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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-04-09 TranscriptionApril 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 1 Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn, Wright Staff Present: Helling, Dilkes, Karr Others Present: Colin Baenzi;?er: Hayek/ Okay, uh, why don't we get started here. The first applicant, Colin Baenziger, is out in the hallway waiting for us. Um, as you know, the first 15 minutes will be their presentation and the last 30 minutes will be Q&A and then we'll just take a brief recess between each of the, uh, interviews. You'll see that each of you has received four pieces of paper. They're identical, um, and they have the same set of four basic questions that we came up with, with the help of, uh, Eleanor and Marian. Um, I think we ought to just make sure we ask those, but I didn't want to go beyond four because I think there are going to be a lot of (mumbled) exactly, um...we...Connie or Regenia, would one of you want to read like the second one. Champion/ Sure! Bailey/ You going to take that one, Connie? Champion/ Yeah, that's fine. Hayek/ Okay. I'll start with the first and Susan, do you want to do the last one, and then...I don't care if I do the (noise on mic and several talking) okay, perfect! Yeah, and so anyway, you can jot your own notes down on each piece of paper for interviewing, so...that's all really I have before we launch into this. Anybody (mumbled) Bailey/ (mumbled) if anybody wants to carpool, if anybody's going to the noon events. Mims/ I'm going to run home afterwards so (mumbled) Bailey/ Okay, so...parking is going to be hard so (mumbled) Champion/ I think I'm going to try (mumbled) Wright/ I'll ride out if you want to just come back here. Well, no I...or drop me off at my house. Bailey/ Well we can talk about it, but I just wanted to give a heads up. Karr/ (away from mic) what I've done, just so you know, is I've reserved the Lobby Conference Room, so if you run ahead or behind, all of the firms will be in there and have a couple of (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 2 Hayek/ (away from mic) (several talking) Colin, you've met some of us but not all of us. (noise on mic) (several talking) All right, uh, Colin, I think you'll need to mic up...yeah. Baenziger/ That's what she tells me so... Wilburn/ Nothing personal! Hayek/ Yeah! What do you know and when did you know it? Baenziger/ That's right! (several talking) Hayek/ How the process will fall this morning, I'm sure you've been advised of it, have the opportunity for brief presentation from your end and then we'll follow up with some questions and just have a general discussion. Baenziger/ Okay, sounds good! My name's Colin Baenziger. I'm the principal and owner of Colin Baenziger and Associates, if we're awarded this assignment, and we hope we are, uh, I will be the person who actually does all, uh, all of the work with the client and uh, be the project manager and such. Um, first of all I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today, uh, I came in yesterday and spent a little time looking around the city and you have a very impressive city. Um, it's small enough that, uh, you can get around easily, but with the University and such, you've got an awful lot of cultural opportunities, dining, shopping, um...and I'm surprised to learn that you're just about recession-proof this year, um, University and... Wilburn/ Excuse me, Colin, I think you might need to put your mic on your tie a little closer. Baenziger/ You're right! (laughter) If I can find it...there we go! Is that better? Wilburn/ That's better. Baenziger/ I'm sorry. Um, very low unemployment rate, and um...just...just agreat place! Um, and as you've been recognized. Kiplinger's magazine and Forbes and such and, so we're in a position where you need a city manager, you've got a great story to tell, and we'd like to be the firm that tells that story. What we offer is essentially aproblem-free search. We've been doing this for about ten years now, and we've worked out all the bugs, we hope, but we think we've got'em all! Uh, we have a great ability to find the right person for the...for your community, and we have a turnkey operation (mumbled) under your staff or out demands on your staff s time, and your time, will be relatively minimal. Obviously there'll be some, but uh, we're...we're going to take the ball and run with it. Uh, and we do work with...well with both staff and elected officials. In the back of the book there, there's a resolution that, um, one of our clients passed, and this is kind of what I think an executive recruiter should be doing for you. Um, if you go to the second paragraph, CBA staff worked diligently to find and produce excellent candidates, and then provided the county commission with comprehensive materials concerning the candidate's aptitude, experience, background, complete and thorough interviews, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 3 references, extensive checks of criminal, civil, financial history; verification of employment, education, uh, exhaustive reviews of the internet. Um, it was a completely open, fair, and unbiased and extremely well received by the county commission, county staff (mumbled). Uh, obviously that's what we like to duplicate in every case, and pretty much we're successful. Um, in terms of uh, what separates us, I'm on page, uh, two of this little handout that I gave you...basically all we do is local government work. We're not, uh, working for private sector people. We have our niche, and uh, we stick to it. That's where our expertise is. Um, in terms of experience, all of our key people have been, uh, city managers, county managers at one time or another. I've been an elected official sort o£ I was, uh, on the board of a master homeowner's association that had 22,000 residents. So whereas the scope was much narrower, I've certainly had a pretty good size population to serve so I've sat on both sides of the table. We have a 24/7 client orientation. You can call us anytime, uh, about anything, whether it's related to the search or not. Sometimes a client will just ask us a...something related to local government. Uh, an issue they're dealing with, and obviously we get around and we see a lot of different local governments and we see how they handle issues and so we, uh, it's free. Just pick up the phone and call. I do prefer to take Sundays off, but uh, but we are there 24/7. We also are not satisfied until you're satisfied. We want to make sure you have the person you want so it doesn't matter how long it takes, uh, it's very, very rare that it goes beyond the first go-round but, uh...you know 1 or 2% of the cases but we do want to make sure that you're satisfied with the candidates you have and the work we've done. Um, basically our sales is all by word of mouth pretty much so we need to maintain that reputation. We'll tailor our approach to, uh, to whatever you, um, whatever approach you're most comfortable with. I know in the RFP you talked a little bit about, um, citizen participation and uh, we've done and uh, we'd be happy to do it. We, in fact, find it to be very helpful. Um, in terms of reliability, we've never missed a deadline. We've, uh, never asked for more money. There've been occasions I think where it was probably warranted, but I'd rather be able to make the statement that I've never asked for more money (mumbled) pick up a couple thousand dollars here or there, uh, extra. We've never not had a...we've always had a manager selected, and we've never been fired. We think, uh, we're probably the most thorough firm in the business. Eh, that might be bragging but we think we're pretty close anyway! What we, uh, give you in this handsome one-of-a-kind designer bag (laughter) is, uh, background materials on each of the candidates. This is about five years old, but the methodology hasn't changed a great deal. We've gotten better, a little more complete, but that gives you an idea of the kind of things that we...we turn over to you. We feel it's very important that that work be done before you interview, and before you announce your finalists. Uh, we don't want to be in a situation where one of your residents gets on the internet and finds something, uh, that uh, that we didn't find. So we do it up front and make sure that we have it done properly. Um, and uh, I don't know of anybody else who turns over that kind of work. We're cost effective. Our prices tend to be, uh, among the lowest, not because we do less. In fact, I think we do more, but we work very, very hard at keeping our overhead low. Um, we've never, uh, been involved in any kind of legal matter. I have been an expert witness. That's the only time I've set (mumbled) a court room, aside from divorce, unfortunately. Um, and we offer the best, uh, warranty in the business, which I'll talk about in a few minutes. Over the years we've developed a great deal of trust, uh, both among the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 4 managers and elected officials. We're not going to throw somebody under the bus just to add an extra name to the...to the candidate list. We, um, we're very careful in terms of how we treat our managers, and our clients, in general, and over the years we've developed a... a healthy trust with both parties. Uh, client and candidate recognition - we've had five cities and counties pass resolutions, you had one there, thanking us for our outstanding work, and I don't know how often, uh, Iowa City passes a resolution thanking a consultant for its work, but in our experience it's pretty rare. We're pretty proud of it, as a matter of fact. Um, results, that's the name of the game. I think if you talk to our references you'll find that they're very, very happy with the people we have provided. Um, bottom line is we offer aproblem-free search. We're very strong on customer service, and we are very good at finding the best people for you to interview. And I say people because the idea isn't to give you one candidate that you'll pick to be your city manager. We want to give you ultimately five candidates that are all equally qualified, different experience sets and such perhaps, uh, different areas of strength, and then you'll have an opportunity to talk to those people and pick the one that's the best fit with you and your community. Um, so we like to say people as opposed to person. Uh, in terms of our process, there's a little flow chart on page three. The first...the first part of the process is to, obviously, is gathering information and I've done a bit of that already. Um, and would look forward to gathering more. Part of the process is meeting with you, uh, with any key staff you suggest, with any key residents, uh, you did talk about public participation. One of the things that we have done in the past and we find very helpful is to meet with, um, have public forums and meet with community groups and talk to them about your community. Uh, what we find is we gather a lot of good information that way. When we did Roanoke, I think we had five public forums where members of the public were invited and we do feel that it's best to obviously good publicity and the patience, um, when we did Greensborough, I think we had three public forums. But you can do one for the business community, perhaps; one for the general public; one for neighborhood associations, uh, maybe one for the education community, so on and so forth. And, we just kind of asked a lot of questions about the community and what kind of person you think, the community or the group, thinks would be helpful, uh, or would be a good fit. Um, the bottom line is that we're working for the City Council and uh, it's going to be your decision and you're going to be held accountable for it so ultimately that's where key information, in terms of what we're looking for, comes from. Our, uh, first step after the meetings will be then to develop a recruitment profile. I think we submitted one, I don't remember right off hand, uh, we tend to write lengthy, four-five pages, uh, we don't include a lot of glossy pictures as, in our experience, the candidates, uh, want the meat and potatoes and not so much interested in all the glossy pictures. They can find that on the Internet sites. Um, so we want to understand the ideal candidate. We want to understand what you want to pay, and um, know what you're looking for. Once we've done that, our job is to market the City, but to do it in a fair and honest way with the candidates. We don't want to tell people that they're coming to Chicago or urban area, and for them to show up and find that this isn't what they're expecting. As I said earlier, you've got an awful lot to sell here. It's a great community. Um, and we'll focus on the positive, but if there are some negatives we'll keep those in mind and uh, let the candidates know what they are, and I don't really see any negatives but so much as an accurate portrayal of the city and the opportunity. We'll do an This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 5 aggressive search, uh, that includes telephone contacts, uh, (mumbled) um, we'll advertise in the trade press. We do have a database, and we have a, uh, an email list of about 8,000 people that are involved in local government, and that's one of the tools that we use, uh, obviously we can call people, but we're never going to reach 8,000 people by telephone. We find that email is a very effective way of contacting people. They can, uh, simply, uh, see the subject line, they can decide whether or not they want to open it, but it also is very nice because if they know somebody else that's looking, they can forward it very easily. So our goal is to create a buzz. We want people talking about this job. We're going to do it with, through a number of means, and um, find that right person, right people, excuse me! Once we've, uh, closed the advertising period, uh, we're going to go through the resumes. I would expect for Iowa City that you're looking at....a 100 to 130 candidates in this marketplace. Not all of them are going to be qualified. Not all of them will be well qualified, but I would expect in that (mumbled) probably be 30 to 35 that pretty well qualify, and then our goal is to take the information we've gathered from you and pick out the top probably ten to fifteen initially, uh, we'll do...I'll do what I call a Colin Test, which is essentially means I call the top ten or twelve candidates, fifteen, and talk to them and my...my talent, why we've been successful quite frankly, is figuring out who fits, and so I do the initial screening and then once I've done that I'll turn it over to my staff to do the background work, and that involves, uh, a formal interview, which is part of the package you're looking at, with each of the candidates, uh, we do, uh, thorough reference checks. We're going to look at...we like to talk to all of their current elected officials. We'd like to talk to two past elected officials, the city attorney, the external auditor. Uh, Chamber of Commerce director, couple of newspaper reporters, couple of subordinates, couple of peers, and we'd like to find some others that are not on the list. I mean, we tell the candidates who we want to talk to. We don't want to talk to their five best friends. We want a good variety of people and we want to make sure that we talk to as many of those people as we can. Life being as it is, typically we will talk to eight to twelve people, uh, people don't call us back, they're on vacation, whatever, whatever. Um, but we find if we can talk to about eight people, we can get a pretty good picture of who that candidate is. Um, we do, uh, extensive background checks. We're going to do criminal records checks at the, uh, state and uh, county level. We're going to do civil records checks at the, uh, state and county level. We're going to do, uh, bankruptcy and credit checks at the, uh, state, or the county and federal level. Department of Motor Vehicles. We're going to verify employment, education, and most of what is in that notebook is probably internet research. We're going to go out and search the internet. These days even small towns have small, uh, have newspapers and they have archives online and so it's a great way to get a feel for who that candidate is. We'll give you all of that material when we're done with our recommendations on who you should talk to. If there's anybody who has any serious problems, uh, they won't be in the notebook. We'll obviously ask them about anything we find, uh, but we're not going to put them in the notebook if we think that there...there's some issues there. It may be, um, management problems. It may be, uh, we had a candidate, uh, once that seemed to have trouble getting along with his council. He'd been the manager for like 15 or 20 years, but uh, just reading the newspaper just didn't seem to get along well with the council. So we, uh, dropped him. We'd like you to select the finalists. We'll give you the notebook with eight or ten candidates in it. Uh, we'll give you the opportunity, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 6 normally a week, to go through that notebook and pick the five that you want to talk to. Uh, one of the reasons why we do that is, quite frankly, we can come in and we can learn an awful lot about Iowa City, but we'll never know Iowa City the way you will. And you'll see things in those notebooks that maybe we've missed. So, um, we like you to pick the five that you're going to interview. Typically, when we're done, 30 to 40% of our finalists are minorities or women. We try to have a diverse field. Um...once we're done, once you've picked the people, we're going to, uh, notify those that made it to the finalists, and we will talk to the others, and we also try to point them to our web site. We have some nice material on there in terms of how to get the next job and what to look for and such. So we try to be helpful to the candidates, you know, even if they don't make it through the process as one of the finalist, then we at least want them to get something out of it. We'll conduct, uh, it must be getting close to my time, so let me speed this up. The process we normally like to do for, uh, the interviews is to have a reception on Friday night, uh, as I understand in Iowa the finalists have to be public. So that's a great opportunity for the community to come in and meet the finalists, and for you to kind of observe and see whether the candidates seem to be a good fit, or whether they're wallflowers or whether they go out and mingle and how comfortable they are with the public. We do one-on-one interviews because quite frankly it's going to make or break this manager is whether or not you're comfortable with them, and uh, so we like the candidates to rotate around and meet with each of you for about 40 minutes and give you an opportunity to ask your questions. Then we like to come into a setting like this, pretend it's a city council meeting in essence and have you fire, uh, questions at the candidates as a group, um, after that we...we'll wait a couple of days. We like you to have the opportunity to sleep on it, and then we'll conduct a session where we decide who your next manager will be. The only other step in it is that, uh, about, uh, six months later we will get in touch just to make sure everything's going well and see if there's anything we can do to right the ship if there's any issues. Uh, certainly if there's any questions or problems coming up, we'd like to, uh, be aware of them so that we can try and solve them early. It doesn't happen very often, maybe one in every 20 cases. There might be some issues and usually they're minor. I have a draft schedule here that calls for, uh, a selection in the middle of July. There's an 'oops' on the page there where I have something in December. That's really where we'll be checking back with you. Um...and I...in terms of if we do a public participation process where there...we're working with the public and getting their input up front, we're probably going to move the schedule back a couple of weeks, just to (mumbled) time for that process. Um, warranty, and I'll just do this real quick. First year, anything other than an act of God, we'll repeat the search for free. No charge. Um, second year, we'll do it for our cost only. After that, you know, gotta make some money somewhere (laughter) uh, we're not done until you're satisfied, uh, so if we have to repeat the process again, which is very rare, we will be happy to do so at no cost. And our price is guaranteed. We will not exceed it, and you'll find that, I know it wasn't part of the RFP, but you'll find that we're among the lowest priced firms. Summary, problem-free search, we'll find you the right people, we have customer orientation. We do work well both with the public and the press, and (noise on mic) elected officials. Cost-effective. We want this job. We understand it. The people we've talked to, you're a good group to work with, a balanced group, and you get along This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 7 well together and uh, can't ask for much more than that, when you're, uh, marketing the city (mumbled) manager. Having said that, any questions? Hayek/ Well, Colin, uh, thanks for that. That's very informative. Um, I think I'd start the questions by, uh, asking you...to answer a question about the fact that we went through a search in 2007, 2008, and we did a lot of work on the front end, uh, generated a community profile, things like that. Baenziger/ Right. Hayek/ Um, I don't know if you've gone through a situation where you've helped a city within, you know, one, two or three years after a search and... and what your thoughts would be on whether it's a good idea to start from scratch, you know, use some of those front end materials, uh, you know, and...and build on those, that kind of thing, you know. Baenziger/ I would certainly like to build on those materials. It's been...2007, so it's been about three years. Obviously there'd be need...need to be some updating, I understand there's a couple new members of the City Council, um, they would be great...a great place to start, but I'd still like to go out and talk to some of the members of the community, um...it doesn't...that's too soon. My goal is for you to have a manager that'll last at least five years. I'm not comfortable with (mumbled) unless the manager lasts at least five years. Um, but we certainly start with what's already been (noise on mic) and then work from there. And I'd, one of the things I'd obviously like to know down the road is what happened to the last manager and why it wasn't a good fit, um, you may... perhaps what happened was enough work wasn't done at the back end, in terms of (mumbled) matching up the candidate with the community, and with the elected officials obviously. Hayek/ Yeah, and I assume you're going to...you're going to need to understand the pulse of the city and... Baenziger/ Oh, yeah! Hayek/ ...you're familiar with the morays and the environment, etc. Baenziger/ Oh, yeah! Hayek/ But we...we did do a lot of work three years ago, and that's the question, uh, what would need to occur for this search process, on the front end, in light of the fact that we did so much on the...on the first search. Baenziger/ Obviously I need to spend time with each of you because one...the good candidates, the first question they're going to ask is, what's the group like? Are they sane or crazy? Do they work well together? Champion/ We've had some crazy ones! