diverse candidates, um, but since we're telling them do they'll do it, versus oh yeah, that's something we standardly do. Of course we would look at that. Here's how we've done it in the past. Um, then that's going to be a better fit for us than somebody who will.. .I just think that we need to set it up for success by giving them a little bit more guidance, about who we are and what we expect. Wilburn! What do others think? Volland/ I think those are things they should already know. Like if it's already been stated that we want diversity and they didn't say anything in their proposal, then that's how you're going to base if off their interview. Bailey! Did we state that in our.. . okay. Volland/ You know, I don't know, and I think these are things they should know about Iowa City. Iowa City is a community where citizens are incredibly involved, and I think asking them afterwards says whether they know the city or not. Elliott/ The main thing. . . the main thing I'd want to know is talk to people they have recruited and find out how they worked with them and how they found out about it, and how they went through the process, because they can tell us.. .they can tell us anything. Correia! But we want to talk to people they've recruited, or we want to talk to people who've used them for recruitment? Elliott! I want to talk to the people they've recruited. Correia! I want to talk to both. Elliott/ Oh, yeah. Bailey/ But I want to understand that as they work with us, they can be responsive to the community. I don't think that you can do research on this community and get the kind of...I don't know. I just would like to be more directive in.. .regarding the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 15 presentation. I think it will set up a better. . .I think it will be a better use of our time, but if people are willing to just let them come in and do their standard, you know, this is what we do, tap dance, that's fine, but then our questions are going to have to be far more incisive. O'Donnelll All this is.. .it's my hopes that each and everyone of these people are truly a professional and they've done this job before. It just seems you don't want an attack squad after these people. Correia! No, but I mean, I think what Regenia is saying, not disrespectfully a tap dance, but they, every.. .if we're not going to give them direction, it's going to be their standard presentation. Bailey! They're going to give it their best shot, then it might. .. Correia! We're not going, I mean, in fact it might end up being there's a great group that we missed out on because we didn't really ask them to present what we like them... Bailey/ This is a relationship that we've got to create. We're going to be working with this consultant for a while. I think that it's good to give them some level of guidance about just how difficult we are to work with. (laughter and several talking at once) Vanderhoef! I think. . . the experience of working with just this last group - I don't have wide experience - but they're coming in and in that early presentation they're selling themselves, and part of it is information that they've learned, but they are getting a sense of the group and selling themselves on how excited they are about working on a project, and comparing it to other jobs that they have done. Bailey! Right, but that would mean then, okay, let's liken this to dating. Okay? If you give them a clue that you won't eat Italian and they take you to Italian, and it's a perfectly appropriate restaurant, it turns out to be a bad evening, regardless of how excellent the service was, how well prepared the food was. If you give them a clue about maybe what would bring your, help them bring their A-game to the table, you're probably going to get a better chemistry between the person you're working with. That's...I mean, you got to give them something. Wilburn! I lost my focus this evening as soon as she said dating. (laughter) Bailey/ I knew you would! I think you get what I'm saying here, Ross! (laughter) You got to help people bring their best game to the table, and that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying give them all the answers. I'm just saying give them some guidelines. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 16 Wilburn! Well, let's back up a little bit then. Uh, phrase for us now, here's what we want you to include in your, um, in your presentation. Are you giving general topics, diversity, uh... Bailey! Couldn't even be, wouldn't even have to be dramatically different than the information that we asked for in the RFQ. Touch upon the following issues in your presentation, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Wilburn! Okay. Elliott! Well, I was pretty disappointed in most of the proposals. (several talking) I just, I just thought with the exception ofthe Slaven, I didn't think the proposals were.. .were very thoughtful. Wilburn! So, what are those.. .you're closest to the board. What are the areas that we would want to hear in the. . . Bailey! Diversity and participatory processes, (unable to hear other person responding), yeah. Wilburn! So this is the please.. .please address these areas in your.. .please address these areas in your presentation. Bailey! And then I don't know how you'd phrase what you said, Bob. I mean, that, pro- active recruiting. Wilburn! Participatory process. Elliott! I just... that we don't get from them, unless they have a way of pointing out their experiences in doing it. That's what we have to get from checking references, I think. You check. . . Bailey! Well, some of them spoke to that. We don't just recruit people who are looking for jobs - we have a network of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, our database... Elliott! Yeah, but so many of them spent time talking about the brochures they put together and the advertisements they do, and to me, we can do that. We're looking for people who have established, professional contacts with associations, with individuals, and who know where they are. That's why with Slaven, the guy who had worked for Corn Fairy, which I always thought was the best there is, uh, I'm interested in an outfit like that, who know where the contacts are. Vanderhoef! And follows up with them. Elliott/ Yep. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 17 Correia! .. .whatever they come up with, the prospectus or whatever, because that's what they're going to use to try and recruit those folks that might have like this great job and they need some type of. ..1 don't want us paying for a consultant fee. We might pay for printing, but to develop that. I mean, some of them I didn't like necessarily, but others that I did, that describe the community, what we are looking for, I mean, I think that was what I understood why we were hiring them to really put down on paper what we wanted about, we wanted in the candidates that we're going to... Elliott/ Ifwe're going to be recruiting city managers, and city managers are going to be familiar with differences between east coast and west coast, and Midwest and deep south. They're going to be familiar with Manhattan, Kansas, and Lawrence, Kansas, and Bloomington, Illinois, and Bloomington, Indiana. Correia! But, Bob, if they call up somebody and say there's a city manager position in Iowa City, don't we need to, don't they need to give that... Elliott! Oh, yeah, they'll.. .ifit's a pro, they'll take care of that. Correia! You just said you didn't want them to do that. Elliott! No, no. I'm saying the.. .some of the proposals we got, they put their emphasis on those brochures and the advertisements. That's not where you... Correia! We're not doing that, right? Elliott! No, that's.. .they have.. .it's like a professional public relations person. You don't measure their benefit by how many press releases they sent out. You measure them by their accomplishments. Wilburn! Overview of their. . . Bailey/ Timeline and process. Wilburn! Timeline and process. Bailey! How they work with Council, when they're checking in, when we hear from them - that sort of...I mean, and we're not cuing them at all with that. Wilburn! No, is that, uh, is that sufficient for a ten-minute presentation? Okay. And that would still allow. . . Bailey! And then they'll do the rest of the stuff. Elliott! Then we need to have some time for some follow up questions, based on the points they raised. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 18 Bai1ey/ And we want the consultant we will be working with. I mean, we have to be very clear about that. I don't want some VP talking about how we're going to be talking with the President. . . Wilburn! I thought.. .I thought we were clear on that, but we can certainly reiterate that. Um, that's why I will just ask, or I will draw from these my follow up questions based on what they.. . okay. Bailey/ I think so. Elliott! And it depends on whether you want to say you want the person who is heading the search process, because the person in Atlanta may be heading it, but we want the, we want to talk to the person who's going to be interacting with us. Bailey! Yeah, the person who will be in Iowa City working with us, that we'll have to deal with. Elliott/ Yep. Bailey! I mean. . . Wilburn! Okay, so we've got, uh, uh, ten-minute presentation based on these criteria, and we will, uh, use follow up questions. My next question was, uh, I guess that 2.b. is how are we going to divide up, are we going to just alternate asking questions then? Is there a particular.. . (several responding). Okay. Bailey/ I'd like to see how they react and respond to different people. Vanderhoef/ I guess maybe once we get into, ifthere's a question about diversity kinds of things, and it's someone's question, each of us should have, if we need a follow up within that, I don't want to bring that subject back around four persons later. So...it isn't like one person is the expert on anyone.. . (several talking at once). Wilburn! Okay, Item 3 then is what's the outcome. It's my hope that we will, um, at the end of the day on the 15th know which one we're going to try and pursue to contract with. Is that.. . (several responding). Okay. And then, uh, the second part of that is who's going to do that follow up. Is that the Mayor? Is that a Committee of us? Or is that by the entire Council? The negotiation with the firm. Vanderhoef! Eleanor. (laughter and several talking) That's a contract! Wilburn! You comfortable with that? Elliott/ You and Eleanor? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 19 Dilkes/ Yes, Sylvia and I can work with the selected consultant to get the contract in place. You'll approve the contract so... Wilburn! Yeah, we will... Bailey/ I'm also assuming that we'll ask Sylvia to follow up with the due diligence aspect, not only checking references, but finding people who might not be listed as references, but they've worked with? Is that, I mean, how are we doing that? Vanderhoef/ I think we can ask real specifically. Ifwe want to know have you personally worked in a university city. Bailey/ No, I mean, I mean the reference checks and the... Vanderhoef/ I understand that, but.. .but to get specifics on their recruitments that they have done in whatever, you know, a diversity kind of thing or in.. .so that we have some opportunity to do our own sideline, not necessarily the references that they list. Bailey! Right, and that's what I'm asking is who's going to do that due diligence, I mean, is it the... Dilkes/ Wait. I'm confused. You're talking about picking the consultant that day, subj ect to verification of references. Wilburn! Yes. Dilkes/ Okay. So if you all are getting whatever side information you're getting, that's not going to change your decision. You're just...I don't... Bailey! Ifthey, if our first choice did a lousy job in a university town, I think we'd probably need to have another meeting. Dilkes/ I can't hear you. What... Bailey! Ifwe find out through checking or references that our first choice did a lousy job in a university town, I mean, that there were some gaps, I think we need to maybe step back and not contract with them. That's what I'm... Dilkes! So in other words, so you're going to select your preferred candidate, subject to staff checking of references, and assume.. .barring nothing alarming or concerning that we would bring back to you, we would proceed with contract negotiations. Wilburn! That would seem.. . (several talking at once). I mean, the only other option is to set another meeting, or to have the two of you do that for all four of them before we get to that meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 20 Bailey/ That would be another option. (several talking at once) Wilburn! How is both of your time? Dilkes/ Well, I think that all of you should do whatever side stuff you're talking about doing before the interview, because, since you're going to pick one that day, I mean, frankly, the references they give us are likely to be positive references. So, um, I don't know, Sylvia, you chime in. You're more familiar with this process than I am. Vanderhoef/ Well, I definitely will follow up with Flagstaff, make sure I get that. Bailey! Right, that needs to go into that discussion that day, but... Mejia! I would think you would want to do all of your references prior to that meeting, because that's going to help you.. . questions or whatever, if there was a communication breakdown or a problem, was it a problem unique to that situation, or is it a, you know, consistent problem with that consultant. So, I guess Eleanor and I could do some initial references if. . .I mean, they've all listed references so we could pick, excuse me, one or two and do that so you would have that at the time. But it seems to me, once you've made the commitment to go with them, unless you know you're comfortable that we check it and if nothing bad turns up, we will move forward. Elliott! I think when we said at the end of the day we will settle on our preference, I don't think that meant we tell them their the selected one. We informally, we make our decision, based on.. .on the reference checking that we have yet to do, if there is some to do. So, within the next two or three days, we would, we would have that done and get back to them, but I think anything that we do prior to that, for instance, I don't know Slaven or which one it was, that listed the positions that they had filled during the past calendar year, during the previous calendar year, and when those are university communities, I would think those would be the.. .just three or four places to call, if they've placed somebody in Lawrence, Kansas, call Lawrence, Kansas because that would be quite similar to what the situation would be where they're working with us. Mejia! Do you want that done prior to