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 8 Baenziger/ And the response to that comment is...is very encouraging, because everybody laughed! (laughter) That's a good sign! But, um, so I really need to know a lot about you and that's part of the reason that I need to meet one-on-one with each of you, so I can talk to the candidates intelligently about you, and of course that helps me, when I'm screening the candidates, to know what kind of person I'm really looking for. The bottom line is going to be their interaction with you, their ability to communicate with you and the public. And, uh, so I need to get a sense of where this community's coming from and get, as you said, the pulse...hope that helps. Hayek/ Yeah. Champion/ If you were in our shoes, um, looking for a city manager, what attributes would you want to find? Baenziger/ There's...probably three or four that I would focus on. One is integrity. I think it all starts there. Um, but the second thing is, uh, communication skills, being able to, uh, talk to the public, talk to the elected officials. Someone who understands that, you know, you need to be informed, uh, you need to be the first to know, not the second, after the press or something. Um, somebody who's outgoing and comfortable with the public. That goes a long way towards, uh...establishing acomfortable relationship. Customer service skills, I think, are incredibly important these days, particularly with budgets, uh, being cut and uh, seems like yours is pretty steady, and uh, but uh, people...are angrier I think these days because things aren't going as well in their lives, so their customer service skills are very, very important, and um, we want somebody who's got a track record for getting things done, and finally I guess an understanding of politics, uh, how politics work, and what we look for typically when we're screening candidates, as kind of a measure of how well they do with those things, is longevity. I like to see candidates that have been in their positions for five plus years, um, and one of the reasons I like that is, number one, you're not going to survive unless you (mumbled) say five years, unless you can get things done are achievement oriented and you're not going to survive unless you understand the politics. So, that's kind of a key indicator I use is longevity. The other side of it is, if you...if you're not staying three or four years, five, six, uh, you may be on the way up, and in that case, you always worry about, well, how long will they stay, and the other thing is of course they may not be competent and they're being asked to leave every two or three years. So, um, longevity's a big indicator for me in terms of measuring those things and then diving deeper to make sure those things are all (mumbled) Champion/ What kind of traits would just automatically put this person off your list, even when you're looking for... as a consultant? Baenziger/ Well, my first screening is longevity. Somebody hasn't...doesn't, hasn't shown that, they're not going to get to the second round. Um, you know, it's hard...it's hard looking at a resume because there can be very good people, particularly those who have been in the same job for a while, that don't do resumes very often. Uh, so we try and look beyond that, talk to them, but um, I guess the, you know, the obvious thing is...is, um, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 9 people are confident and that their resumes, or their background supports their, uh, achievement (mumbled) I think it's kind of the same answer I gave earlier. Customer service is important. The reverse of that, someone who's not good with the public, someone who hasn't...doesn't communicate well. Bailey/ You talked about the public process and you're obviously, um, experienced using that, and that would be something we would expect here. Are there any provisos about using that process or weighting that process in a particular way that you would, um... Baenziger/ Well, we talked about getting the input up front, and it's a good way to get the community involved and get them interested, um, some of my clients have used, uh, citizen advisory committees to help screen resumes and such. I'm not a big fan of that. We'll certainly make it work and...and uh, but my thinking is you want the public involved. You don't want them too involved...because you're the ones that have to make that decision, you know, in the long run, and you're the ones that have to live with that decision. So, um, we don't want the public saying, well, here's out top five candidates and here's the ranking, because if you happen to like number five better than number one, then there's going to be a little bit of commotion in the community. We prefer the, uh, citizen input up front. We prefer, um, after that we do like the reception idea because people can go to you afterwards and say, you know, I really didn't like this person, or I really liked this person a lot better. Um, but the bottom line is to remember it's your decision. You'll be held accountable for it, and so we want to structure the process so that you can make the best decision, and to have a public...have the opportunity to provide input. Bailey/ And at follow-up how do you balance or look at a manager's ability to work with external constituencies, as well as the internal constituencies of a large staff? Baenziger/ A lot of that comes from the references, I mean, in terms of how we actually evaluate? Bailey/ Uh-huh. Baenziger/ From the questions we ask the references. Uh, and given the variety of the people we talk to. Bailey/ What weight do you put on that balance? Baenziger/ I would say it's...it's pretty close to 50/50. Obviously, in some...I guess in some ways you can have it all. You just have to find the right person. Um, they have to be able to communicate with the council and be...and the council has to be comfortable. They have to be able to communicate with the public and be comfortable with the public, and they have to be able to deal with external bodies, constituencies, which might be say the county, or EPA or something like that. Because any one of those three would sink your ship if (mumbled) well. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. Apri19, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 10 Wilburn/ Colin, I want to back up to the citizen input, public participation, uh, processes that you've used. Can you, um, and you mentioned you want to...you prefer to get it up front and I understand, you know, the Friday type gathering, but um, just a little bit about the, I guess the range of, uh, you know, format, what does it look like, and um, what's the largest response to a public input process that you have experienced. Are you the person that manages that? Is it one of your staff? I'm trying to get a feel for your organization's ability to manage that...that process, and how well it's been perceived. Baenziger/ I think, well, to answer the first question last, I think it's been well received (mumbled) one thing I neglected to mention earlier, and that is that, uh, when we did Greensborough, uh, and I think Roanoke as well, there was an opportunity for the public to submit comments via the internet, um, questionnaire and that was helpful too. Um, I basically manage the process. It's part of my role as the project manager, uh, I'll be the on-site person that talks to the public. I will be the person (noises on mic) internet surveys or whatever. Um, it certainly takes some time, but that's part of my job! To spend the time to do it. Now I also have people that can help me if I need to delegate something out I can do that. We've got, you know, David Collier's that's mentioned in the proposal, Tom Andrews who's the former county administrator in Fulton County, Georgia, and we have a couple other people, and those are the three of us, pretty much. Wilburn/ And what about the...the volume of folks that have been involved... Baenziger/ On the public side? Wilburn/ The public side. Again, I'm looking at, uh, you know, it's one thing to, um, manage data from an internet survey. It's another if you're having focus groups and there's 150 people there, I want to get a picture of just your...what's the largest you've dealt with? Baenziger/ Probably close to 50 in one meeting. We find that no matter how much you advertise it and perhaps Iowa City's going to be different, if you divide the groups by kind of maybe subject matter interest and then have a general public forum, you're unlikely to get more than 30 people in each group. Uh, it's just been our experience so I think when we did Greensborough we had about 50 people in the, uh, business group, but uh, that we met with. It's, you know, you just get up in front of them and you ask questions and recognize people, and take whatever time it takes and get the answers. I don't know. Wilburn/ Okay. Mims/ I just want to clarify one thing kind of related to what Ross was asking. When you're talking about the Friday night reception and the interviews, you're talking about having all the finalists here at the same time, at the same reception? Baenziger/ Yes. Mims/ And then rotating them through interviews like on... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 11 Baenziger/ Yes. And... Mims/ ...before that reception, like early, like on Thursday and Friday with the Council and...and certain groups or... Baenziger/ Couple of things. I usually do Thursday...I usually do Friday, Saturday because some council members work and so you know I can do Thursday, Friday, it doesn't matter. Mims/ Okay. Baenziger/ Um, I usually like to have the reception first, because it gives you an opportunity... it does a couple of things. Uh, but one of which is that you meet the candidates informally, get a chance to chit-chat with them, um, and it's like an ice breaker. So that the next .morning when you sit down and do the one-on-ones, um...you know, you can go right to the meat and potatoes and you don't have to worry about, you know, how do you like the weather. (laughter) So, that's the standard approach, and...and you know, we can vary it if you want to spend an hour with each candidate, that's fine. Whatever you're...most comfortable with. We want you to be comfortable with the decision you're going to make so...I've had council people that want to spend two hours with the candidates and the rest of the council doesn't, so we modified the process to accommodate that one person because it's important that that person be comfortable. All of you need to be comfortable when you're ready to make your selection. Mims/ How do you see, um, this search being different maybe than the bulk of the ones you've done have been Florida, I mean, I saw you got Polk County, but you haven't done a lot really in the Midwest, and haven't seen a lot in there, uh, you know, we're a Big Ten University town, the University is a huge, huge component of what happens here and how things happen and an important interaction between the City and the University. How do you see that maybe impacting your search or your ability to find and... and understand this community and get the right fit for us? Baenziger/ We've done this...in various parts of the country, and it's a concern that always comes up, um, but what we've found is that our... our methodology works. Um, we'd never done one in Virginia; we did Roanoke and they're extremely happy. Same, uh, Greensborough, we've done a little bit of work in North Carolina, but it was our first city manager search. Um, the University adds a level of complexity, certainly, um, but Coral Gables has the University of Miami and we did Coral Gables. So, I guess what I'm saying is I've seen this in different, I'm sure I've seen the different elements. Probably seen all of them. Uh, Roanoke has a big medical community. Uh, so does Greensborough. Um, what I haven't seen is the unique combination that makes Iowa City Iowa City. Um, so...what makes it, um, (mumbled) the problems I anticipate? I don't know. I don't really anticipate any serious problems. We've done this before and it works. And the clients seem to like the results! I hope you've talked to our references. Champion/ Do you, oh, go ahead, Mike. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 12 Wright/ I've got a question to follow up with Susan's, uh, cause I noticed that most of your successful searches had been in the south (mumbled) southeast (mumbled) context in this part of the (mumbled) I work at the University and what we've found frequently is that it's very difficult to entice people to come from say a nicer climate (laughter) to one that's a little more challenging. Uh, and frequently we find that Midwesterners are much more easy to sell on a community like Iowa City than folks from a warmer climate. Baenziger/ I think that's true, uh, and um, what we need to do, and what we did with Polk County was we focused on people in the Midwest and the mountain, uh, west, quite frankly, um, because what we find is there's a managerial community that tends to like, uh, the east coast. There's a community that tends to like California, and then there's kind of the Midwest in-between. And, um, our contacts I would say...obviously they're not as strong as they are say in Florida where our home base is, but we've never had any trouble finding candidates and finding very good ones in the Midwest, or any place else we've gone. Just, there's no secret...real secret to headhunting. It's a lot of hard work and finding the...finding the right people. In this case there will be a little more outreach done for us because we haven't done quite as many in this area. The same thing was true in Virginia and North Carolina. Wilburn/ Just continuing along that line of thinking, what was the, um, and you gave some numbers in which you anticipated the applicant pool might be like and then the number that you think might be qualified. Baenziger/ Uh-huh. Wilburn/ Um, what was the response to the Polk County, in terms of numbers and, uh, did you...did you get that 30 or so to take a look at and...and what was the geographic spread of the folks that were applying for the Polk County job? Baenziger/ I don't think we had quite as many applicants for the Polk County job. Uh, part of that's because the economy's changed, I think. Uh, we've noticed in the last year to two years, probably the last year and a half, that we're getting about probably 54...50% more applicants than we typically did in prior years for jobs. Wherever we advertise, um, I would have told you a year or two ago that we're probably looking at 60 to 80 candidates, and I think that's what we had in Polk County. We had 12 very strong candidates, um, the county ultimately ended up interviewing three, that it was comfortable with. Uh, we did have some people drop out, um, frankly ideally the best situation is when you can, uh, keep the search confidential, all the way through. You will get better candidates, but I understand the state law is the state law. Um, but and most of those candidates came from the Midwest. Come from Illinois, Iowa, Colorado. Wilburn/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. Apri19, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 13 Hayek/ Um, I know you didn't put a cost component into the response, but do you...do you have a number in mind or is there a ballpark you'll be working within for a community like this? Baenziger/ $23,000. Hayek/ 23? Okay. Baenziger/ And that by the way includes everything we do. There's no expenses on top of that, um, it's just, that's the number. And we will not ask you for anything more than that. (several talking) Champion/ I just wanted to ask a simple question. Do you think it would be detrimental to Iowa City because our last city manager was ousted? (laughter) Baenziger/ No I don't. Um, you've got a great city. All managers are masochists. And I say that jokingly (laughter) but... Bailey/ Understands his field! Baenziger/ Yeah, I mean, the bottom line is managers, and the good ones in particular, feel like they can walk in and they can deal with any sets of problems and they can solve them. So, um, I don't see that as a major issue. Course, it would be better if you had a history with three managers in the last 50 years. Um, but it's not...it's not an issue. Hayek/ And...and in fairness to...just to set the record straight, before our recent experience we had two managers over 33 years so I think that (several talking) long-term view is that this is a very stable community, uh, a good environment for a manager. Bailey/ And you know we keep talking about fit and I just want to go back to that question because that's a hard thing to gauge and there has to be, I mean, that fit with the council, the fit with the public, the fit with the University, as Susan pointed out, is a very large part of our constituency, um, the critical fit with the staff, um, the fit with the other elected officials, the other elected, or the other staff members who work for those, how do you gauge those in all those areas, and what...what is, is there a critical fit? Um, that you'll be looking for, and hope that they can, you know, figure out how to work with the other constituencies or can you find somebody who fits all those? Because fit is the word that, well, we've been talking about it for a year. Baenziger/ I think if you talk to our references you'll find that we manage to hit the fit pretty well. Uh, in Roanoke and in Greensborough and such, how do we do it? Bailey/ How, yeah, that's what I wondered. Baenziger/ I hate to say this, but it's almost gut feel. I mean, if I have a...I'll talk to everybody here, I'll get a sense from the community, and...then I'll talk to the candidates. I'll look at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 14 all the materials, and I'll put it together. Um, it's been interesting because that's the way I've done it historically, and I know that, you know, I was a chemistry major in college, so I understand numbers and analysis and all those type of thing. I've gone back at the request of some candidates, and some of my clients, and created a matrix to demonstrate how they match up with the job description, and the bottom line is when I'm done, uh, the same people drop out. So, you know, it's kind of intuitive. Bailey/ That's okay. If you've got it, I mean (laughter) that's fine, if it's worked for you, and then you said something about acheck-in at six months, but um, in some of these applications, of course we've run a lot of, um, proposals, people talk about on-boarding and the concept of that...that change, helping facilitate the change. Um, and do you have experience doing that, and what does that six-month check-in entail besides the call, 'How's it going; it's going well. Well, great.' Baenziger/ That's...it's mostly, uh, mostly that call. Bailey/ Okay. Baenziger/ We think...what we have found is if you find the right person up front, as we generally do, as we pretty much always do, that there's not a lot of work that we need to be involved in. We're certainly there. We'll certainly take any questions. I'll come out and meet with you. Um, anything you need or want, we'll be there to do it. It's part of the flat fee. There's no additional cost. Um, but um, and there are some things that we can do that can help, uh, we can recommend some people to do some...some interesting little tests and such that help you understand the candidate and their, how you would relate to them and what their skills are and such, but we generally don't include that as part of our costs. Most of our clients don't ask for it, so...uh, we don't worry about it too much. Bailey/ Okay. Dickens/ As far as the interview process, um, you can find a lot of people (mumbled) that's kind of a given, uh, is there any questions in there that bring up...do they think outside the box, you know, innovative, uh, ideas, cause we are a little different community here and I'm sure that'll come up with...when everybody talks. Uh, how do you kind of pull that.. . Baenziger/ A lot of it you...is part of that initial screening interview that I do, talk to them about how they solve problems, you know, there are some people that are very good within the box, and there are others that are completely outside the box, uh, some people don't have a box (laughter). I have, I mean, one of my candidates I...that I think a great deal of, he just thinks outside the box and uh...give you a quick example. Uh, the town he was in had a lot of streets that normally...they didn't...the through street didn't match up, and so they were going to redo the roads and so the engineers came in and said okay, we're going to realign all these roads. John said, no. What do you mean? We always align the roads. No. John's point was, you don't need traffic calming devices if the roads don't line This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 15 up. And that's where most of them didn't line up was in the little communities. So, uh, that's the kind of thing when... if you're looking for creative management, not all my clients do, that's the kind of thing we'll look for. Wilburn/ Want to follow up, uh, this is a...I have this too close, I'm sorry (noises on mic) I want to follow up on, this is more just give us a picture of expectations in terms of the market and...and who's out there now. You mentioned, and clearly we want the, um, the most effective match that we can get, regardless of who they are, uh, but you mentioned that typically 30 to 40% of your, um, candidates are minority, women. Um, how does that compare to your experience with Polk County, and then how does that compare to your experience outside of Florida? What can we...what can we anticipate? Baenziger/ We've done very well in the, uh, outside of Florida generally. We did not do as well in Polk County, quite frankly. Um, and I think...even though Des Moines is a fairly good sized city, I think the, uh, opportunities for employment and such, uh, and then it's somewhat, um (mumbled) (several commenting) it's not, I mean, I would anticipate that we'd have many of the same problems here. Uh, you do have the University. You have the healthcare, um, one of the things that's kind of nice about city managers is many of them are married or their husband or wife are teachers or nurses or something, some kind of skill that's readily transferable, because managers do, ten-year run is a good run! Uh, so...there's career...and managers know they have to move so...um, but I...I anticipate that it'll take a little more work, but we do like to have a diverse field and so we're going to (mumbled) Hayek/ Well we probably need to wrap up here so we can take a bathroom break and stay on schedule. Bailey/ Thank you. Hayek/ Um, well, Colin, thank you for coming. (several talking) Very informative, good discussion. Got any follow up questions, we'll be sure to contact you. Baenziger/ Okay. Hayek/ And we appreciate the trip! Baenziger/ Well I want to thank you again for the opportunity. We do hope to work with you. Um, and we stand on our record. We'd like to include Polk County (laughter) Mims/ That's okay! We were just (several talking) Baenziger/ We would like to include Iowa City on our list of candidates. Hayek/ Great, thank you. (several talking) Mercer Group: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 16 Hayek/ Clark, welcome to Iowa City. Appreciate your trip out here. Uh, probably been advised how we're going to do this. Pretty informal, uh, but we'll have an opportunity at the front end here for your presentation, and then we'll just follow up with some basic questions. Have a good conversation. Wurzberger/ Thank you, Mayor, and uh, thanks again for inviting us to be considered for this important recruitment. Uh, you do have our proposals I believe and had a chance to look at those, uh, and uh, we have lots of information there obviously so uh, what I wanted to do is just talk about a few general things and uh, get as quickly as possible to a, a dialog because your questions are, uh, are most important. Uh, the Mercer Group as you may already know or have learned is a consortium of senior level public sector consultants, uh, doing business in twelve states. Uh, we've been in operation for 20 years and at this time we are the largest nationwide public sector executive, uh, search firm and we have more experience than any other public sector executive search firm. Um, as you know my name is Clark Wurzberger. I'm a Mercer Group senior vice president, um, I've managed our California office at the same location in the Sacramento area for the past eight years, and I've worked as a consultant to local government, um, for the past 16 years, after a long, uh, varied public sector career. Um, our proposal, as I said, provides you a lot of detail concerning our experience and qualifications so I'm not going to spend any more time on that, unless you wish to do that. Um, if we were selected, uh, to conduct the recruitment, uh, I would serve as the lead consultant, uh, and the project manager, and would be your point of contact, uh, throughout the search. Our president and CEO, Jim Mercer, would, uh, team with me as the project director, and would assist with the overall search strategy and the background and reference checks. Um, now our recruitment methodology is, uh, is outlined for you in the proposal, but very briefly, um, I would just say that we begin with a thorough analysis of the position as you all understand it at this point in time. Um, we...we do that by having extensive consultation with you, uh, first on an individual basis. We want to sit down with you one-on-one and uh, discuss your views about the position, the future of the position, uh, the goals, the vision, um, what I will do is actively, uh, listen to your thoughts and uh, will ask questions, seek clarification, uh, but our role will be as an independent and objective consultant. Uh, helping to determine what you define as your mission and...and objectives for the future. Now based upon that meeting, I would develop a position profile, in draft form, uh, for your review and your approval, and uh, this is a very critical step in the process because obviously we're going to recruit our candidates, you know, based upon that...that job specification. So, uh, if there are any differences of point of view with regard to the position, we'11...I'll play a role in reconciling those with, uh, with you. Um, we also have a substantial data base that we would also review, as part of that effort. And then we would...we would review and screen applicants, uh, by the, uh, by the resume deadline, um, and uh, based upon the job spec that you've, uh, that you've developed with us. Um, at this point what we would do is be prepared to identify for you those perspective candidates who, uh, most closely meet the criteria, uh, that you have established, and what we will do is utilize a, uh, a matrix, uh, type of a sheet for you to look, in terms of taking a quick and, uh, overview of the skill sets, traits, characteristics that you've established, and uh, the degree to which we feel those candidates meet those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 17 criteria. Um, and then we can do that through one-on-one meetings with you, as well, so that we can get guidance from you on that. Once you have reviewed and given us your consent, um, we would then interview each of those