meeting with them? Elliott! That's.. .but, I don't think we need to settle on how much. Dilkes/ Yeah, I'm not...I don't have any problem with you all doing some digging and stuff ahead of time. I have a problem with us kind of going out there without a whole lot of direction and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 21 Wilburn! Yeah, I guess I was going to agree with that, that just go ahead and do your. . ..1 mean, we've got some information, we know which towns on our own, prepare yourselves to be an interviewer. Vanderhoef/ I have a directory and so does Marian for National League of Cities, so if there's a city on the list that they've done, we can certainly call the Mayor, or the City Manager if there is a city manager. Wilburn! Those are online too. Elliott! We need to coordinate that. We need to not have different people.. . first of all, only one person should be contacting the firms, and we certainly don't want three different ones of us contacting the same city. I think we need to coordinate that sort of activity. So, if Sylvia is going to do some calling, we need to get some lists together and give her maybe at least two or three or four. . .. Bailey/ One aspect we need to know is how did they work with the electeds, and that's most important for the mayor to call. I mean, I think, that's going to be important. Did they communicate? Elliott/ I'd want to check with the mayor to see how the firm worked with them, and check with the city manager to see how he or she was contacted and got the job. Wilburn! Just to clarify. We've got a couple different, uh, we had moved from them doing it to us doing it to being prepared... Bailey/ I just thought that there was some checking that we want to do before entering into contract negotiations. Ifwe feel like that's not the case... Dilkes! Well, I don't think anybody disagrees that after you pick the one that you prefer, we will check the references and do that due diligence... Bailey! Fine. Dilkes! .. .and.. . and make sure there's nothing alarming. Bailey! Right. Dilkes! Nothing untrue. Bailey/ Yeah. Dilkes! I'm confused about what it is you all are talking about doing, or wanting us to do, prior to the interviews. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 22 Elliott/ I think that means that three-fourths of the reference checking was without necessity, if we do it before the interviews. So, I would be in favor of doing it after. Mejia! On just the one...the top... Elliott/ Yes. Bailey/ Ijust want to know that, you know, we're not... Mejia! Make sure there's not a problem. (several talking at once) O'Donnell/ Once you do pick the.. .the search, well, once the company is picked and we've done our research and notified them, what kind of time line are we looking at? Bailey/ The timeline that'll be in the contract. O'Donnelll What.. .that's what I'm asking? Elliott/ I think they'll... Bailey! .. .present on that. Elliott! They'll be telling us how soon they could start, I would assume. O'Donnelll And how soon do we want them to start? (several responding) And then, how many good people can we miss out on. I mean, we've got a case pending right now, and how many good people do you miss out on, saying you potentially will be here for a two-year term? You're subj ect to. . . well, we can control. . . this is about honesty, it's about telling them that they're subject to a two-year retention vote. Wilburn! Well, in my opinion, that's...! mean, that's a very salient question, but I think at this point we proceed with getting the firm. They'll, urn, do the interviews, get a contract with the firm, um, they'll have an initial date that they will want to sit down and meet with us to begin the process, have those conversations of what are you looking for, and outlining the process that we come to. I mean, we're going to need to proceed, um, with what we can control. We can't control when the Supreme Court is going to give a ruling on that, you know, and at the point where. . . at the point where the firm sends out the, um, the, uh, the want ad, um, you know, I mean, we will either know or not know whether there's a decision from the search firm. I mean, you can't stop, you know, we should proceed and if we find some information.. .if we get a decision then that, that's something we'll have to have a conversation and a conversation with individual candidates. I mean... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 23 Elliott/ We remain flexible and straightforward. Wilburn! Yeah. O'Donnell/ Very straightforward. Mejia! That could have a chilling effect on the ability of the firm to contact people. If they don't know, because if you're sending something out and asking somebody to uproot their family, that may very well have a chilling effect. O'Donnell! Pull up roots and leave for. . . Mejia! Not even knowing the result of that, because that might impact what the company.. . Wilburn! But I think for us, until that ad, that description and ad is ready to go out, we should proceed... Bailey! Are you saying we should be telling the search firms so they know what they're dealing with? Mejia! I think so. They're walking into this - they have to be...I mean, they have a responsibility to the candidates as well, and they need to make sure.. .yes, on both ends, and so.. .they're going to need to know that and that could impact their time line considerably. Dilkes/ Could impact their time line, could impact their costs, could impact whether they're interested, um... O'Donnell/ Their decision. Mejia! It could impact their lead consultant, depending on where you are, so.. .um... Dilkes/ So, what I, I was kind of thinking maybe we could do is assuming we don't have a decision on September 15th, um, that's a Saturday. I would know by Thursday, um, I can just do... the decision if it goes away, that we don't have to deal with it, if it's still there, um, then I could just do, write up a little blurb about what it means, and we could give it to the people who are coming in to interview. Wilburn! Yeah, that's a good idea. And they'll all run away and.. .no! (laughter) Mejia! Yeah, you're asking them for a timeline in your presentation, and they're not, they may be giving you a timeline that's unrealistic, um, but just so you understand that they'll be giving you the best case scenario, and also, Ross, one other question if I could ask. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 24 Wilburn! Sure. Mejia! How are you going to contact the firms to bring them, to invite them in, and uh... Wilburn! Would you be able to do that? Mejia! Sure. Yeah. Wilburn! Okay. Mejia! Just want to make sure that... Elliott! Just so we don't...I don't want us contacting them. Mejia! That's fine. I can.. . okay. (several talking at once) And let them know these are the issues that are of interest and that you do want a.. . conducted or addressed. Wilburn! Please make sure that you address these areas in your presentation. Mejia! Okay. Dilkes! Now, I mean, I could send out that blurb ahead of time. I...I just still have this.. . (several talking at once).. .maybe the issue will go away. Elliott/ Why do we have to tell anyone other than the firm that we chose? Dilkes/ It may affect their timeline. Elliott/ Why? It's an unknown. It can't affect the timeline. Correia! .. . sense of what a general timeline is, under the circumstances that they generally work under. I mean, I think that's what I'm interested in. Generally, and we have this other wrench, and then I think we understand that that could change, the timeline, but... Dilkes! I think if you give it to them at the end of the interview, they have time to look at that and consider whether they're still interested if you contact them. O'Donnell/ This Council.. .this Council should set the timeline. Are there people here.. .ofwhen we want the search started. Are there enough people... Correia! That's different than.. .when we want the search started is different than what their time line is. I mean, their time line is how many weeks, and this phase which could start at any time, but your issue is do we start it right away? Do we wait? That's kind of... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28,2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 25 Bailey/ I'm assuming that the contract will start October 1 st. I mean, that gives us... Vanderhoef/ They will all plan to start immediately after the contract is signed. O'Donnell! And do we want them to do that? Vanderhoef! Yes. O'Donnell/ Do we want them to do that, with these circumstances in place, go out and... Elliott! We don't know. . .I think we have to move forward. Bailey/ So, are you suggesting that we put this on hold until we know the results of that court case? O'Donnell/ I think we've got an excellent City Manager in the meantime. I think this is a wonderful idea. I think we've got some great people that applied for the job, but I think we could be missing out on a potentially wonderful City Manager with the circumstances in place as they are right now. Vanderhoef! There isn't anything that says that we have to accept any candidate, uh, at the end of the whole process. O'Donnell! That's exactly right, Dee, but I'm talking about the candidates applying. Not those that do. Vanderhoef/ I understand that also, and...(several talking at once). Bailey! Okay, why wouldn't your best candidate want to come and give it a shot, believing that he or she would be retained, by a vote? Wilburn! I wouldn't want to relocate, not knowing. Bailey/ Oh, I would. Come on! Dilkes/ I think there's some professional issues that they have to deal with though because they're.. .well, I mean, just in terms of their own rules that govern their city manager profession, I think there are issues. . . there are going to be issues there for people who see that as contrary to what a city manager is supposed to be doing, and so... Elliott! I think...! think if we, if we select, when we select a firm, one of the things that firm will do is get back to us, after they know that we have a special situation, and they might get back to us and say we're running into some problems with it. We need to delay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 26 Vanderhoef/ So that's fine. That makes them professional. (several talking at once) Bailey/ So we're not going to inform, provide Eleanor's memo to everyone who's coming in for an interview. It will be provided to the firm we select? Is that the consensus? Elliott! That would be my choice. O'Donnell! I would think, Bob, with these circumstances in places, some of these people may not come in because they'll realize how difficult it is. Bailey/ That's what I'm wondering, because, I mean, congratulations you're a winner. Here's the memo? (laughter and several talking at once) Elliott! Well, I tend to agree a bit with Regenia. I know you talk to recruiters in major sports at the college level, when you talk with them about competition, it doesn't matter, because they have confidence in their abilities and skills, and as a matter of fact, the better the competition, the more they'll like it, so I'm not sure this is a killer for them. O'Donnell/ But are we, Bob, are you certain we're getting the best person that we can get for the people oflowa City with these circumstances? (several talking at once) I'm not certain at all, and I would like to be. Elliott! You can't be certain of that. O'Donnell! Well, I would like to put our best foot forward. Elliott! You can.. . all you can be certain is, is that you have hired the best people, you've done the best search we can do. . . O'Donnell/ Under a certain set of circumstances, and I don't like those circumstances right now. Elliott! But I think to hold off, we may be holding off for another six to months to a year. I don't know. I mean, they've had this for five years already. Well, it's been in the courts for five years. O'Donnell/ Time flies when you're having a good time. Correia! Tell uS...can you just recap...thank you. Dilkes/ I mean, every Thursday the Supreme Court announces the decisions that it's going to release on the following Friday. Um, and they've been issuing about two a week, um, sometimes three, um, we did. ..there has been an opinion issued that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 27 was argued on the same day that the Shelter House case was argued, and we thought that maybe that was optimistic, but I don't have any real sense of, you know, on what basis they're issuing the decision...I, you know, part of me thinks this is just a complicated thing, and it would... there's probably some varying opinions up there and.. .and. . . Elliott! They're weenies is what it is! (laughter) Dilkes/ We did our oral. . . yeah, we did our oral arguments in April. So, and the case was fully briefed a number of months before that. So, um, there's a number of results. The, you know, it could come back remanded to the District Court to decide the substantive issues. Both Bruce Nestor and I asked them please not to do that. Um, if they decide the substantive issues, they could decide that, um, you can't have a retention election legally for a city manager. Cities can't have that, um, and then the issue's gone. That's it. Um, but, if they decide that it, the retention election is the proper subject of a Charter Amendment, then we have to have two elections, it has to go on the ballot to decide whether the electorate wants that to be part of our Charter, and then if that' s a yes to that question, then the first city manager retention election would be in 2011 because the way the proposed Charter Amendment reads it's a city manager retention election every four years, starting in 2007. So.. .so those are the possible outcomes. (several talking) Correia! Is there any way to petition the court that we.. .no? Elliott! You've asked for expedited... Dilkes/ We actually asked for expedited consideration, which was granted (laughter and several talking at once). Um, and we're beyond that now, because even if a decision comes out next Friday, we're beyond the ballot deadline to get it on the November election. So, at this point, we would be talking about a special election for any Charter Amendments, and so... Wilburn! I was going to say in the meantime, um, you know, we control the things we can control, and I think we proceed to have these interviews, get a firm in mind, let them know about what mayor may.. . you know, about this, and then, uh, if, uh, circumstances fall into place, then we'll have to deal with that at the time. Uh, I can tell you that, uh, while we do have a capable interim city manager, he is...it will, another set of conditions will arise the further out we go. We do not have, since we have an interim city manager, we do not have a...an assistant city manager, and I don't think he would