candidates. Um, utilizing our professional expertise, um, these are comprehensive interviews, um, where I would bring my experience to bear in evaluating the career experiences, traits, characteristics, uh, of the candidates. Uh, they would also be required to provide written responses to our questions in the form of a supplemental questionnaire. So, in addition to our, uh, formal write-up, uh, background and... and reference checks, you would receive writing samples, as it were, that provide you some insight into the, uh, the management style, philosophy, uh, achievements as it relates to this position. Uh, so you get a...as much of a three- dimensional picture of a candidate as possible. Uh, I also typically do this, and I don't know whether you would want me to do this or not, but I can capture on video tape a portion of my interviews of the candidates, and provide those to you ahead of time. Um, that gives you a kind of a sense of the candidates before, you know, spending any city resources to bring them to the city to interview, and it gives you a chance to kind of assess body language, um, the quality of the responses, the, you know, different things that are hard to pick up, you know, from just...from just paper, which you'll be looking at. Uh, so based on the outcome of those steps, we would be prepared to recommend to you a list of finalist candidates, uh, typically those will be five to seven individuals. And, uh, we will have conducted, of course, thorough background and reference checks on those people, and would report to you on the results, if all of this is part of our, uh, comprehensive written report on the finalist candidates. And then finally we would, uh, of course facilitate, uh, the interview process with you, uh, with our recommendations and of course coordinate all the necessary details and follow up related to maintaining the integrity of the...of the process. So that's a brief description of the methodology, uh, there is of course more involved with that. We have to follow up with lots of, uh (mumbled) proactive sourcing dimension to this where, uh, I would be, uh, proactively contacting, uh, candidates that we know of, candidates that know of good candidates, uh, to invite them to apply, who wouldn't necessarily respond to an Internet ad or solicitation, uh, you know, as we do normally in our...in our recruitment efforts. So that you come up with a candidate pool that reflects, uh, candidates that not only meet, hopefully exceed, uh, the specifications that have been developed in the position, uh, and then of course with our, uh, with our interviews, uh, we can confidently recommend that they will be high performers in the job, specifically in the areas that you're interested in. That...that covers that part very briefly. I wanted to free up the rest of the time to review so we can get to any questions that you have about this. I know you're looking at other firms, and we share similar methodologies to some extent, but uh, there are differences and be happy to highlight those if you'd like. Hayek/ Clark, we, as you know, went through this in 2007, 2008, um, with another search firm, and uh, there was quite a lot of front end work on our... on our part to create a profile and do things like that, and just an initial question for you would be...to what extent would that work, that body of materials, um, assist this time around, um... Wurzberger/ Oh yeah, it's of great assistance. Um, think of the job spec as a marketing tool, as well, um, it will obviously contain information about the city, uh, about the challenges, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 18 the opportunities, the, um, important information candidates will be interested in, such as comp and benefits, uh, but most importantly you'll have a component which will describe the so-called ideal characteristics of the candidate that we're seeking. We don't want the whole universe of city managers applying for this job. We want a very focused recruitment. We want individuals to look at the recruitment brochure and, uh, say, uh, gee that describes me and, you know, I think I would be interested in applying for that. Um, so the content that you've already developed would be, uh, enormously helpful, um, it would be my role to, uh, amplify areas that, you know, that I think have changed or that you foresee as, uh, being important for the future. I'm well aware that this city enjoys an excellent reputation here in the heartland and uh, you have a bright future ahead, uh, I think the new city manager's going to have a very positive climate to work in, and I think you're going to attract good candidates, um, so that's all to your benefit. Does that adequately.. . Hayek/ Yeah, and it's just...it's something worth thinking about, you know, in terms of...which portions of the overall process, uh, will be the same or different, this time around, just by virtue of all the work that went into it, you know, two or three years ago, and it may be that...that, you know, because you're a different firm and you need to have, uh, a sense of, you know, us and the pulse of the community, etc., that you by and large start from scratch and use that, you build on it or something like that. Wurzberger/ That's right. Hayek/ We're just trying to get a sense first, and... Wurzberger/ And remember, it'll come to you in a draft form, you know, it's not just going right out the door. We're going to make sure that you...you will sign off on, uh, on this profile. Um, I would look at say for example on ideal characteristics, um, you know, typically, and I look at a city like Iowa City, um, and I know that, um, you'd be interested in a candidate who is comfortable working in a community that is somewhat participative, um, sophisticated, accustomed to high quality results, um, you would want someone who, uh, establishes performance expectations, uh, within the organization, you know, hold staff accountable, you know, for performance and, you know, while maintaining that atmosphere of team work. Um, someone who models the behaviors, uh, expected throughout the organization. Uh, strong work ethic, high motivation, self- starter, uh, committed to high quality work products, um, commitment to the overall objectives of the city, and uh, obviously can be relied upon to give his or her best professional recommendations to the council without counting the votes first, uh, so to speak, and uh, uh, we want someone with a strong financial acumen, you know, somebody who's fiscally conservative, um, and someone who will guide rather than lead you. Um, those to me...those strike me as characteristics that, uh, would be...would be something you...you might want to see in your...in your new city manager. But in our one-on-one meetings, uh, we can flesh these out in more detail and uh, and tweak that, and tweak all the institutional knowledge that's already been developed, so that we have a product that accurately reflects what you're...what you're looking for in the new manager. And we'll, um, as I say, attract the kind of manager that you want to attract. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 19 Hayek/ Sort of preempted another question we were planning to ask, and well, no which is okay, so I'll just kind of launch into it. Uh, you know, we are...we're a Midwestern college town, dominated by a substantial public university... Wurzberger/ Yes. Hayek/ ...and, you know, talk about how that...that impacts what you do. Wurzberger/ Well, it's a...it's a big positive, you know, I know that the University's your largest employer. Uh, it's the tradition and heritage that you enjoy, this, uh, this kind of...this melding of, uh, of the University culture with, uh, with the city culture, um, just walking around downtown you can see these edifices of, uh, wonderful tradition and uh, yet you've got your private businesses and you've got, uh, you know, an active pedestrian centers. People are walking around and interacting and talking. Uh, a traditional downtown. It's something that a lot of cities would love to have. Um, I know that, uh, you're fiscally sound. Um, you have atriple-A bond rating, uh, your reserves are good. I believe they're at 20 to 25% of your General Operating Budget. Um, I think your operating departments appear to be in pretty good shape, as far as I can tell. I know your public safety operations appear very healthy. And they're growing, along with the city needs. Uh, you have a solid base of, uh, local industry and businesses, um, excellent town to gown relations with the University, and uh, you have good hospitals and clinics. You have so many positive, uh, you know, resources, which uh, you know, which bode for a bright future for you as you continue to grow. And I think you're evolving as a, from a... a large town into something of a small city, and therefore your city manager is going to need to, I think, bring a, uh, set of skills in strategic planning that can help you achieve the comprehensive plan that you've...that you have already worked hard on. Um, those are, to my...to my way of thinking, uh, very important skills for that new manager, must bring those to the table. Um, but obviously the new manager needs to partner with you. Um, you know, you have, um, you're going to continue to grow, they're going to need to help identify those areas of the city that...that may need, you know, more assistance and attention, you know, than the others so...uh, in my view that would be something I would be looking for in terms of previous experiences and success...successes in your candidates. Again, I hope that addressed your question. (several talking and laughing) Champion/ What kind of attributes do you look for, um, that would make you not want to interview somebody? Wurzberger/ (both talking) well, there's... (laughter) Hayek/ We've got her on board for comic relief! (laughter) The only reason we let her stick around! Wurzberger/ Well, as I stated earlier, our...our interviews are comprehensive. We, uh, we validate, obviously, the critical, uh, qualifications, you know, first. We make sure that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 20 we have a correct understanding of their, uh, of their career experiences, their education, their, uh, compensation, their, um, the kinds of career experiences that they've actually had, so our questions are, uh, give us insight into what they've achieved and accomplished. Uh, we...we wouldn't want, uh, to recommend a candidate for further consideration if, uh, for example they did not have, uh, say experience in, uh, in redevelopment or economic development. I'd like to see candidates with that... some of that kind of experience and someone who, again, has a...has a good sense of strategic planning, of looking into the future, both in finance and in... and in building out your city, in a... in a good way. So, uh, the values that you carry here in the city, I think, are very...very clear, and uh, and I think you're a council that works together cohesively, um, I know you all have individual interests and so forth, but uh, I can see that you treat each other with respect and... and issues aren't necessarily carried over from meeting to meeting, um, and uh, and so, uh, the kind of manager that will succeed here will be able to, as I said, um, guide you not lead you, but...but guide you, and uh, and maintain that integrity. Uh, so those are among the things that we would...I would be looking for. Um, by the time the finalists get to you, I think you know, it'll be hard...to kind of choose between the different candidates. You're going to be discerning, you know, finer characteristics and traits, um, because they'll be very well vetted and uh, and well qualified and um, you know, have everything, uh, I mean, they could all do this job, it would be safe to say. The question would be, would you like to work with this person, do you foresee this person taking the city into the, down the road into the years ahead. Mims/ I have a couple questions on public input, and this is as you can imagine a university town and very, uh, very engaged public that wants...wants to be very involved in things. In putting together the...the recruitment brochure, what kind of, uh, interaction would you feel that you want or is necessary, uh, besides with the council, um, in terms of getting the information that you need so you feel like you have a really good feel for what...what it is this community's looking for. Wurzberger/ Well, um...as I said before, I manage, I've worked mainly with California cities, uh, many other cities throughout the country of course, but uh, obviously we'd want to look to you for some guidance on that point, uh, part of our process for developing a position description would include meeting with, uh, stakeholders, which means, uh, community leaders, um, groups, anybody that you feel, uh, would be important to, you know, kind of bring into this process, uh, so I would anticipate spending, you know, a considerable amount of time doing that, not just meeting with you individually, but uh, department heads, uh, other individuals that are important to the, uh, to the life blood of the city. Chamber of Commerce, you know, business, teachers, um, anybody that you feel would, uh, would provide that. Again, I think the work product that will emerge will...will capture successfully, you know, the flavor of the...of Iowa City, and...and the...the wonderful characteristics of the community and... and the expectations for the future, and that's what we're striving to achieve. Mims/ On the...back end or the last part of the process then also with public input, what, um, and maybe it was in here and I...we read a few of these as you can imagine, so try and remember all the details, um, during the interview process, what is your idea or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 21 recommendations typically in terms of public involvement, uh, when candidates come to town? Wurzberger/ Well, um, we have, uh, we have a juggling act so to speak. We...we want to entice the best candidates to apply. If they are employed elsewhere, uh, you can understand that if, uh, if they're unsuccessful, if they're not selected in the end and it becomes, you know, public knowledge, uh, that they've been a candidate, it can cause problems for them in their... in their existing, uh, place of employment. We don't want to do that; however, we do counsel the candidates that if they get to the finalist stage, uh, then most, you know, we understand, they should understand that it's going to become, you know, public knowledge. I've always enjoyed the fact that councils can deliberate about these matters as personnel matters, as you would describe them, in a close session setting. I mean, I just think that it's just, you know, a freer area in which to discuss freely your thoughts, ideas, um, things you like or dislike about the individuals, um, and to the degree possible protect, you know, the interest of the candidates themselves. Um, what we can also provide in a public setting, uh, council setting for example, we can have...if you wish to have an open, uh, an open public meeting and with the interviews of the candidates that can be done, um, it's, um...I would just say that I would just prefer a closed session atmosphere, if that would be possible, but... Mims/ Well, my understanding, and Eleanor, you can...I mean, Iowa Open Record Laws, once we name our finalists and we're going to bring them in, we're not going to be able to keep them quiet. Wurzberger/ Oh, no, certainly the names, yes. Mims/ That's correct, right, Eleanor, I mean, once... Dilkes/ Um, no, once, I mean, the choice to have an open process once we have five candidates is a choice that the Council, or...makes, but we can certainly have public meetings with these folks and their names become public, but then we have a closed session deliberation. Mims/ Right. Bailey/ Well and I think... Mims/ But my point is, if we were to select five finalists, is there any way for us to keep all those names private until we say named a new city... Dilkes/ Yes there is. Mims/ Okay. Bailey/ But, I think there is an expectation. I think the direction that Susan was going is there is an expectation, I believe among Council, and certainly in the community, that there is a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 22 public aspect, um, of giving some input regarding out finalists, and so what is your experience doing that, um, and um, and what would you...what would you advise, in regard to that, in a community that is so participatory, um, it's just expected. Wurzberger/ Right. Well, um, I think that, uh, I think it would be smart, obviously at the outset, to include as much of the community as we can in developing the position profile, uh, and then, uh, as we go through the hard work of identifying the specifics of these, you know, the pluses and minuses of these candidates, uh, and once we get past the, um, the semi-finalist process, you know, where we can safely say thank you and uh, and allow those good people to go back, um, without, uh, the common knowledge, you know, of their being a candidate. Um, the finalist candidates will, uh, will most likely be known already, you know, within the city manager community, um, you know, there's no way that this information can be really safely locked down. It can be done, but it's very difficult in an open participative community, as you've said. The, um, the setting would be probably, um, you could set up a, uh, a... a format whereby, uh, the community could be invited, you know, we could have a, uh, I don't know if you want the full council involved with the...with these interviews. If you want a selection committee, you know, a refined, you know, group or, um, you could invite the community to sit in, you know, on those interviews. Um, again, we'll have reconciled all the major issues and again, your role will be to, uh, and we would of course help you with the facilitation of this, uh, to gain all those additional insights that you need to feel confident in your decision. It could be that, uh, say one or two candidates emerge as the clear front runners. And discerning between those two, you know, would be the challenge. Uh, in those cases you can bring those folks back to have further interviews with department heads, with others in the, uh, in the organization. Um, and to get, you know, to get additional feel for that. But...but it's...it's entirely possible to do this in a, you know, this in a public setting. It'll be structured, it'll be disciplined. We'll have a range of...range of approaches on questions that you can select from, uh, in terms of targeted, situational type questions, uh, standard questions, all those kinds of things. Uh, as long as we're assessing the candidates in the common areas, you know, where they're all getting the same questions, that would be...that would be my main concern. Hayek/ Last...last time we, um, we brought four or five people to town and, as finalists, and held closed session interviews of them, but in addition to that had this public component where they, um, they had ameet- and-greet at the public library, um, and they each kind of introduced themselves a little bit and...and answered some questions and mingled, and on top of that they...they met with department heads, and I think that was a very well received process, um, and we've talked about expanding that a little bit, uh, this time around with, um, having interviews with, uh, our commission chairs and then a group of, uh, living ex-mayors, kind of crass, but uh, our former mayors, uh (several talking) and...and allowing those groups, because the mayors obviously have a...have a very unique perspective, and the commission chairs work so closely with the city, um, to vet these candidates, and then just give input or feedback to the Council, not any sort of binding recommendation or anything like that, or ranking, but uh, necessarily, um, but we've thought about that and there's some interest in doing that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 23 Wurzberger/ Yeah, and you can provide, uh, you know, survey, you can provide them with, uh, you know, structured questions which they would respond to and send them back in, you know, in terms of their feedback and response. It wouldn't necessarily have to be a...a great deal of effort expended you know to involved the entire community, but uh, that would, uh, that would be an approach that, uh, that would certainly work. We've coordinated receptions and uh, in public settings where...where community can have a chance to, you know, interact with these individuals and get a sense of who they are and, uh, what their values are. Um, it's...it's all within the realm of possibility if you...if you wish to expand on that. Glad you had good success with that. They do this in the city of Boulder, Colorado. They have a very intense public, uh (several talking) Bailey/ It would be probably smaller, yes (several talking) very intense public process. Hayek/ And it's not intended to...to supplant the necessary work of this group behind closed doors (several talking) right. So... Wurzberger/ Yeah, I...I, um, we take a great deal of pride in, uh, in presenting a finalist group that you can be very proud o£ I...as I said, not only could they do this job, but they should...uh, they should show themselves very well in any public setting, and...and uh, in terms of confidence, in terms of, you know, career experiences, uh, and uh, you know, the technical skills are important in a city manager, but the people skills are more likely, you know, going to determine, you know, their success in a community like this. Wilburn/ Clark, I'm trying to remember. Did you do the Boulder search? Wurzberger/ Uh, my colleague, Tom Dority, did the Boulder search, for the city manager. Yeah. I did the executive director of community planning. Wilburn/ Okay. And did they use that, uh, a public process with the portion that you did or...and um, can you give us a picture of, um, I guess just the range of, uh, responses that you've had to the public input process, uh, I mean... smallest to largest that have attended, and what was...what was that format? Wurzberger/ Uh, I know that my colleague Tom Dority for the city manager process had a very...they had a very extensive, uh, community...community process there. Um, the, uh, community...the community development planner, chief of community planning, uh, they had arranged a series of, uh, kind of receptions with different...with different groups. They also provided them cards, uh, you know, which they would fill out afterwards to give you an assessment of their take on the candidates, with, you know, very open ended type questions, giving plenty of leeway to, uh, to express their opinion. Uh, that was for me probably the greatest amount of public involvement, uh, my most recent recruitment was for a fire chief for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, and uh, there's a huge, um, group of stakeholders there, but all of our sessions were done, you know, strategic sessions were done in closed session, uh, course with all the department heads and so forth present. Um, the uh, I'm trying to think...where else we would...to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 24 give you some good examples of that. I guess Boulder, I think Boulder just is off the charts in terms of public participation, I mean, I think they are just... Wilburn/ Ten, 50, 100? Wurzberger/ Oh, I'd say between 50 and 75. Wilburn/ Okay, all right. Wurzberger/ I'm sorry, I (both talking) Wilburn/ Thank you. Wright/ Um, in terms of the pool we could anticipate for city manager, what would you guess might be our representation of women and minority candidates? Wurzberger/ Well, I think you stand to get a good representation in this pool. We proactively seek out qualified women and minorities, uh, for these positions. We have many, many placements in that area. I just recruited the, uh, the new female chief of police, uh, for the city of Tracey in California, um, and uh, there is, uh, there's no question that, uh, that's an important part I think of... of outreach, you know, for candidates. Um, we want to make sure though that, again, the values that they....they bring to this job are shared, are in common with you, and those are...those are at the outset very, you know, very important. Um, but we...we make a proactive effort. I would expect that you would have, uh, certainly in the semi-finalist pool, uh...four to five choices within that...within that group, uh, of women or minority candidates who are qualified. Wright/ Do you anticipate that the fact that we're a...in the middle of the breadbasket so to speak, uh, makes it more difficult to attract...qualified minority candidates? Wurzberger/ Oh, um, no, I don't think so. I...I think the trend has been quite the opposite, I mean, I think we're seeing more and more, uh, successful minority and women candidates, uh, you know, in senior level public sector positions and uh, we're delighted to be able to recommend, if (mumbled). Course they have to, um, cross the threshold of, uh, career experiences that are...that are necessary for them...we want them, whoever's in this job, we want them to perform well and succeed and (mumbled) so those are...those are the interests that we're keeping in mind at all times. Um, but it's, uh, we would advertise accordingly. We would, uh, we would make sure that, uh, we make contact with, uh, individuals that we already know that...that may fit the profile, the job spec. That's where our data base will come in handy. Uh, but that's just a part of the equation. We want to make sure that, uh, when the advertising, you know, campaign is done, that uh, it's made very clear that we're looking for all comers. Dickens/ When you're doing your interviews or looking for candidates, uh, just from my own personal experience when I was hiring a CEO for our buying group, we looked for a person that was, uh, thought outside the box a little bit. You can find a lot of people that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 25 can manage and follow the rules and do all that, but as far as innovation and thinking a little differently, how do you draw those people out? Wurzberger/ Well, again, uh, the strategic planning component is important, and so we want to find examples of where in their previous career path they can point out to us where they did in fact do this, where they, uh, where they took creative approaches to, you know, expanding economic development, uh, finding, uh, resources for redevelopment purposes, um, we have, uh, many examples I think of, um, of operational leaders who, uh, have thought well on their feet and have brought to the table kind of an innate sense, you know, very smart but an innate sense for assessing what, uh, the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and the city and what to do next, uh, to, you know, have the best chance of success. Those are qualities that, uh, that would be, you know, would be incorporated into my interaction with them, uh, on...on an individual basis. Um, and of course that would be highlighted to you in my recommendations and responses. I would be able to talk to you about, uh, my perceptions of... Dickens/ Do you send us a, like a...you know, kind of a profile of each of the people or is it, uh (both talking) Wurzberger/ Yes, well, the matrix display that I mentioned to you would, again, when we identify the performance dimensions that you're...that you're seeking, uh, we would provide you a matrix with all those candidates that meet the criteria and then we would assess, um, the degree which they... which they meet those requirements. And that's at a very initial stage. We won't...we won't interview anybody until you've, you know, signed off on those...on those individuals. Uh, that's...in our experience, that works most efficiently in helping you get to the right...to the right person. Dickens/ Coming from my retail background, uh, what does your services cost? Wurzberger/ (laughter) Well, there's uh, there is a cost proposal within the, uh, in the proposal there, and uh, the professional services, uh, fee is broken down. Uh, it's in the amount of $16,500 and we put in a...an expense budget, anot-to-exceed expense budget of $8,000, and that includes, uh, all advertising, uh, there are no other costs beyond that. Typically we come in, uh, quite lower than the expense budget, but we get that approved in advance in the event that we need...we need to use additional funds for something. Um, the, uh, expenses for candidates that are outside of the state, to travel here, would not be included, and so those are typically reimbursed directly, you know, by the city. Um, and again, I hope, uh, if I can, um, for example provide you a video tape of the candidates, uh, that I... after I've interviewed them, uh, you'll have a better sense of who you might want to invite, you know, to the city, uh, (mumbled) resources to bring them (mumbled) Bailey/ Can I follow up on the question that you had before, Terry? Did you have another question.. . Dickens/ Sure. Nope, I'm done. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 26 Bailey/ Just to follow up on his sort of thinking outside the box, in your strategic thinking, um, I would have that expectation for somebody who would come in, um, but there's the other component or the additional component of strategic thinking, which is the implementation and the change management. How do you gauge that in a candidate, and what are you looking for exactly? Wurzberger/ Well, we, uh, we try to validate that in our interview discourse, but we also try to validate it through our reference checking. Uh, when I check with references, um, these are individuals who have been in a direct position to observe the work and the capabilities of the individual, and we, uh, we try to validate to the degree we can achievements that have been stated, uh, but specifically in terms of implementation, uh, we...we try to feel out our references to the degree that we possibly can. We daisy-chain our way to other references, you know, that have not been recommended, and we get as comprehensive a picture of the person's, uh, success in that area as...as we can. Fortunately in the public sector, uh, records are...are mostly public. You know, we can find, uh, out pretty quickly, uh, what the reality, what the truth is, with regard to these individuals. We know many of them well. We already know their histories, but we, uh, we would do a, um, for example, we would do a check of, um, you know, newspaper articles, uh, that have been published in the past that, uh, you know, would discuss projects of candidate was involved in leadership of, uh, success or failure. We would also look at, uh...from the results of our references, um, we would try to ascertain, um, where the candidates, uh, how they...how well they performed, uh, as, uh, as communicators, you know, how well they interact with individuals at all levels of the spectrum, uh, and of course their relations with the council. Obviously we want to make sure that you're treated equally as, you know, as members of the council and that you're getting the best professional recommendation from that candidate. Um, that's the approach I'm thinking of. Does that satisfactorily address your (both talking) Bailey/ I think it gives me some idea, I mean, I think these things are hard to gauge, but... Wurzberger/ They can be, but...but we...we can, um, we can cross-reference with many different individuals and find out, uh, again, what the reality is. I think we can (mumbled) Bailey/ Thanks! If nobody...(several talking) I'll give you time to think of another question. In your proposal you mentioned follow ups during the first year. What does that entail, what does that involve, um, what's your continuing relationship with us once you've placed the candidate? Wurzberger/ Yes, well, um, what we will do is, um, I think the process will be thorough enough to where, uh, you probably won't have to say after the first 30 days have asit-down session where we establish goals and, you know, and uh, mutually agreed upon objectives. Uh, the manager's going to know what to do, and uh, how to do it. Uh, we do follow up periodically that following year to see if adjustments, uh, need to be made. We talk to both, uh, you, Mayor, and the Council Members, uh, to see if there's satisfactory, uh, work products and if there's, you know, any problems or issues that have to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 27 resolved. Uh, follow up is a general term that applies to everyone involved in this process, across the board, and that's...that's, uh, course all the candidates who are interested in being considered and you know don't make it in the end, but we treat all candidates well. We, uh, keep them well informed. We, um, counsel them if they're not selected in the end; we provide them with additional feedback as to how they did and how they could do better next time. We want everyone to come away from the process feeling that they had high integrity. That, uh, that we were thorough. That we, uh, we addressed every, uh, every concern from the, uh, from the applicants to the community to the (mumbled) and to you, of course. Hayek/ Is, um...we're in the Midwest, we're a college town, uh, I think...we have a sense that we're more likely to get candidates from comparable environment, Midwest environment (mumbled) Bailey/ Where it snows, I think is what we're trying to say! (laughter and several talking) The weather is not so great! Wright/ Our city's a terrific place to (several talking) Hayek/ Yeah. Wurzberger/ I understand. Hayek/ What would...what could we expect, I mean, you're going to be managing this from California. You've got a nationwide data base. You folks, do you have a toehold in...in Iowa, and...and in Illinois and in Missouri, which I think is one of the reasons we're...we asked you to come to Iowa City, but how...can you talk about that? Wurzberger/ Well, again, uh, when we...when we, uh, are developing our candidates, um, I...I have, you know, very frank discussion, uh, and...and again, my interview approach is quite comprehensive. Um, in establishing what their values are, um, we...we...we get a sense for, uh, who these individuals are in terms of their professional goals, their, you know, what they really want to do, I mean, that's a real key part I think of finding the right person, uh, and that's not just lip service, uh, you know what I mean, to, you know, candidates can be very good in interviews and be very skillful, uh, and we're quite used to that. Um, the art, the...the talent that we bring is discerning what the real is from...from, uh, you know, from the fluff, and uh, what's actually...what's being represented, um, the most difficult part, um, we obviously ask candidates for example if, uh, you know, if there's anything in their background if it were to become, you know, public knowledge that might prove to be an embarrassment to them, or to the city, uh, and uh, I capture that on video, by the way, their response to that (laughter) um (several talking) but uh, but you know, and then of course we ask if, uh, if they've ever had harassment or discrimination complaints, uh, lodged against them, uh, previously or...or are they involved in any litigation, any previous or pending litigation. Those, that sometimes is a little harder to find because records, court records, can be, you know, can be sealed and you know, and you can't have access to those, and you have to kind of go on...on face This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 28 value of what they have said, but we do, as I say, uh, we do a check, uh, of public records, of, uh, not just through the Internet, but through proprietary service, you know, that researches articles and things like that. But to get back to your question about this, um, this notion of, you know, of whether these kind of, uh, other things, we...we don't think that, um, you're going to see finalist candidates, uh, that are not prepared and fully knowledgeable and, you know, willing to, uh, embrace this community, uh, in a way that...that, uh, you know, goes far beyond, you know, concerns about snow and so forth. We...we know the weather situation. We understand. We know, uh, we're just completing a recruitment in, uh, in Fairfield, um, and uh, you know, they're a much smaller city, obviously, but uh, we've done a lot of work in West Des Moines and other places, and we...um, if...if your candidate is not going to come to, or you know, not be considered because of, uh, the weather situation then we don't...we don't want them anyway. Hayek/ And we're, you know, we think we're a very strong sell, I mean (both talking) I can think of communities where it would be a challenge to (several talking) but we're curious, you know, the potential pool. Is it a more Midwestern pool? Is it truly a nationwide pool that.. . Wurzberger/ No, it'll... it should be a nationwide pool, but uh, you will have some... some known persons in there, I'm sure, some talent uh, from the Midwest would probably be in there. Um, I, uh, you know, whether they're eventually selected would be of course up to you but, uh, we want to make sure that, uh, that you have, um, the most representative and skillful talent that we can...that we can muster, you know, from all the resources that our...that our firm provides. We're going to weed out some people, you know. We might, you know, some people can be eliminated that, uh, you might think, uh, would be a great on the surface, you know, would be great, uh, assets, but uh, but we would determine through out, uh, through our interviews, and through our interactions, uh, what they lack, some critical dimensions that you know will hinder them, you know, down the road. We want to make sure the person you have here is going to last. Now, um, 90 ...over 90% of our placements have been in their positions for five years or more. And, uh, that's a statistic I'm proud to mention because, uh, that's uh, that's not always easy, and you know in some political environments where you have, uh, change in council, change in direction and changing priorities, uh, there are some communities that are far worse off than you are, as you correctly mentioned, I...I just did a presentation for the city of Volantino in the San Francisco area, they're Chapter 9, you know, they're operating within the confines of a... of an incredibly vice-like environment. They've had, uh, eight city managers in the last four years. Champion/ That's worse than us! Wurzberger/ I mean, this is just a contrast to the...the, you know, you have an embarrassment in riches here. You're going to attract very fine candidates. You have the option of, uh, reviewing them before we interview them so we can eliminate individuals that you don't think, uh, are just the right fit, or you're not really interested in, uh, we want you to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 29 excited about the candidates that you're going to see. We want the community to be excited about it. That's what I'm striving for... in my, in my efforts. Hayek/ Well, unless there are other questions. If you have more questions for us, I think, uh, I think we've got what we need. Wurzberger/ Um, okay, um...well I, um, I didn't know if, uh, I don't know if the compensation level has been set for this position, um, there is, uh, typically we like to see a range, you know, a low and a high range, and uh, sometimes there would be amid-point within that range in which you, uh, would recruit for. Um, I don't know if you've done a comp study for the city manager position so far, uh, I believe you've done one for your organization though. I think you have...I think you have market equity, you know, with other cities on your...on your operational positions. Um, I was thinking in the range of, I believe your current interim is getting about $160,000 you say? Is that correct? 160K? (several talking) And um, you know, I would envision a range, uh, something in the area between $150,000 and $170,000, $175K with, and the appointment could be made anywhere within that range, depending on the qualifications and experience of the candidate. That would be negotiated, you know, uh, at the end. Um, but uh, I don't know if that's something that, uh, you all have discussed or..or interested in at this point. Hayek/ Well we haven't discussed it yet, but...but you know, last time, uh, we were competitive, and we need to be (mumbled) (both talking) so I don't anticipate a particular problem with that, um (both talking) Wurzberger/ ...don't get me wrong, $160 is... is very good. I think Davenport's at about $100K and uh, West Des Moines is less than $200K. Uh, so um, you know, you're right in there. And as I said, you'll attract good candidates. The question will be can we...can we discern between the good and the great (mumbled) Hayek/ Yeah, good. Well, thank you. Wurzberger/ It was my pleasure. (several talking) I'll just close and just say, uh, we very much want to work with you and we think we could provide you a very good work product and good results, and we (mumbled) guarantees as you can see in our...in our proposal, and uh, just a pleasure to meet you all. Wish you good luck, and thank you again. (several talking) Hayek/ Thank you. Brimeyer Fursman: Hayek/ All right, well, uh, Richard and Jim, thank you for coming to Iowa City, uh, we appreciate the visit. Um, going to stay on track here schedule-wise. Uh, pretty informal setting here. We'll allow you to do your presentation and uh, then we'll just have some Q&A and a good discussion. Take it away! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 30 Fursman/ Perfect! (laughter) Well, uh, thanks first of all for having us down and on a beautiful day too. I noticed you (mumbled) so we wouldn't be distracted (laughter) it also helps cut down the glare on my head too a little bit so... Wright/ Yours and mine both! Fursman/ Yeah (both talking) Wilburn/ I'm sorry, we need you to put your microphone on. Fursman/ Oh! Yeah! Wilburn/ And it'll probably work better if you can get it closer...uh, your tie would be good, but I think you need to go a little closer. Yeah. Fursman/ (noise on mic) There we go. Wilburn/ It's kinda like the tree in the forest thing...you have your mic on then we (mumbled) Fursman/ That's true! I like it. Uh, well, again, thanks for having us down, uh, you'll have the proposal in front of you, so I don't want to read the proposal and...and go through all that. Uh, so you're pretty familiar, otherwise we wouldn't be here. I...I would suppose. So I'm going to go over some highlights of what I think makes us special and uh, and give more time for you to ask us questions. Just real briefly, uh, the firm was founded in 1991 by Jim, uh, Brimeyer, and uh, been doing searches, uh, actually we have three...over 350, when we sit down and count there's actually been close to 500 (both talking) yeah! (laughter) Uh, I joined, uh, the firm after being a city manager for almost 20 years and had a career...several communities in the Twin Cities, uh, after I, uh, had done a stint as economic development, uh, director for, uh, for a while for both the county, state, and a city. So I've...I've been in and around cities as well, uh, for quite a period of time, after a stint in the Navy, so uh, have, uh, partnered with Jim four years ago. Actually I was doing an interim, uh, city administrator position and Jim was doing the search there, and we got together afterwards and we had some coffee and...and uh, low and behold here we are, so now, uh, my wife and I actually purchased the company and uh, are now the principles of the company as of the end of 2009. So, thus the name change. It went from Brimeyer Group to Brimeyer-Fursman, uh, and Jim, I'll let you introduce. Brimeyer/ Um, I grew up in Iowa, over by Dubuque. Went to Loras College and uh... got into the city manager business and did it for 20 years, the last eight years was in St. Louis Park, which is a suburb of Minneapolis, about 45,000 people. Uh, and decided to get into the search business at the urging of a fellow rotarian, of all things, and after doing that with him for two or three years, I thought you know, I think I could do this on my own. And we did. We started the Brimeyer Group in 91, 92, somewhere in there. Um, most of our work has been government sector stuff. We've done some non-profit stuff. We've done some private sector stuff for like engineering and architectural firms that know us in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 31 the Twin Cities, but not very much of that. Um, I also have kind of the unique distinction, I think, of not only being the city manager for 20 years but in the mid-90s I led St. Louis Park in Vision St. Louis Park, it was kind of a volunteer position. Well, it wasn't...not kind of a volunteer position, it was a volunteer position. And I thought I wonder if somebody can really make this work, so I ran for the city council, and I ran the way I think all of us would like to run. Iran unopposed (laughter) (several talking) never owned a campaign sign. They made me go door-knocking one Saturday (laughter) um, they said...I said I'm unopposed, a lot of the...people know me; don't worry about it! So I went door-knocking, and I found out about 40% of the people have dogs that they leave at home, and when you run for local election, it doesn't matter. They all ask you, not all- but agood majority, ask what's your position on abortion. And I said I don't think that's a local issue, and I'm not going to answer that question. I said that's it, I'm not doing door- to-door stuff anymore. So I ran for two terms, um, and decided that was enough, and then I ended up getting appointment, uh, appointed for about six months of a term where, um, a lady whose husband had passed away decided to move. She had about six or eight months left on her term, and they said just stay there because we don't want to appoint somebody right now. Well, the League of Women voters didn't think that that followed the Charter since she didn't live there anymore, so the mayor of all things called my wife and said, do you think he'd do it till the end of the term; she said I'm sure he would. So I ended up, um, serving another, filling out Sally 's term. The other thing that, um, I've been involved in the starting several businesses, including our own, so I kind of know what lines of credit mean and how important cash flow is and things like that and understand those aspects of running a business. And now of all things, about a year and a half ago I got a call from a small town out in the western suburbs by the name of Spring Park, about 2,000 people. They said we're looking for an interim administrator and we heard that you might do that, and I said yeah, I could it for three or four months. That was in November of 2008, um, I am now the permanent, part-time administrator at 25 to 30 hours a week in Spring Park, and we're getting the city to issue the first ever bond issue, I think, in the next 30 to 60 days or so. So that's been kind of fun, and I really...really actually enjoyed that. Um, as Richard mentioned, he was an interim out in Maple Plain when we were doing the search and I thought, I said to him do you ever think about doing this, and he said well let's talk about it, and we did and here we are, four years later. So I still am active in the company, but only as active as he needs me to be. Uh, depending on how busy he gets and how much help he needs, um, when he gets real busy, we're more than happy to help, both my wife and I, been in the search business since 91. She was in it even before I was, and so I'm...I'm available to help out as Richard needs help or whatever role he thinks he needs me to play. So, with that, I guess we'll describe, kind of walk quickly through the process which you've already read about, so we don't need to cover that in a lot of detail. Fursman/ And one thing that neither one of us mentioned is we both do a significant amount of organization, uh, type of study work. My...my doctorate is in organization development and uh, have helped a... several communities whether it be through reorganization or taking a look at their needs for, uh, positions, or if the kids aren't playing nice in the sandbox, how to get that back on track (laughter) and...and so that's....that's how my background and Jim's background kind of came together and... and it was a very good __ This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 32 match to kind of blend these things together so we bring these talents together and all the work that we do, and the first phase that we do is the development of the profile, and Jim, I know, you brought some profiles (both talking) and then I think there was also some in...in the packet that we provided, as well. But, the development of profile, I think, is such an important launch, and something we take a lot of pride in...and I'll mention that in a little bit, but uh, we go from the development of the position profile to the active recruitment and placing that, and then we do the evaluation and comparison of the candidates, and then present you with a background on that, a preliminary report, of say approximately ten, uh, candidates at which time you pick the top ones that you would want for the, uh, interviews. Once you have those, we...we do a secondary background on them, so we look at their reference and credential checks, uh, call people they have provided for us, and also call people they haven't provided, uh, we're looking at credit reports, we're looking at criminal background, we're making sure they went to the school they did. You know the standard stuff! (laughter) You know, are they who they said they are, and then do a character, uh, assessment as well, uh, then you do your interviews and selection and after that Phase 3 comes in where we negotiate the contract, do some on-boarding, which I'll briefly go over, evaluation, uh, of their performance, anywhere between six and twelve months into their...into their role. And then we also guarantee the work, and I know you've had a history of guarantee here and so it only means something if you stick around (laughter) so (several talking) I know I didn't! (laughter) That was a cheap shot! It wasn't intended to be. It is what it is. Uh, Jim and I will both be here for the assignment, uh, I... any time you try to have two leads, it... it messes it up, even though we sort of (mumbled) I will be the lead person. I'll be the contact. I'll, uh, take, uh, charge of..of the process and then call upon Jim, typically in the front end, uh, to help with the profile development, and then as things...as things go along with recruiting and assessing candidates. We like to bounce that off each other as well. Uh, other people that will be helping from the team, uh, include Pam Brimeyer, she's