want to proceed indefinitely, um, you know, with... Bailey! Well, and I think in all fairness to the firms we interview, I don't think it would be a bad thing to have the memo from Eleanor as part of this information packet, and ask them how it will, um, affect their ability to do their job, and have them address that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 28 Correia! Well, and that's what I wonder, to get their opinion about, their professional opinion about, I mean, because we could select somebody.. .no, no, no. We could select somebody who would start after, I mean, if that, if all three of them or four of them come in and say, you know, this is a circumstance where it's going to be very hard to get good candidates to apply, um, you should wait until you have a decision, we can still select a firm that would start after our decision. Wilburn! So you want to have... O'Donnell/ ., . selecting the firm. Correia! What'd you say? O'Donnell! I'm all for selecting the firm.. . (several talking at once). Wilburn! But you're suggesting that being addressed as part of the. .. Bailey! Yeah, if we expect them to be open and direct with us, I think we should be open and direct with them, the circumstances. We have a fabulous community. It shouldn't be difficult to recruit somebody here, but we do have this one thing hanging out there. (laughter) It's a big one! Elliott! No, Amy, I think I'll change my mind. I would agree. I would like to know if that.. . okay, I can go along with that. Wilburn! Yeah, I agree with that too. (several talking at once) Bailey/ How would you handle a search under these circumstances, or would you? Correia! ..or would you. Dilkes! If the issue is moot by the time we get to the 15th, we can tell them that and say skip that (several talking and laughter). Elliott/ Mike, that takes into consideration your concerns too, I think. Yeah, I think so. (several talking at once) Wilburn! No, that's good. So, Eleanor, you'll make sure you get something to.. . yeah, thank you. Elliott! You know? The, to me, the problem I see is how many different concepts we have. Do we have seven different concepts of what we're looking for in a city manager, and what we are wanting the city manager to do, how much change are we interested in, and I think that's the seven hundred pound gorilla sitting in the corner. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007. August 28, 2097 Special City Council Work Session Page 29 Vanderhoef! Not in the corner! We're all right in center stage! Wilburn! All right. Um.. . yeah, go ahead. Dilkes! Can Ijust raise one more issue.. .ifum, on the 15th, um, you select your preferred candidate, we check the references and we negotiate a contract, I'm assuming we will be negotiating a time line based on what they have given us. So if you want something different than that you need to tell us that on the 15th. Vanderhoef/ Well, if we want a different start date, uh, then I think they will say, whoa, time out, because a lot of times the person who interviews has the timeline right now to enter into a contract, and if we say we don't want you to start for six months, or an indefinite until we get the answer to this question, then that may not work within the company. Dilkes! Yeah, no, I wasn't talking.. . and I wasn't really talking about the.. .putting it off six months or. . .I think Sylvia, maybe you. . .if you're thinking now about putting it off six months, I don't think going through this process right now makes sense. So I would assurne it would be starting relatively quickly.. Elliott/ There's a difference between the timeframe and the start date. The timeframe most firms are going to come in with a pretty much set timeframe. They know how long it takes them to do the job. Now, they might be looking at more or less community involvement, which might add a few weeks to it, but other than that, they're pretty set. It's the beginning date that'll be tough, right? Mejia! Okay, so... Elliott! Not tough, but our decision. Mejia! So in asking them for an overview in the process, are you askin~ them for week one, week two, week three, rather than October 1 S\ October 15t , November 30th? (several responding) That's fine, but.. .but you're specifically looking.. .week one you're going to do this, week three.. .six, okay. Karr/ Just as a, um, suggestion is your first Council meeting is October 2nd, so when you look at a first preference and checking out references and negotiating, that might be a benchmark of a formal Council meeting to award would be October 2nd. It might be an early benchmark. Wilburn! Yeah, very good. Karr! Unless you're going to call a special meeting, but I'm just looking at the time it's going to take to get those things together and a resolution prepared. Wilburn! All right. I think we're done. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the special Iowa City City Council work session meeting of August 28, 2007.