been doing this for over 20 years. Irina, uh, is, also on...on our team and she has been part of our group, same time when I joined four years ago, and her real gift is with her facilitation, so if there's going to be a community component, if we're going to be asking residents for input at any point, she is a, uh, national facilitator. She's excellent at what she does and we've...she and I have facilitated together, along with Jim as well, and um... Wilburn/ She's the technology participation then? Fursman/ Pardon? Yes, technology...oh, you're familiar with that. Wilburn/ Yeah, um, (mumbled) in Arizona, yeah. Brimeyer/ Oh, very good! Very good. So you're familiar with that process, yeah, she's certified in that process and uh, as...is very good at it! So, glad to know you're aware of that! Now, when it comes time for marketing, when we start doing that, one of the things that we discuss with you is do you want to do a national, do you want to a regional. We find that most of the candidates that you're going to interview typically come from right around the region. A question that comes up though is, well, do you advertise nationally? And I don't think you can avoid it anymore, uh, even if you're advertising regionally, it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 33 goes off all over the place, and what I have found is that even when we're advertising regionally, we're getting resumes from Iraq and... and Afghanistan, you know, people, uh, who are, uh helping with those governments, uh, set up, uh, and...and so sometimes you're getting very qualified people, but you're...you're getting resumes from different parts of the world even, advertising regionally. So, there used to be a big cost differential before the last ten years. Now there isn't. It's...it's just...when we advertise with ICMA and send out brochures and...and do our work, the costs have really...haven't escalated, uh, they've gone down in fact. The biggest, uh, consideration here is the cost of bringing in candidates, so that was one thing I wanted to point out is when you do nationally, and... so that's something we sit down with you and talk about with our kick-off meeting is when we start looking at this, usually when you're flying people in from the coast or other points and, along with spouses or significant others, it... it's uh, that's when it becomes more meaningful for you, and so we talk about that. Uh, you saw the calendar that we had on there. That's just a brief overview. Uh, saying what we...we're going to take the time to develop a profile, and the biggest chunk that we really want to take is when we're reviewing from resumes, uh, all the candidates...you really want to take some time and go deep into their, uh, skills and their past and ...and talk to the individuals. We usually interview each one we present, uh, about, um, an hour, along with the other checks that we're doing and develop a full report for you. What sets us apart? I think really the...it begins with the position profile. Uh, with the profile you really get, uh, we need to nail down your personality, what makes you tick, what the requirements of the job are, sort of what the...what the community expectations are, how this person's going to fit in with the community, I think is critical. Uh, just...if you don't do a DNA match, you're going to end up with a lot of heartache. I...I think, and so we really try to get that right. Um, that...that means talking to people in the community, that means sitting down with you one-on-one, that means sitting down with the staff, and finding out how... how you tick and what you're looking for, who's going to appeal to you, um, I think that, um, one of the things we want to emphasize, and I think it's the reason we've had whatever success we've had is that we like to spend more time on the start...on this part of it than almost anything else, and the reason is if we don't understand each other at the beginning, or what you're looking for, or what the expectations are, there's a good chance that at the end we'll have a mess on our hands because somebody will say, well, no I thought we were looking for this or I thought this was important. If we sense that there's differences among you, uh, we draft a profile and bring it back and we sit down and say we're not going anywhere until we talk about these differences. Because if they exist, they can be big stumbling blocks if we don't try to...we don't have to maybe agree, or work'em all out, but we have to agree that we disagree on something. And I'm sure that, well, I'm pretty sure that there are probably seven or eight different expectations at the beginning when you look at a position like this. And we'd rather talk to more than fewer. We've talked to as many as 45, 50 people in developing a profile. It takes a lot of time, but I think it avoids a lot of heartbreak further on down the process. So, and it's a way for us to not only look at what you're looking for in terms of qualifications, it's a way for us to assess the culture and the environment of the organization, so that when you talk to candidates, there will be a number of occasions where you'll say, yeah, they don't have all the perfect qualifications, but I think they're a good fit, and if you've ever hired anybody and I'm sure you all have at one time or another in one fashion, you hardly ever hired This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 34 somebody you didn't like, no matter how qualified they were. So when you think about that, when they think... about my own city manager career and hiring people, there's a lot of technically unqualified by lack of experience people that I've hired, but I liked them. I thought they would fit, and they worked out very well. So I think there's a lot to be said for that. That chemistry is really critical. Fursman/ (mumbled) Jim started going with a little bit about that, community participation, and it's a huge part of what we do, um, we start off with some online surveys of... of people, allowing them to participate that way. If there's...if there's no other way they can participate, at least they can do that. Uh, we like to take that data then and...and talk about it with some focus groups, get people together from the community who you feel would be important to talk to, to get included, and that creates some buy-in, it creates a broader ownership of the process, and not only that, but they're kind of seeing what's going on, and so the community relaxes, uh, to a degree. Uh...so this public process is... is a design that... is so very important, and I know we've stressed it a lot and we've kind of gone over it a couple times, but (noise on mic) very important. Um, screening process, uh, I...I think you're going to really, uh, like what we do. We try and take everybody and present them in the same manner. In other words, if you take a look at someone's resume and their cover letters, their information is scattered all over the place. We try and condense that all down into, uh, similar apples and apples so when you're comparing people you're seeing the same document. We go through those, uh, interviews with about 15 to 20 people who we feel are the most qualified and we do an in-depth interview with them, report back to you on those findings in a report. Uh, and of course we're looking at their education...no surprise there. Their work history. Their, uh, reputation, their accomplishments, where they're going in their career, sort of where they're at. Um, and we'll be frank about limitations. If somebody's going to need runway before they get off the ground in certain areas, we'll let you know that, but uh...that's not always a disqualifier. It just means that...that they're...maybe they're not, they're not from a river town or haven't...haven't seen this type of environment, with a flood, you know, some aspect that you may be looking for, but we'll let you know that going in. Um, the next thing that we do, once you, uh, find your five, we go deeper into an assessment of those individuals. Our company is the only one that is registered to use the Insight Discovery profile, and I don't know if any of you have used that, uh, it's...uh, you've probably heard of Myers-Briggs or DISC, uh, they're all psychology type based, uh, personality profiles, and we found this one to be exceptionally good at describing the individual's approach to management, their, uh, their approach to leadership, if they're...how outgoing they are and whether they're going to be a natural spokesperson for you or whether they're going to be a little bit more shy and... and to themselves, whether they're a thinker or a feeler, and this is an assessment that really is useful, I think, for you in seeing where their strength is going (mumbled) and any time somebody has a strength in one area, they have a weakness in the opposite area. So it points out, going in, where they...they may not be as strong, and...and we'll ask them how do you overcome this tendency. Big picture thinkers aren't really good detail people. Believe it or not! Really solid detail people don't always see the big picture real well. And so we ask, well, how do you compensate for that? Do you hire staff to help you... so, we get into these questions so... so, uh, by the time they come here, and by the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 35 time you see them, you're going to know this...about them and where they're going to shine and where they may struggle a little bit. Once you set, uh, your sights on an individual that you would want to hire, we're involved with the negotiations and... and I think the care and concern that we give the clients, and you, both... from both positions, we take on the nasty stuff on both sides. You know, the...the hard negotiation, so if there's any feelings of discomfort, it's towards us and not towards each other, cause that great start, I think, is really important. Uh, I think it's necessary to keep those positive feelings going all the way through, and so that negotiation part I think is something (coughing, unable to hear) very well, and it... it bleeds over into on-boarding, if that was something that you would want to do. It's something that we started, uh, in earnest a couple years ago and we've really... gotten down to the refining portion of it. We've done an awful lot of research, um, some experimentation on this, and that is, uh, instead of dropping them off at the door and saying, good luck new manager, have a good time, enjoy the council, we actually come in and try to, uh, do some on-boarding, which is, uh, associate them with the socialization process of the community, of you, sit down with the manager, talk about the skeletons that might not have come up, where the landmines might be planted and so how aggressive should they be, how non-aggress...you know, where are the important things that they're going to have to take a look at, but how hard should you step on the gas, and what clues can we get from each other when we know, and we'll set up how we're going to communicate, where it's important, and we do that with staff as well. Um, there's a whole lot of other things that are involved with that, but that's a brief overview, and I think it's a critical part of what we do. Brimeyer/ And I do need to say something about this, because this was a new concept for me also a couple years ago. We've always done, part of our process, a six month to twelve month performance evaluation, which has saved quite a few jobs, believe it or not, over the years, but when he started talking about this, I had to admit I didn't know anything about it, so I started reading the literature on it, and I think what you didn't point out is that we don't wait very long to do this. This happens in the first 30 to 60 days (both talking) incent those expectations, and I actually ended up doing one of these myself a year ago. Got...we did it a little late. I was...was about four months after the person was there, but we got it done, and then I realized we should have been there two months earlier. Now, the job's still going well and now...and we still do the performance evaluation, the first performance evaluation. We do that because, number one, most councils don't like to do 'em -they avoid it! Uh, number two they don't know how to do it, and so it just never gets done until then everybody gets in trouble and then they say, what happened, and they use the, well, there was a lack of communication. Well, that's baloney! There's a lot more to it than lack of communication. So this on-boarding is just, once I got used to the term and understood the philosophy behind it, I said, you know, Richard, nobody else does this in the public sector that I know of. They do it sometimes, according to the literature, private sector companies have done this for a number of years, but I said this is what we should offer as something really unique to the Brimeyer Group, and so we've been pushing it pretty hard, and I've become a real strong, firm believer in it, that I think it avoids a lot of problems in the future, especially that first four, five months on the job. You would think, well, just sit around and kind of what we did back in my day, you know, you'd get there and sit around and keep your mouth shut for six This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 36 months and then figure out what to do. This...this kind of, this kind of promotes that process of getting that dialog out there, so I think it's a concept that's really...that I would push very hard every city council to try to do something like this when they hire somebody, or whenever a city manager hires a department head. You can say, well, see the HR person and fill out the forms and he'll tell you where your desk is and where you get pencils and where the bathroom is and what time lunch is. Well, that's no way to start out somebody in the employment environment, so I think the on-boarding thing is really critical now. I've become an advocate for it. At first I wasn't sure about it! Fursman/ It has been, uh, well received, and uh, with both councils and managers to sit down and have a realistic talk, as they start their position, as to the expectations and... and getting some goals and objectives lined up, immediately, and uh, getting the philosophical disposition of the group working right away, so they're not...people come in, they're very tentative at first and they don't know where things are at, and you... if you're learning only by trial and error, sometimes the error can be insurmountable, and so we try and take that away, or reduce that amount of time. Brimeyer/ I think you should talk a little bit about the interview process. I don't know that we covered that. (mumbled) various phases of it. Fursman/ Yeah, and...Jim was just mentioning the interview process that we go through, is uh...the one we recommend...we always tweak it according to you, cause we want your personality to come through. If you're a wild bunch, we want that to come out, you know, if you're pretty conservative, well, let's keep it low key. Uh, if it's somewhere in between, but whatever your personality is, we...we want to design something over two days that shows it very clearly, cause you want to know who they are, and they...they want to know who you are and you can't do that by...pretending or going into a false environment. So we start off Friday generally with a tour of the community. It's usually a Friday/Saturday, that's what works best with councils. If you want to do it a different day, but that's typically what we do. Start off on Friday, the candidates come in, have a tour of the community, and um, meet the staff, have an ability to go through City Hall and...and see where the city facilities are, what...kind of absorb the history of the community through staff, and through those tours. In the afternoon, uh, we have, uh, typically would have one-on-one conversations with you, where the candidate would spend about 30 minutes with each one of you, either alone or in groups of two, depending on how much time we have. So, you have some reflective time with them. We also like to have a dinner or some sort of reception. A reception with the community, followed by a dinner with you. Um, a time for you to sit down with them in a, uh, informal atmosphere where...uh, you can talk about just about anything, you know, normal conversation you come up with at dinner. We have the...try and get the candidates to rotate around, or the council, depending on... so you're not sitting next to the same people, but have an informal time so you're able to see how do they interact with me, how do they interact with, uh, my partner if we bring them. How do they interact with, uh, the...you're seeing all this and judging all this from, uh, from a different perspective. Then on the final day, we have, uh, our formal interviews, and let's say we have a panel of staff, maybe a panel from the community, or a couple panels from the community, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 37 depending on how much input you want. Maybe we have chairs of the planning commission and other commissions, and maybe Chamber representative, whoever you feel is a voice for the community that you want to include, uh, set up various panels throughout, um, the interview place, if it's at City Hall, and that's where you get the chance to do the formal interview of anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour long. So at the...by the time you're done, you've spent...uh, one-on-one time with the individual, group time with the individual in a, um, kind of a relaxed dinner setting, you've seen them in a public forum where they had a chance to interact with the public, and you've witness that with them, uh...not only that, but you've had all the written material, you've seen their, uh, personality profile and, by the way, you test that a little bit during, we put a question on their profile that talks about where they're beautiful and kind of where they're not, and... and we put them on the hot seat a little bit, says you're arrogant sometimes, how do you react to that, you know, or you're stubborn, um, or argumentative, and when they say, no, I'm not! (laughter) So, so we put that in the...we use the profile to make an individual, uh, attempt at questions (mumbled) Champion/ I need that test! Fursman/ Oh, it's fun. It's fun, Connie. (several talking) It'll just verify who (laughter) Brimeyer/ You'll read parts of it and say that's not me, and then people that know you will say, uh, yes it is! Sorry! (laughter) Hayek/ You know, uh (several talking) I've been leading the initial questions (coughing) I'll ask you the same thing, but my thinking about that question has evolved through the course of this morning. Um, you know, having gone through this process in 07/08, um, we...we spent a lot of time in the front end, we developed a body of materials -whether it was the community profile or other things - um, and the question was, you know, what part of that would you want to incorporate, or not, and how would that inform how you approach this search process, um, it's pretty clear to me, you know...that process started under one council. It was concluded under another council, and this council is yet another council. so obviously you're going to have to spend time with us to figure out what it is we as a group can agree on wanting in a new manager. I get that part, but in terms of involving other constituent groups in, uh, in the front end process, um, that part I'm a little less sure about, uh, and...and I don't know what you would envision doing, and whether it would be different because we've been through it only three years ago, uh, again, not this...this, these seven people, but beyond us. Fursman/ Well, first of all, some of the things that I think would be transferrable, if you might say, where one...one profile data sheet would look like another, a lot of the...about the community, uh, you know, and a university town, uh, and amenities, parks, you know, this is where we're located, probably hasn't changed a whole lot in three years, and so to be able to take that demographic, uh, overlay and tweak it a little bit, probably leave it at that. Uh, as far as, uh, getting involved with the community, I...I don't know if I'd feel comfortable using data that's three years old, I mean, the shock the community has gone through, uh, the...just the, uh, changes, you know, that, even in the economy, the national This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 38 economy, and how it's impacted us, I think people shift over time and... and so, and were there lessons learned, uh, did we discover something about ourselves through the last process, that now if we were going to go through it again we would say maybe this slightly different, different focus, uh, and not only that but still that...that buy-in and that sense of connectedness to this process, I think with the community, I think we'd miss something. You could do it, but I wouldn't advise it. Brimeyer/ I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't be part of it. If you said that's the case, I'd say see ya later. I have to...I have to know where you individually are coming from, and as a group, and I have to know who the players are in the community and how big of a force they are, so that I can represent this position to a candidate and say, okay, here's what's going on there. Here's what happened the last time. Now you're not going to give me all the, maybe you are, but I'm guessing you're not going to give me all the ...all the nasty stuff, but somebody around here will, and we'll be able to say to a group of candidates or a potential candidate, here's what happened, and if you're going to be successful there, this can't happen again. Um, he's a little different than I am on his...we've talked about (laughter) I can be fairly straightforward and fairly blunt, in fact I don't know how else to behave most of the time, but I've tempered it over the years. I've managed to get it under control, but I think you have to say to a candidate you're not going...it's not going to work if that's the approach you're going to take there. It just doesn't work. And what can be uncanny and almost scary about this business sometimes, and my wife, who is not here, can attest to this, we will be in the process of screening candidates and I'll have interviewed maybe seven or eight and get to the ninth one and I'll call her up and say I know who it's going to be, and she'll say how do you know. I don't know how I know, but what's scary is about 99% of the time it's a pretty good hit, and that is, uh, that's an amazing phenomenon. I don't know if Richard shares that same kind of feeling sometimes, but you do know which kind of people are going to fit well and depending on the environment, and I think, you know, we need...I would guess the University of Iowa's a big player here, it's just a wild guess. Um... Champion/ It's the largest university owned by a hospital. Brimeyer/ Yeah, and it's (laughter) oh! See, that's...(several talking and laughing) Well I...I have some biases against the University of Iowa because they think they cheat. Their kids that play our kids in football are always bigger and faster, and I don't think that's fair (laughter) how we get around that. They always seem to just kick our butts but...except this year in basketball. I think we did pretty good in basketball this year. Wright/ We don't talk about that. Brimeyer/ Okay. Champion/ We don't have a basketball team. Brimeyer/ (several talking) you've got some other folks in town that have gotta be big players that we need to talk to get a feel for this place, cause if nothing else we get to talk to them This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 39 and say how do you think this place operates. Well, I gotta tell ya, let me tell you something about the council, you know, those are things we don't like to hear, but things we need to hear. These are things people need to know about. Here's what needs to bring this place together, and everything might be great, and that's super! It'd be nice to say to candidates, there's really not a lot of problems there. But there are a couple council members that think there ought to be more, uh, move-up housing. I don't use the word affordable housing by the way. I don't like it. I think it's an oxymoron and I refuse to use that word, but move-up housing, life-cycle housing does make sense to me. Anyway, those kinds of advocacy positions, people need to know about, people need to know...it's kind of what on-boarding helps to do also, but even prior to that, you need to know about some of those things that you can share with people. A lot of the information that's been gathered, very useful. Getting that personality feel, you have to do that personally, one- on-one. Can't take that off a piece of paper. Fursman/ But, Jim, you would say too that even though you get this strong sense, it's still up to the council to pick their people, I mean (both talking) I will never recommend the person you hire. I won't pick the top five. That's something that you'll do. We'll guide that. We'll tell you who's...what strengths people have, and again, what blemishes they may have, what might hold them back a little bit, but it's...it's important for this group to be the one to pick (mumbled) and uh... (both talking) Brimeyer/ ...push you real hard and say, you know what, there is one that you really should talk to. Now you may decide that you, you know, that's not the person. In fact, that happened up the road here about three years ago. Which now I understand they're going through some other difficulties (mumbled) talk about that today. I just read the paper again today, and I talked to Prosser last week. Hayek/ By the way, uh, very different culture up there. I'm not sure...there are two cities so close together, so different. (several talking) ...and different politically, different, just in terms of the private sector (several talking) tension on council, you name it, um, but it's instructive to us that you actually went through that experience (several talking) Champion/ I like the, uh, I like your concept of how, your interview. I wrote it down, but, um, I liked your interview pattern. I think it sounds really sound and can see where you're very successful. Brimeyer/ We try to get the interaction, social interaction, one-on-one interaction and then the group interaction, because when you make a decision to hire a manager, you really have to ask yourself about four questions. How's this person going to get along with us as a group, how are they getting along with me individually, cause sometimes that's as critical as the group thing, cause every council member has their own ego, their own wishes. I've been there, done that, so I can speak with some experience, and some need more attention than others, and some like information a certain way and some don't like very much information, and I think you need to decide how does this person get along with the staff and the organization, and then I think you need to decide how do they show in the community, how do they work with the University or can they go to the Rotary Club and, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 40 you know, make a decent presentation, can they work with the Chamber director, or whatever other, you know, big operations you have in town. How are they going to fit there? You gotta ask yourself those three or four questions and (both talking) Champion/ Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. But I come from a large family; we all interrupt! (laughter) Um, do you ever talk to neighbor...neighboring communities? Brimeyer/ About the candidates or about, um, about you? Yeah, oh yeah! Champion/ Not me, the whole town! Brimeyer/ The city, city as a whole, yeah! Champion/ Well, you can talk about me too but (laughter). I think that would be important. Brimeyer/ One of the things I do tell people, uh, even when we do reference checks. You know, you give the normal reference checks, but sometimes you just, you sense a red flag or something and you just know you're not getting the whole story, and one of the nice things about being around a long time is that you can always call somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody, and say I'm not getting the full picture here; what's going on, and...and it's like you're...it's almost like you're in a confessional. They just open up to you, because they know you're a former manager and you know they do this thing and they will tell you a lot of things, and so, uh, we...if we sense any kind of red flags, we'll do some...we'll do some phoning around, yeah. I think that's what you pay us for. If you just put ads in the paper and looked at resumes, and then brought some people in to interview, you don't...you don't really need us. You can do that. Your HR department I'm sure can handle that. We're your temporary HR department, outside HR department, that's here for a short period of time and you hire us because we have the time, and we hope you've hired us because we know what we're doing, and we think we know what we're doing. Dickens/ Do you see this as a national search or is it going to be a little more... Brimeyer/National search, but you're probably going to end up with somebody from the region. You're not going to...you're not going to bring somebody here from Florida that's never been to the Midwest. You're just not going to do it. You can, and councils will say, oh no! We're going to go worldwide and we're going to bring'em in from California and Texas or whatever. No you're not. It's not going to happen. (several talking) Yeah, unless you got somebody that grew up in Iowa or southern Minnesota, or even Illinois, and they're down in Texas or Florida, or out on the east coast and want to come back, that's a perfect fit. But just look at all the...all the positions that have been filled. I still remember Urbandale just filled their position here a year or two ago, Bob Andeweg's the mayor up there, and he said, well, we're going to hire a firm that does anation-wide search. I said, Bob, we do nation-wide searches, but you're going to end up with somebody locally. Oh, I don't think so. Well, they hired a guy from Muscatine, and he's great, he's doing a great job! (several talking) In fact we did...I've done their strategic This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 41 planning session now for the...three times over the last six years, the last one I got stuck in a truck stop in a snowstorm in 'Boondock' Iowa. Spent the night there, but I got there the next day and we did the session. Wilburn/ I'm trying to remember from your, uh, from your profile, um, outside of Cedar Rapids, what's the largest, uh, two, three cities, population-wise, that you...that you've done, city manager searches, not... Fursman/ Well, I did Minneapolis, several positions in Minneapolis. Wilburn/ City manager? Fursman/ City coordinator they call it (both talking). Minneapolis really doesn't have a city manager. Minneapolis has 13 council members that represent 13 fiefdoms that are governing ten department heads who answer to no one. So city coordinator is not the same there as a city manager. Uh (mumbled) bigger cities... Wilburn/ Or comparable...or comparable to Iowa City, both of you actually. Fursman/ Yeah, and I think most recently, uh, while it doesn't have the footprint that you have defined here of 62,000, but I think, uh, Aberdeen, South Dakota most recently is...is of similar, uh, complexities, similar size. Brimeyer/ They have a big university there too. Fursman/ Yeah, the difference there...their geographic boundary versus their service boundary is..is somewhat of a misnomer, that they have a service population of over 100,000 for the community, but the community boundaries are such that they show a population of 25,000. So, I...I think that is a... is a good example of... of something that we've done recently. I think we profiled it in our, uh, submittal to you, uh, of a city that, again, a stand-alone university town, river town, uh, that, uh, has a footprint very similar to Iowa City, uh, is recent one. (several talking) Brimeyer/ ...suburbs in the Twin Cities (mumbled) Fursman/ The big difference though is...in the suburbs, even though...I served in a suburb that the headquarters, 3M of Maplewood and so the daytime population exceeds 50,000 there, uh, close to 60,000, is...is that it doesn't have an identity like your community does here. It kind of gets absorbed and lost in the...in the, uh, all of the different suburbs kind of inner... start looking, smelling, tasting the same. Brimeyer/ No, I think St. Louis Park's kinda unique! Fursman/ It is! It is! I didn't mean to offend you (laughter) very sensitive over here. Wright/ In all the years I lived right next to St. Louis Park I never really noticed it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 42 Brimeyer/ Didn't you really? Oh! (laughter and several talking) If you haven't been back there for a while, you should see our Excelsior and Grand project, and now our new west end project. It...those are outstanding projects. And they came out of that Vision St. Louis Park from 95, 96. We pulled off Excelsior and Grand against almost every neighbor up there thought we were nuts. And we stood by our guns, and now you would think it was their project and we don't get any credit for it (laughter) Dickens/ Think you answered this in your, you know, in your profiling, and your (mumbled) but, uh, as far as when you're questioning or picking up people, uh, finding people that think outside the box, that you know, still have great management skills, financial skills, but unique...problem-solving, uh, do you get into that at all and... Fursman/ Oh, especially if see as a need coming from this position that you want an out-of-the- box thinker, somebody who has a lot of, uh, creativity, can see the big picture and...and find ways to solve issues. It's certainly something we measure for, something that, uh, we test for, and question for. The downside of that is often follow through, detail, so what we look then is, do you have a team here that can...can make up for some of this. I was a big picture guy in Maplewood. Now, I really knew, I knew...that a detail was not my... not my thing, so I ... (both talking, laughter) I had to really concentrate on it, and then I...I mean (several talking) became the 'list king,' you know, I... if I didn't have a checklist on something, I was lost. So I...I knew that with every project I had, uh, I...I developed a list system, I developed a project management system, and...and so we ask candidates, all right, you big thinker guy or gal, how do you handle this, uh, the rest of your job, and..and not fall apart, and not drop things. Brimeyer/ I think the other thing to look at is somebody, um, penchant for risk taking, which I think is synonymous with out-of--the-box, you look at their track record and you see what kind of great ideas they've come up with, and how many of them get shot down, and how many of them make it, and are they willing to take that chance of failure, and then it depends on how much of a risk taking, uh, atmosphere you have here. Some towns don't like it. St. Louis Park, there's a great risk taking town. We've got a number of failures that are pretty big blotches, but we've got so many success stories. Not every community can stand that. Minnetonka can't. They're right next store. They...they just don't need (mumbled) well, they do it pretty well, but it depends on the environment of the community, I mean... Fursman/ That's part of what we cover on on-boarding is, all right, let's talk -you wanted this out-of--the-box risk taker... Brimeyer/ Right, right! Fursman/ ...let's talk about...how we give cues as to when to step on the gas, when to step on the brakes, or when to take the off-ramp cause you're on the wrong road (laughter) cause that happens, hello! And so we want to make sure we do that, and...and that, right off the start is great to know, you know, if the mayor's over there going (laughter) you might This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 43 want to take the next exit. So...so we learn those cues right off the bat, and...and have that discussion. Brimeyer/ But most of that depends on you. Fursman/ Yeah, oh it does! Brimeyer/ Councils say that, but you know, do they really practice it. And again, I only go from my own experience. I ...somebody once told me way back early on in my career that government's like a big funnel. You gotta keep shoving stuff in the top as hard as you can, and the little drip that comes out the bottom is progress. And when I was manager, I operated on the philosophy it was my job to keep shoving stuff in the funnel, and drove department heads crazy, council loved it. But we had a council that liked it. When I was on the council, we had a group that was like that. We...timing is everything. We had the perfect number of...perfect combination of seven people that put together the biggest project in the history of the Twin Cities, at that time, and even now we look back and just kind of smile about it. The former mayor's a county commissioner in Hennepin County now, and every once in a while she'll say do you have any idea what we put together in the eight years we were there, and I said yeah, it's pretty significant. But we hung together, you know, they got some new folks now. I'm not sure how they're going to...it's all that chemistry among the seven of you, and the timing for stuff that's...sometimes you just get lucky. Sometimes you try like heck and you get unlucky and it fails. Wright/ (several talking) three of us all at once! Mims/ I was just sitting up. I wasn't going to say anything! (laughter) Bailey/ I was taking that as a cue. You were going to say something. Wright/ Um, I just wanted to check in, as you...you're doing your recruiting for this position, if we were to hire you, how would you, um...try to present us with a fairly diverse candidate pool, in terms of, uh, representation by women, representation of minority folks. Fursman/ (both talking) (noise on mic) ...often times a candidate pool, it still... a white, male dominated, uh, occupation. There's just no way around it, I mean, the numbers from...out of ICMA, uh, or show that the majority. of people coming into the field who are experienced in the field are still, um, dominated by people who look like me, uh (noise on mic) bald (laughter) exceptionally handsome (laughter) I wish, uh, but um, none the less, I think it's so important to have, to attract as much diversity as we possibly can, and...with the position, and...and if that's something that we can include in the profile is that, uh, we encourage, uh, candidates, you know, candidates, uh, women and minority candidates, I mean, that's something we can include in the profile, uh...you're not going to get a lot of, more than what you have in... in the field. The field is going to be...we're going to get 15% women and minorities, you're going to get less than 5%. We This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 44 will screen them as we would screen anybody else. We don't want to bring you somebody who's a candidate...let's say a female candidate. We get three, and we don't want to bring you a female candidate who can't do the job, just to make sure that we have candidates. (several talking) Okay. Won't do it. Or minority candidates, just to say, you know, we have this person here. They all have proven themselves. I mean, we have a very good, like Jim said, we have a very good track record of placing, uh, female candidates, uh, in... in these positions, because uh, the pool that we have, for whatever reason, they have been exceptionally strong. We're seeing exceptionally strong candidates come forward in that area, so... Brimeyer/ We do have a listing of places that we (mumbled) minority and female, so it's somewhere. The only reason we have it is it came up about seven, eight years ago, up in northwest Minnesota. One of the council members said, you know, I wasn't going to hire you cause you don't have a track record for females and minorities, and I said, how do you know that? She said well, it wasn't in your proposal. I said, no, we don't...we don't hold it up as a trophy case. I don't believe in that. So I asked my wife, who was...still my partner, I said can you make up that list. She said, what do you want that for, cause she took offense at it, as a female, and I said, well, this council member wants to have it, wants to see it, so she did and it was...I was impressed, I had forgotten how many positions we had filled that way, and so we still have it. We can supply that to you. We'd have to update it. But I think we...is there still one only African American city manager in Iowa? In West Liberty? That's us! (several talking) I still see him at Iowa League things. Always comes up, always talks, says how you doing. Bailey/ How many searches are you currently undertaking or involved with? Right now, I mean, we would be one of how many when you were working with us? Fursman/ Right now we're finishing up with Dakota County, uh, a search for their, a dispatch, uh, executive director of their...their communication center, is...is one, and the city of Parabola. Harden Hills is making a decision (both talking) Bailey/ So we would be... Fursman/ So you'd be one of three. Bailey/ Okay. Thank you. (several talking) Brimeyer/ We try not to...when I...when we were in business and he wasn't around, we never tried to do more than five or six at a time. And quite frankly, we've actually...there were several years ago when we were nice and busy, and we were turning down business. You hate to do that, and you say, well, you should add people to help you out. We made a conscience decision a long time ago that we were going to be a small firm, we're going to stay a small firm, because I've heard so many horror stories about business like this, they get big and big and big, and then you end up feeding the animal and then you gotta keep people busy, and then you gotta lay 'em off. Never wanted to do that, so never did. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 45 Bailey/ So you manage the fact that you're a small firm by take...by being very selective of (both talking) Brimeyer/ Yeah, oh yeah. They'll sometimes call me about sending out a proposal, and I'll say, I wouldn't bother. Champion/ Why would you... Brimeyer/ We know. You had to fight for food. You grew up with eight or ten kids, so we understand. Champion/ (laughter) why would you want this job, what would be your primary, I mean, besides we'd pay you. Fursman/ Work with you, Connie. We heard about you, Connie! Champion/ I'm sure you did! (laughter) Fursman/ Well, you know, it's what we do. It's our DNA, I mean, you know, to use that term a second time in a morning. Why would we want to work here? Uh, well, it's certainly a challenge. Every community's different. Every community's a challenge. Uh, we...we have a history in Iowa. Uh, we feel like we know the region. We know the landscape. We just feel we could do a really great job for you. And, uh, like Jim said, we're selective...you get to a point where once our slates full, we stop sending out our...we start going on interviews, and uh, this...this would be a wonderful opportunity. I'd love to work down here. My sister lives just, uh, down the road from here, as well, which selfishly I would be able to visit her a little bit more. She lives in, uh, Comanche, or over by Clinton, and so, uh, so I have a selfish motive, I guess, cause I...I like to visit my baby sister, uh, often and so that's another reason. Brimeyer/ I think another thing is that our philosophy is we really want you to be happy. I know that sounds solicitous, but I don't; need you going to an Iowa League of Cities meeting saying we hired that outfit out of Minneapolis and they did a lousy job. I need you to go there and say you hired that outfit out of Minneapolis and they really did a nice job for us. I would say 85, 90% of our work is either referral or repeat business. Um, not uncommon, you know, the years we were busy to just have people call us up and say get started on finding us a human services director, who else you talking to. Nobody, get down here next Monday. Okay, fine. Lot of our business has come that way. Kind of unusual...what we call ashoot-out like this with three or four other firms. I'm not real used to that, although Cedar Rapids I think was kind of a shoot-out. Yeah, it was. Wilburn/ I have a, um (several talking) um...this is more of a capacity question. I understand we're a little short on time here, um, I've heard good things from the communities in Iowa that have used you and a lot of them use you for, um, their mid-level, department-head level type positions. Um, can you, you know, briefly address, uh, this capacity in terms of, uh, both who's out there, and uh, I appreciate what you're saying about, you know, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 46 national and in reality you're looking at a Midwest, but I mean, define the Midwest for me. Where are you seeing people applying for jobs from? And we're talking the top, you know, the top spot. Fursman/ (both talking) our experience recently has been, uh, certainly Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, uh, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, uh, is...is your hot spot. It's the center of the target, but to describe where you're going to get people from, you're going to get people from Texas. You're going to get people from Florida, California, uh, Oregon, and the east coast as well. Wilburn/ Is that reflective in your data base then? Fursman/ Yeah. Wilburn/ Okay, all right. Brimeyer/ And in the recruiting part, it's not just the advertising and getting the word out and sending out profiles, cause we'll send out a bunch of profiles like that to people, but we'll call around. We'll say, uh, who might be interested, who might be a good one to take a look at. Fursman/ Harden Hills, which (mumbled) Twin Cities, just so you know, uh, they're paying $108,000, uh, in their starting range and... and they received 128 resumes. The Twin Cities has a tendency to get quite a few, um, Albert Lea which we just finished, uh, had mid-70s for applicants, and again, the footprint was, uh, the red spot was what I just described, and then the wider target was across the country. Brimeyer/ But the Twin Cities is so popular because we probably have the world series baseball champions (laughter). That is quite a place, by the way! Hayek/ We do have to end here. Last...last question, um, there wasn't a specific cost proposal in your materials, and I know that would be something you'd probably negotiate with us. (several talking) Can you...do you have a number in mind, or is there a ballpark we can expect? (several talking) For another hour (laughter) Dickens/ I thought you had $17,000 plus expenses. Fursman/ That was I think some of the other fees that you quoted, so it's probably... l7 to 18 range plus (several talking) Hayek/ Good to know. Thank you so much for coming down. (several talking) Slavin Management: Hayek/ Bob, welcome, thank you for coming. (several talking and laughing) Sure, uh, we've been doing this informally today, and...and as I think you were told, uh, at the beginning This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 47 (mumbled) for you to just make some opening remarks and presentation, and then we'll follow up with some basic question and discussion. (several talking) You'll have to mic up. Slavin/ This all I need to do? (mumbled) Hayek/ Yeah. Slavin/ Um...thanks. Um, want me to just begin? Hayek/ Sure, yeah. Slavin/ I'm Bob Slavin. I have a company by the name of Slavin Management Consultants. It's an honor to be here, grateful to have been invited to speak with you this afternoon. I do have a presentation I'll make brief, um, and uh, then I look forward to the questions and answers because I think at that point in the, uh, time we've been together is when we're most productive and I know I'm responding to things you (mumbled) so um...the, uh (mumbled) our...our company has been in existence since 1991, but I have been, uh, doing this work since 1979 and prior to that for 12 years worked for cities and counties in California. Um, but...both cities and counties. The, uh, I became a recruiter because I wanted to, not because I needed to leave the job, uh, I was in. It was something, an opportunity that I had thought about for a long time and had the opportunity to go to work for a company by the name of Corn Ferry, which at the time was one of two in the, uh, two companies, or two firms, uh, in the United States that provided, uh, executive recruitment services to local governments. The, uh, second was Paul organization out of Chicago. Ours, uh, Corn Ferry, had a division that, um, that was devoted to local government recruiting, and I was in that position out of their Los Angeles office. So I learned to be a recruiter, uh, by, um, by folks, from folks who mentored me at the largest recruitment firm in the country, so whatever value there was to being mentored by those folks, uh, I've retained. Um, I have, uh, 30, almost 31 years of experience in local government place, uh, management placement. One of our, um, colleagues, Paul Wenbert, would have been here today with me, um, we had, um, your scheduling change was minor. He had a scheduling conflict, uh, that couldn't be changed so he's with another client today. We apologize for that, but I will be the lead...I would, I'm here...if he was going to be the lead on this, I would have (mumbled) project that he's working on, but I will be the lead, uh, on this one. He'll help me; wish he could be here. Some of you may remember him; he was here with me last time. Um, the, uh, our experience includes significant, uh, experience in recruiting Iowa managers, and we did...we just finished, uh, work in Storm Lake and in, uh...Urbandale. So, it's not...that (mumbled) uh, we've also worked in the past in Davenport, uh, that wasn't a manager. That was a finance director. We've worked in...I've got in on...I had this information (mumbled) I have placed more than...placed myself or been responsible for the placement of more than 700 governmental executives, and we've worked in more than 40 states. Actually it's more like 44, um, but the only point is that I know the country, I know where people are, I've got a, uh, a network that, uh, established over the years and value highly, and uh, that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 48 network becomes very valuable when it comes to looking for people who we may not know. Um, we have affiliates in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, and Texas, and those affiliates when they work for us, they don't work for us exclusively, but when they do, they do. It's, uh, any, um, arrangement I have with them is that when they don't do search work on... for themselves, they only work for us, and when they take on an assignment, uh, it's a seamless relationship where basically they're reporting to me, uh, and um, they serve as an employee of the firm, and when our clients, um, are, um, involved they...they can feel comfortable calling either me or that person, and in this case it might be Paul, uh, Wenbert, uh, but most likely would be calling me anyway, but what I'm really saying is if Paul becomes involved in this, uh, he and I would be talking on a daily basis. So, um, there's no...and the relationship has always been seamless and worked very well together. Mention that we have more than 700 recruitments over 30 years, 95% of our placements have stayed in their positions more than the average, uh, tenure for a city manager of five years. In fact it was seven, more than seven years the last time I calculated, uh, which I'm quite proud of, uh, and I think prob...probably our process and the way, and the commitment we make to find...to find people who fit your needs, rather than just people who meet the minimum requirements is largely, um, the reason for that. We've only had...we guarantee our work for two years, and if a person leaves here, even because they, uh, because of a death, within those first two years, we will redo the search for the cost of the, uh, expenses, and we've only had to honor that once, and that was a death. Um, the, um, approximately 25% of our placements are members of protected groups, um, and we make a very diligent effort to find folks who meet the qualifications, but also are, um, protected under federal government regulations, have protection for status, and we make a very diligent effort if that's something that's particularly important to you. We certainly don't want to discriminate against anybody, but we will find folks who, um, meet the criteria that you're looking for, who, um, are members of protected groups, and uh, for whom um, this job would be of interest, and it would be an opportunity. Our Iowa experience, uh, includes work for Davenport, the League of Cities, uh, Muscatine, Sioux City, Urbandale, uh, Storm Lake, West Des Moines, some of those, uh, governments we've done more than one, uh (mumbled) so we've actually worked here more than...more times than those, that number suggests, but uh, those are the clients that we've served. Our college town experience, and this always...as you well know, you live here and probably by choice, and because of the quality of being in a university community, uh, but we have done a lot, and we have found over the years that they are unique. They're very attractive, uh, they're challenging, uh, and uh, you need folks who understand those challenges and are willing to, uh, to work with a very interested and involved, active community, and we've done a lot of that over the years, and every single one of those communities, uh, has the distinction and uh, unique characteristics of...of a, in a university-based community. So, um...we spend a lot of time here at the beginning of the process, meeting with each of you and with anybody else you want us to meet with, and we would encourage that list to be as, um, broad as...as uh, as it can be, um, and uh, we know who we work for and that's you folks, but and what you say, uh, what you contribute to the definition of, um, of, and characteristics of the next, uh, city manager is, uh, what we go by, but we learn a lot from staff, uh, we learn a lot from community leaders, we, uh, and in a community that's got as much, uh, civic things...community and business involvement as this one does, we would This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 49 learn from those folks too, um, so we would like to, uh, and what we're trying to achieve is...is a full understanding of what makes this, or makes this town unique, but uh, what the...the things that cause it to function the way it does, but, uh, what it values, uh, what you'll be looking for, uh, in terms of goals and objectives and accomplishments, uh, that...for the city over the next three or four years, um, and uh, all that is important in terms of trying to find a city manager who's interested (mumbled) qualified, interested, and may have already had experience in (mumbled) those things so, um, we will spend a lot of time here, and it's one of the most critical, uh, parts to the job because it does give us a appreciation for what makes this place unique. Um, then we go out and find folks that meet that criteria, and I don't pretend to tell you that I'll know who they are, uh, at the moment, but we sure know how to find'em, and I think that's the value of the 30 years of experience that I bring to the table, and the, um, the diversity of folks who are on our team who work in different parts of the country, it, uh, we will do a brainstorming session once we know what you're looking for, and then we will determine, uh, who we, um, might best contact, who might know people we don't know, um, so we will use a, um, rather extensive networking process, in addition to the advertising, in addition to, uh, looking at, in our data base. We'll want to know who we don't know, uh, who might fit the criteria you're looking for so, um, I think that's the value of that national network of folks. Um, we advertise in the key publications. We use, uh, emails, uh, but we spend a lot of time sourcing for people who we may not know. Um, we...as we do this, what's in our mind is your criteria, not what we think it ought to be, or not any preconceived ideas of what, uh, what, um, unique features this community should have, but actually what you've told us and what you've approved in terms of a recruitment profile, so that's what, uh, that's how we direct the recruitment efforts and that's how we evaluate the candidates, uh, first on paper and then as we get further and further into each candidates background, the ones that particularly look good at least. We are looking at them in terms of your, um, criteria... as well as whether or not they're honest and have integrity and, uh, manage well and those things that are given. We look at how well they fit this, will fit the community that you describe for us, so uh, and this on-site meetings with you is how we learn about the community, but we also do on-site meetings with the finalists candidates, in their communities, and what we're looking for is verification that, um, that they in fact have done what they've, not only that they've done what they said they've done. We want to see some of their accomplishments, we'll want to walk down Main Street with them, if you will, and see the reaction of the community, uh, to them as they don't know why we're there and, uh, only the candidate typically does, but it's interesting to see, uh, how people react to them, it's interesting to walk around a city hall with, uh, the manager or deputy manager if it happens, if the candidate happens to be, uh, the deputy, and see uh, what the reaction of employees are, to that person, whether...and how they relate to...to folks they work with on a day in and day out basis, um, and...how the community reacts to them (mumbled) looking at the community. We do thorough background work on the...on the candidates, which includes all kinds of things, uh, credit, criminal, driving, uh, civil records, certainly criminal records. We go back and reference at least three positions in ten years, uh, we Google, we find out about as much as we possibly can. We ask them a lot of questions about their background, uh, we will know, um, what jobs they've held, why they left those jobs, uh, we will verify those...that information, we will know whether they've ever sued or been sued by an employer, we verify that information. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 50 we'll know, uh, if...what their personal financial background is, uh, and we verify that, and it doesn't mean that if somebody's credit record isn't perfect that they're eliminated by any means, but it does mean that we'll want to know, we're looking for patterns, uh, also with the referencing we don't always stick with the (mumbled) stick exclusively with the names of folks they give us, but we'll use that network we have to identify people that have been in the town next door at some point in their career, or...we're looking for validation of, um, of this person's credentials, and we're looking again for consistency, because we're looking for people...we're looking to find folks who've seen this person in a... in a professional setting over a period of time from different vantage points, and we're looking for consistency. So, we're pretty sure you, uh, by the time you see them that we understand that person pretty well. Uh, we'll assist you to design and, uh, the interview and selection process. We'll make the logistical arrangements for candidates, uh, we'll, uh, if you want the community involved with the candidates when they come to town, we'll help you work out a...a...a, uh, a process that is as inclusive as you want it to be. We'll provide questions, rating sheets, uh, ranking forms, we'll help you facilitate an employment agreement. Um, we will come back, um, once the person is started and help you establish performance goals. Not community goals, but performance goals. The items and things that you expect this person to achieve within the first year, eighteen months, two years, um, and uh, give you kind of...put everybody on the same page and to give you, uh, the criteria upon which to evaluate their performance. So, um, we then follow up with both the, you folks on the council and the manager for at least the first year, to make sure that things are working well, and if not, we'll um, see what we can do to help you and intervene in any way we can to make, uh, the um, adjustments necessary to make the, um, placement a success and if it looks like it's not going to be, we'll be the first ones to say then it's time to move on and we'll go to the next candidate. Selling this city we focus on your strengths, and it's not...this slide is always dangerous for me because I don't know as much about you as I will, and a lot of what we do at the initial part of the process gives us the information that we might replace some of these bullet points on this slide, but from what we've learned, um, these are some of the things that I think would attract a city manager candidate to this, uh, city, and it would take the...a manager interested in these things, but um, this is a well thought of, highly regarded, uh, council-manager city in the United States. People know it, people in this business know it. So, uh, you're a good size. You're 25 square miles, uh, you're a county seat, uh, you're a service center, you've got diverse economy, you base primarily on industries that are pretty safe in terms of...in terms of you not being aone-industry town or a...in this economy things, uh (mumbled) this city is probably going to be okay. Um, may have read some Census data wrong because I keep seeing that you're 62,000-some odd, uh, residents, but I understand that the Census folks projected that in 2007 you were more like 57,000 so I don't know what... Wright/ I think that's the projected figure. 62 is the official figure, isn't that right? (both talking) Slavin/ But a 9% increase is quite remarkable, uh, so I...that's a positive thing. You're growing (mumbled) stability. It adds to the attractiveness of the community and suggests a dynamic place, which, um, the, uh, you're full service, you've got police, fire, you've got all, uh, a full variety of services you provide. You've got a good, uh, sized staff, um, you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 51 got a good budget, um, your stand that you use...a three-year financial plan which is, uh, something a lot of managers would be able to do, but can't accomplish, um, because local politics, but if you're doing that, that's great, because it does, uh, suggest you focus on your future and how to get there, and uh, I think that's an attractive feature. Um, the diversified economy I already mentioned. I think that's a very effective...cost of living is, uh, low relative to national standards, uh, you...this, uh, showing best places to live, was just one statistic I pulled out of a long list that I could have put in here and (mumbled) very impressive so, I...I, um, my point with that slide is that this, uh, town has a lot to offer to a city manager, and uh, we should be able to provide, um, you with some very, very high quality folks who, um, who would, um, be interested in applying for this job. Time table, usually 90 days from the time the recruitment profile is approved to the time you are actually interviewing candidates, um, actually, uh, I'll be the one that will be, um, trying to keep everything on schedule because once you attract good people, you have to keep the process moving or you lose good people to other attractive, um, opportunities, so um, we'll want to talk a little bit about that, at the beginning, and maybe get an idea of how we, uh, at least a general idea about the timeframe, when certain things are going to happen. We're prepared to begin the process very soon, um, the, uh, some of the commitment we make to your success, uh, other definition for our, heading for this slide, might be guarantees. Uh, we keep working for you until a placement is made, and a successful placement is made, we'll redo the work for no additional fee if the person moves within two years as I've already mentioned. We never recruit the manager we replaced here, and we don't come in here and make a list of your good employees and start recruiting them. You're a client for a couple years, two years, and uh, that doesn't mean people can't come to us, because the work we do for local governments is in the public domain, but we don't go after them, um, and the, uh, that's something I honor religiously. I don't take people that we place, um, and that doesn't mean they can't call me. The other thing, um, or point I wanted to make, and I think it's accurate, uh, that you did not want a cost proposal from us at this point, am I right? Champion/ We do. (several talking) Bailey/ We didn't want it in the proposal, but we're...we would love a ballpark, yeah. Slavin/ Uh, the fees are around...a little over, they're around 14, uh, high, 13.9 something like that. The expenses are capped at 55% of the fee. Works out to about 21, $22,000, um, and the expenses are, uh, the expenses that we pay out of our pocket to support the work that I just described to you, and I didn't go into as much detail as, uh, in terms of the methodology as I could have, uh, because I didn't want to bore you to death, but uh, L ..I'll be willing to answer questions about that, but uh, the expenses are basically what it costs for me to get here, the advertising costs, the cost for us to go and meet candidates, um, any, the cost for us to, uh, provide, or to...to do the background work through Equifax and Whackenhut and um, some of the educational, um, college diploma, uh, consulting firms that we use to get that information. If it goes over the 55%, you don't hear about it, unless you ask us to do something that's not in the scope of services. If it's under, you don't pay it, so uh, it's...uh, the number I gave you is conservative. It won't go... it certainly won't be $22,000, but uh, could be a little over 21. Um, and I... if I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 52 misunderstood that, uh, I actually took the financial information out of the proposal (several talking) okay. Um...thank you very much. If you've got questions, I would be absolutely delighted to respond to them. Hayek/ Sure, I'll start with the one I've been starting with all day, and has to do with the fact that we went through this process in 2007, 2008. And spent a fair amount of time, uh, a lot of time actually on the front end, community profile and sort of early stuff you do, um, and uh, my question has evolved over the day because I've, uh, I've recognized that, um, that the present council is going to have to figure out who it's looking for in a city manager, and what it's marching orders to you are going to be, um, and so in terms of that part of the process, that...that has to be done, but is there anything about the search we did three years ago that...that you would incorporate into this, whether it's part of the profile or some other aspect of it, um, and...and if the answer is, you know, I mean, the answer may just be, you know what, we need to...we need to start from scratch, and that's how I'd approach it. Slavin/ Well the answer is really I don't know, because I don't know that process that well. I know the consultant (mumbled) the company's no longer there, but I think, uh, (mumbled) did it and I think she's (mumbled) and I have respect for her so I would assume there was some quality work done at the beginning of that process. Um, I'd like to see it. You may not have to start at point zero. The community hasn't changed, uh, maybe we can, uh, start um, use some of the initial data for, uh, to...as a shortcut, uh, in terms of time, but I, uh, regardless of what that consultant did, um, or how well that was done or otherwise, it didn't impart information to me. Um, I need to understand this community and uh, my advice to you would be to allow me to talk to a wide variety of different, uh, sources of information for me and again as I said earlier, you folks are the boss, not anybody else, but um, that's how I learn about you and the things that make this community unique. If it wasn't a community that has a reputation for being very active, having a very active community, I wouldn't emphasize it quite so strongly, but I...I know you do have that, um, the other comment I would make or suggestion, recommendation, is that you folks stay in control of this, regardless of how many people are involved, that you folks are...are the ones that are being counted on by your citizens, um...um, constituents to, uh, to do this and to do it well, so I would maintain control of it, but um, involve as many people as you want, just um, make sure that you're the ones that make the decision and that if you involve folks that you don't frustrate them by asking them to, as an example, rank candidates and then, uh, not agree with the way they ranked them, so um, if you have...would suggest that if you have public or citizen involvement at the end, that you do it in a way that doesn't result in, um, in you getting a list of, uh, candidates in rank order, reproduced by either your employees or um, or your community that you might not agree with, because then all of a sudden your efforts to be inclusive, uh, backfire. (several commenting) Champion/ Can you tell me what you think the four most, just four, most important criteria for a city manager are? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Crty council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 53 Slavin/ That'd be...first of all I think the city manager in a place as complex as this needs to have experience. Uh, in municipal management. Um, even though this is a university town, I don't think you'd get away with somebody who didn't have, uh, a respectable educational credentials. It would be...I would be very focused on what they've done, where they've done it, so and...and uh, and looking for characteristics of the setting they worked in, similar to this, so that we can determine from what they've done to whether or not they can do this, uh, and this being the way you define this job to us. So I think experience is important. Um, their commitment to the job, uh, their interest in being here rather than someplace else. Their interest in, uh, career and how this affects their ultimate career and family goals, uh, I think is important. Whether this is, uh, this environment is compatible with, um, with their family, uh, interests, uh, is important so we look at that. Uh, their energy level. I don't know that I'm not kind of overlapping a little bit, but (mumbled). This is going to be a job that requires a lot of, um, energy as I, um, at least that's an assumption I'm making. Uh, usually...I knew Neal Berlin, he certainly had a lot of energy and talked about this, uh, in a, uh, in a manner that suggested to me that, uh, that it was that kind of a situation. Um, the background information is important, um, they need to be, uh, responsible citizens, as well as responsible professionals, and I think they need to be involved in, willing to be involved in the community. So I don't know whether that's four or not, uh, Council Woman, but uh, those are some of the things I would think that we'd be looking for, and then uh, your... every community's um, got very unique charac...or features in terms of the staff, the kind of style that you prefer, uh, leadership style that you prefer, uh, that might bring the best out of the staff that's here. I assume that, uh, person's going to inherit a staff that they're going to be with for a while. Um, how you want to be treated by your...by your city manager, as a council and as individual members of the council. All that's critical too. We'll spend a lot of time talking about that. Bailey/ You talked a little bit about involving the public and... and how to do that, and how, you know, we probably should be cautious about doing that. There has been some discussion about getting input on the finalists from, um, board, commission chairs, and perhaps a group of former mayors in the community, and what are your thoughts on... on doing that at the end of the process involving their input on the finalists? Slavin/ Um, my only...I think it's a good idea, and in particular if you value their input. My only, uh, caution is what I said earlier, don't let them rank'em, but if you (coughing) if it's a, uh, I mean, you can even set 'em down in front of the candidate, or the candidates in front of them and have 'em interviewed, but I wouldn't let 'em rank 'em, um, make it very clear to them that you would...you would encourage their individual communication to you folks as individuals, but not as a... group. I think you're really asking for trouble. I did something in Florida once time where I did make that caution, but they...it was a board of county commissioners, but uh, they uh, I don't even think they knew that this was happening, but as they were interviewing candidates, their citizen group was interviewing candidates and uh, they were of the opinion that the citizen group did not, um, did not have to...that meeting did not have to be a public one, and in Florida, everything's open, and that committee was a committee of... of the board, so it had to be, uh, a public meeting, and the press covered it and these folks may not have ranked these This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 54 folks on paper, but they went around the room talking about who they liked best, and by... and they interviewed in the morning, uh, board of county commissioners began their interviews in the early afternoon. By the time they started, the ranking was there and it was on the radio. (laughter) Bailey/ That's nightmarish! Slavin/ Yeah, it was a nightmare and the chairman of the commission said, now I know what you were talking about. (laughter) Didn't mean to have that happen, but... Mims/ Well one of our other questions that we've asked everybody, but I think your experience pretty well addresses it, how do you see...I mean, obviously you find out what we are looking for, but in looking for qualified candidates, the idea the university town being different than another one, and how has that affected the searches you've done. Obviously you've done a number for university towns, and also just the kind of pool of people that you think you would be looking at or pulling from, in terms of Midwest, um, you know, we talked earlier, you know, chances are we're not going to get somebody from Florida moving here, and we might not want 'em either because they might get here one winter and decide this isn't where they want to be. Slavin/ Um, the, well on that...put the latter point after I make a comment about the first point. College towns, particularly unique, um, and particularly...those jobs are particularly unique for city managers and police chiefs. Um, and it takes a, um, a...a set of...what am I trying to say? Personal characteristics if you will, um, to um, work well in those communities. You need to be, uh, very inclusive and certainly responsive to a wide variety of different thoughts and ideas, but not only do you need to be responsive to them, you need to go out and find them. You need to solicit them. You need to bring them into the public forum. Uh, I guess if you wanted...if you're looking for somebody that's going to get things done, uh, quickly and uh, without a lot of, um, of um, of... discussion, and a lot of managers are like that, um, that've been in...and a lot of police chiefs are like that. Um, that's the way it's going to be and I'm going to make it happen. Uh, that's...those, again, I'm making an assumption and it may be dangerous, uh, because I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but I would suggest that those characteristics would not work in this community, because they certainly wouldn't work in most college towns. I would look for somebody who's been in a college town or is now, who understands this, and really wants to come back to one. Midwest, it's been my experience that the, uh, over the last 30 years that the best and most successful placements are those that don't come from that far away. So, uh, however, having said that, there are not a lot of communities in the country that have university of 29,000 students and this town is absolutely wonderful. Uh, I don't know what it is, but I've never been here, and I've been here five or six times in my life, and I've never been here...once, but I haven't been extraordinarily impressed with the place, it was here in a snow storm once. It was, uh, it, uh, and I was impressed with it. Today I was impressed with it. I got here, oh, I didn't think I'd be in town for what would have been an 11:00 interview, but I was, so I walked around, I drove around, and I went up to the University, and I walked down Main Street, and had lunch and it's just a great place to be, uh, but you've got a value, uh, your characteristic of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 55 this community has to offer, and the quality of life features of it, and Midwesterners have a little different way of looking at the world, I think, and it's a probably pretty valuable one. I'm not sure you won't get interest from other places. Um, I don't know about Florida, but Florida lost its luster and California's lost its luster, and unlike, um, Florida, California's still a place you can sell real estate, even in this market, and uh, get a return from an investment if you've owned it for long enough, uh, that would allow them to comfortably make a move. So, uh, but I would look around the Midwest pretty, um, you know, after you tell us what you're looking for, that's where we would focus. Dickens/ In your interview process do you look at...this is my thought is looking for somebody that thinks outside the box and how they handle, you know, situations, how they get things done or how they work with staff on something like that. Slavin/ You're looking for creative thought rather than just...don't (both talking) Dickens/ There's a lot of managers out there but you want somebody that can manage, but also can be a little bit creative, because we...we're a pretty creative town here. Slavin/ And you've got a lot of, uh, intelligent people, and all the young folks around, uh, I think your average age is 25 or something like that. Uh, we look again at what they've done, uh, and uh, how they...what innovations they've brought to their communities they've worked for. We've talked to people who worked for them, um, we look at, um, sometimes it's interesting to see why, um, changes are made under them, either at their...because they caused those changes to be made or people who've left. Um, what I'm really trying to address, not doing a very good job of is, uh, this idea of...of doing things, uh, better than, uh, they've been... and looking for ways to do them better than...than they've been done before, and not just simply saying it works, nobody's complaining about it, let's just keep doing it without ever asking the questions. Um, there...uh, there's a tendency to do that in this business, uh, because it's politically difficult sometimes to make changes, but if you're...there are other folks out there who are change agents and who thrive on it, and those folks are really frustrated in today's, uh, economy because there's no money to do it. These people are cutting back, they're laying off, they're cutting not only programs but people, they're, uh, dealing with unions that are...represent their employees who are very frustrated. They ought to welcome the opportunity to come to a place where their creativity is, uh, welcome, and there are some resources available to make some changes occur, positive changes occur. Hayek/ I spent seven years in Ann Arbor, and I noted you placed someone there. Slavin/ Twice, yes. Hayek/ Yeah, and I...it's been a while when I was there as a student, but uh, I think (several talking and laughing) uh, she's our comic relief today! Slavin/ I see! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 56 Hayek/ Uh, Ann Arbor is...is very similar, I mean, it's bigger and more than Iowa City in most of the categories. It's a bigger community, it's a... it's a wealthier community, uh, it's a wealthier university, but...but, uh, and it has more industry and a lot, you know, but it is...it's a quintessential college town. Slavin/ It is, and it's one that comes to mind, that and Berkley, where we've worked, uh, the other one that, um, really is, and uh, maybe people don't think of it cause...as being uh, stereotypical college town because it's smaller is Columbia, Missouri. But, um, and we've done a lot of work for them. Ann Arbor is unique to this, from this city, because of the political structure of the city council. They run on a partisan basis. They're all up for election every two years. There's usually 11 of them. There's usually...I think the mayor's directly elected. There are usually, uh, five republicans and six democrats, or the other way around. Those parties caucus, um, they, yeah, you know, and I'm not being critical, I'm just stating a fact. The other thing I...I haven't worked for them for a number of years so this may...that part of it, about Ann Arbor has not changed, but I used to, uh, be amazed...when I would go back there after two or three years of not being there, that the, uh, the issues were exactly the same as they...the first job I handled for Corn Ferry was as a, um, a junior team member on the search team for a replacement to the city manager, city administrator in Ann Arbor. And um, I remember talking with the council members, my first opportunity to sit down and write a job description, and I talked to probably all 11 of 'em, at least I was in the room, uh, issues are the same now as they were then, and I think it's because their set up, their political structure is such that everything's stalemated and checkmated so, but you're right, the community characteristics are very much the same, uh, and the, um, active community is very much the same. The role of the community, or the university is very, very strong there. The affect of the university, it is...it insulates Ann Arbor from the rest of Michigan in terms of some of the economic stresses, and it's a wonderful place. My dad was educated there and his brothers were all educated there (mumbled) my uncle, uh (mumbled) but my uncle is president of the alumni association and (mumbled) so it's a community that I have a lot, my grandmother lived in (mumbled) so spent a lot of my youth in and about Ann Arbor, it's a favorite place of mine, but I will tell you that if I were designing a municipal government political structure, it would not be the one they (laughter and several talking) Hayek/ Um, what role did you play in the placement of the Iowa executives, Muscatine, uh.. . Slavin/ Muscatine was a number of years ago, and I placed the city manager there. Hayek/ Okay. Slavin/ Uh, the, uh, placed a city manager in West Des Moines. Um, I need to have that list in front of me. Hayek/ Urbandale, Storm Lake. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 57 Slavin/ Urbandale, I was, uh, actually Paul Wenbert took a lead on that, um, and I was there at the beginning, and was there, uh, and interviewed several of the candidates, but he was there at the end because I had a conflict, uh, but uh, that...vacancy resulted from us taking that manager and putting him (mumbled) yeah, Wichita. Uh, Davenport was a finance director, I did that, uh, did a police, a fire chief for West Des Moines, which I did, um, oh, Storm Lake...I was not involved in that. Paul Wenbert did that, um, I was the, uh, second on that one. Um, I don't know... Hayek/ You have. I just...you (mumbled) on in conjunction with somebody (both talking) Slavin/ ...frankly we work seamlessly, and we do, uh, Paul uh, the work in Urbandale that resulted in the work in Storm Lake, uh, and um, mayor of Urbandale apparently, um, recommended us to Storm Lake (mumbled) wanted to see us at a time when I had a conflict. Paul went there, uh, what we did for Storm Lake, I did, um, my involvement in Storm Lake was to carry out what the, uh, city council there instructed Paul, so he...I was basically, even though he works for me, I was working for him. That was (mumbled) I wanted it to be successful, and it was. We also did a, uh, hospital, which is a publicly owned hospital in, uh, in Urbandale, and Newton, um, last year and I think it's (mumbled) I can't think of the name of the hospital, but...yes, that was more difficult than the city manager (mumbled) politics on the hospital board. (laughter) Wright/ You took just a little bit in your information packet, how would you go about developing the profile for Iowa City, what...what would you be putting into that? Slavin/ Well, putting in information I'm provided by you folks that , uh, but so, and in order to get that information I would come here, and I'd want to talk with each of you, uh, maybe the, uh, the council collectively, but most importantly with each of you, uh, and I would also, and again, those are the most important meetings that I would have, because I'm really getting from you what you as a individual member of this council wants, but also I am learning, uh, if I know what's on each of your minds, I'm learning, uh, a lot about what might please all of you collectively. So I spend a lot of time doing that, but I would also want to talk to your staff. They're here in this building 40 hours a week, um, I would want, uh, and whether I'd do that individually or collectively, uh, or uh, not would really depend on their wishes, or a combination of that. And if you've got some community leadership you want me to talk with, I would be happy to...more than happy I would, uh, encourage that, but probably the last college town that, uh, that I can remember where that was a major, uh, part of our work for a city manager was Fort Collins, and I spent days, um, probably two and a half to three days talking to community leaders, um, business leaders, uh, university leaders, um, we were very, very...we did a very, very comprehensive job in talking with community folks, and at the end of the process, um, Council Woman Bailey, you talked about, uh, involvement at the end, we had, um, the community was very actively involved in that. There was a, more than ameet-n-greet. There was ameet-n-greet for candidates, uh, and then...and different types of community leaders, but there was also a public meeting. The community was, um, had the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates. They provided the questions to me, and uh, they...I think they provided them to the city attorney (mumbled) make sure they were This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 58 legal, and then I asked them. Um, and the community listened to the (noise on mic). Nobody ranked anybody, but uh, there were, uh, a few days provided to the folks who attended that for feedback for the members, the mayor and members of the council. Staff was involved in the final interviews so...it was a very, very, uh, comprehensive process that was intended to, um, to encourage buy-in, involvement, uh, and so the, uh, ultimate decision was made, um, that was made would be one in which the community felt, uh, ownership o£ And comfortable with, and I think it worked. It did cause us to spend a lot of time there, which probably uh is not the way we...we were there far beyond the, um, scope of services, uh, that you folks have in the proposal suggest, but I never...never said no to them. (mumbled) their police chief a few years ago, we were there a lot. Champion/ We have their police chief. Bailey/ That was a result of us hiring their police (several talking) Slavin/ This was just last year. Bailey/ Oh! Well, our police chief came from Columbia. Hayek/ His or her predecessor is up here now. Slavin/ Did you steal the police chief I put there last year? (laughter) Bailey/ Not yet! Wright/ Six or seven years ago. Slavin/ Yeah, I do recall something about that. Uh, I don't know that (several talking) couple years ago but... (several talking) Bailey/ Okay, so somewhere between (mumbled) (several talking) Slavin/ Uh...and interestingly that guy, the guy that was there had been in, not College Station but Brian, the town next door, and he, uh, those two towns relate to the Texas A&M closely and they share some of the same issues, um (mumbled) that chief knew what he was getting into when he was...knew how to answer their questions. Hayek/ Yeah. Mims/ What are your recommendations on structuring the interviews with the finalists? Slavin/ They, uh, well...you talking about involvement, council involvement, council interviews? Mims/ The whole scope from the time they come into town till the time they leave. What... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 59 Slavin/ Well, um, the...the process that takes place before you make a decision, however many candidates that becomes, and the reason I'm hedging a little bit is you may choose to interview five or six and then reduce it to three or, two or three, and then bring those three or four back, but at some point before you make a decision, you're going to have to spouses here. Nobody's going to make that decision without that, so uh, you might plan on that. I would, uh, obviously the main, um, and most important aspect of those interviews, for this city council to, um, get acquainted with and become familiar enough with the candidates that, where you feel that you can make a decision that's really in the best interest of the, uh, community, and that, um, and that you know enough about the candidate to know that they in fact meet the criteria you expect. So beyond, so I would strongly encourage, uh, an interview, uh, with the candidates that is candid, um, and that's, um, I think in Iowa you can do it, without, and not be a public interview, and that you talk with them and maybe have them come in and spend, uh, a day with you, doing that. You mention a need to have, or maybe a desire to have the public involved. Now whether...you do that, um, with inviting them to participate, uh, as a participant in an interview process similar to what they did in, uh, in um, Fort Collins, or whether or not you ask them to come there, invite people to come, while you're on the dais asking questions, and they're able to witness and then maybe have, um, and none of it's exposing them to the candidates, um, you...may wish to do that. Um, other things that are kind of, uh, that work well, meet-n-greets, um, and I would encourage you to involve your staff a little bit in that too, whatever (mumbled) they have an opportunity to be exposed to the candidates. Um, the um, I'm not in favor of televised interviews, which we did in, um, in Fort Collins, and also in Wichita last year, two years ago, uh, but I've seen that happen and if that's something that's important...we also did it with the police chiefs in Columbia, because Columbia's got the School of Journalism and we wouldn't have gotten away with it if we (laughter). Um, and it didn't have a negative, uh, effect, but it didn't add to anything either, so...um, people who want to be involved, you know who they are and or you'll invite them to a meet-n-greet and they'll be there. Uh, and my basic attitude about this is that, if you have folks there who want to become involved that you let them do it. You be as inclusive as you can, and not restrictive, and that when you invite folks you do it in a way that does not appear to be...overly selective. Um, and again, stay in control of it, because you're the ones that are ultimately going to have to, uh, be, will be held responsible for the decision there so...just some random thoughts. Mims/ Thanks! Hayek/ I think we've exhausted our questions. Do you have any for us? Slavin/ Um...I had one but I...it may have been answered, um...I had one about the population, which I think you did answer, um, the, um...but actually I don't, uh, have, uh, any more. The, uh, except to tell you that, it's not a question, but that I appreciate the opportunity, and that I really, really enjoyed being here today, and I enjoyed meeting with you folks, and I would love to work for you, so...it's um, if you feel comfortable with me and feel that this, uh, then this (mumbled) with you and we can start, uh, and if you don't feel comfortable with me, don't hire me. (laughter) But if you do, I love to do this work, and I, uh, again, appreciate your time this afternoon. (several talking) Wish you well with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City c;ounci~ special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 60 the feds, uh, if I could give you (mumbled) uh, that uh, was a condition of, uh, I could have come at 11. (several talking) Hayek/ It's 25 actually and (laughter and several talking) Slavin/ I told her I'd write the check, but it better be one you frame and put on the wall rather than (laughter and several talking) Hayek/ Can't be negotiated? Slavin/ Yeah! Thank you, folks! Hayek/ We'll take a brief recess and (mumbled) (several talking) Deliberations: Hayek/ Okay, let's uh...(several talking)...let's...let's start up here. I...I have a sense, uh, that immediately we are going to eliminate one or two, but I'm not sure of that, um... Mims/ I could knock out the first two. Champion/ I was not interested in Mercer. That guy from California doesn't even like Iowa City! (laughter) Wright/ I agree, I wasn't interested in Mercer. Champion/ No, and he wasn't supposed to be the lead on this either. And.. . Wright/ Yeah, Mercer was supposed to be the lead according to the proposal. Champion/ Right, so can we eliminate him? Hayek/ I'm willing to. Mims/ I'm willing to. Dickens/ Yeah, he was not on my list. Hayek/ That's fine. Bailey/ That's fine, and...(several talking) mine too! (several talking) Dickens/ (away from mic) Mims/ I don't know where they were before, but they are, they're my lowest now. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 61 Bailey/ Yeah. That's all I'm...because I don't think that they were there before, but they certainly are now. Hayek/ So we will eliminate, uh... Colin Baenziger and... and uh, Mercer. So... (several talking) okay. Champion/ I got the same name on two of these. Hayek/ So that brings us to Slavin and Brimeyer. What do you all think? Dickens/ (mumbled) Champion/ I liked them both. Wright/ Very different animals. Mims/ Yeah. Wright/ Um...it was one thing I've been thinking with, uh, Brimeyer, when they seem to think that Iowa City and Aberdeen, South Dakota had a lot in common, I don't know why I caught that, and I just... Bailey/ Well, they don't have a lot of college experience, and I think that was the one that they could site, am I speaking accurately? They don't have a lot of college community experience. Wilburn/ I'd asked the question about outside, at least just in terms of their community size, I'd asked about putting Cedar Rapids aside, and that was where they brought up (several talking) Bailey/ That was my first note when I read them, that the communities that they've worked with are small, although I do know from talking to...um, I guess formal, former council member in Cedar Rapids really appreciated working with them for sure, but I mean, that's not a surprise. So... Wright/ I did like their on-boarding, which I hate turning something into a verb like that, but I... um, I liked that a lot. (several talking) Champion/ I like their interview pattern. Bailey/ I like... Wright/ By interview pattern, you mean the... Champion /When you get the final candidates. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 62 Bailey/ Yeah, and I got...I've got to emphasize, that's what struck me when I first read it, was the on-boarding concept, because I think that that's something...well, Ithink that that, I think that it's an interesting approach. Wright/ Might have saved us some trouble a year or so back. Champion/ I don't think so. Wright/ Could have! .Bailey/ Well, it's an interesting approach regardless of hindsight. Yeah. Wilburn/ I do, you know, Susan, we were talking, and I do, and just in hearing you go, I do like the, um, I have a more comfortable feeling in terms of the style of community from Slavin, um, the university... Bailey/ Talk a little bit more about that, cause I...I would say mine is not the same as that. Wilburn/ Okay, um...let me see (noise on mic) uh, just in his, um, his affects, his reaction, just his recall about, uh, the different facts about the different communities that, uh, that they've done some of the searches in, um...I think, uh, let me think a little bit more. In talking with, um, some of the other, um, the municipal coalition, uh, I talked to a couple of HR directors too about the...about the, uh, I talked to them specifically about four firms, uh, and two of the ones I talked to are...are these two. Um, I alluded to this, but I didn't...we had run out of time and I didn't get enough of a focused question in, um, with...they felt that both firms would do a solid job, um, and a couple of them used Brimeyer for their department level, but hadn't for, um, their city manager or attorney or, um, or clerk level folks, um, and it was, uh, they talked about you know national, but even more of a regional, beyond athree-state area. It was more they felt, it was like capacity question, they felt that, you know, Slavin said...was able to pull together a more, amore broad... Wright/Amore national approach? Wilburn/ Yeah, and...and it, part of it was contacts, and contacts with university style communities, so...but that's just in conversation with them. They felt, uh, they're happy with Brimeyer, the folks that they've brought in, but it was, um... Bailey/ Capacity issue, which is...was what prompted my question about how many searches, because they are a small firm, which can be beneficial for the attention, but... Wilburn/ And if they don't have a lot of searches going on at one time (both talking) Bailey/ ...but do the networking capacity I think is something you're bringing up, that...that may very...that's hard to test for, or hard to ask. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 63 Wilburn/ Right. Wright/ We're ranking these initially. I don't think I ranked...Brimeyer in my top five. Bailey/ Oh! Wright/ Partly because I thought they were a little too constricted (both talking) they're very, very regional. Bailey/ I was just so...I was bowled over, kind of a more development geek and I liked some of the...the on-boarding so... Wright/ I like the on-boarding, I really do, but we could also encourage someone else to work some of that in. Bailey/ Yeah. I... Champion/ Well, I really liked Richard and James. Like...I like, how do you pronounce it? (several talking) Slavin, the last time too, they were my top choice the last time. Mims/ He made a comment about this Paul Wenbert. Was he involved in the firm that you used last time? Bailey/ No. Champion/ No. Wright/ No. Bailey/ Bob actually came here, I mean, we met him before. (several talking) Dickens/ (away from mic) Mims/ Okay, so...so did this guy come with him last time or something? Bailey/ I think so. Mims/ Oh, okay, because he said something about you might remember him from your last search. Okay. And I was like, this (several talking) I was like had he changed firms or something and now he's...that's why I wasn't sure. Okay. Bailey /I think we've got awin-win, so I think it's what the group feels most comfortable with capacity-wise. Hayek/ Here's what I think, um, I...they both have strong ties to Iowa, which is (several commenting) and I think both would...would do well. Um, but...but they are different This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 64 animals, whoever said that. You know, Brimeyer has a more regional focus, and... and a clear pattern of placing executives in small communities. Um, I think Slavin has, with some exceptions... Bailey/ No, I was just wondering if the on-boarding works better in small communities (both talking) Hayek/ And maybe it does. I mean, and...but...but Slavin's got a broader scope. He's got lots of experience in the Midwest, but it is a broader scope, and... and more, um, more sophisticated clients, meaning larger communities with probably more complex situations, especially the college towns, and that's really huge, and I thought his, um, his answer to your question, Connie, about what would you look for was fantastic. First of all, he didn't even hesitate (both talking) experience, and then he gets into the...the more amorphous, you know, subjective qualities, uh, enthusiasm and commitment to the job and things like that, but the experience in municipal management, um, and...and he picked up on that thing you've got to have in Iowa City, the respectable educational credentials, um, I just got a sense that he...he's got a pretty good pulse on a community like this, based on a lot of experience. Wilburn/ Is there anything from either their materials that they submitted or...or um, staff, I mean, that you have heard from your colleagues out there, or, um, or that you've heard through our own HR folks about them or something from...last time that we're not thinking of that... Bailey/ Cause we did interview Slavin last time and I knew that...I remember that they didn't make an impression on me. In fact, if I'm recalling correctly, they had a very, maybe I'm mixing them up, but they had a very set sort of a way to approach it, and we...we wanted to do some public and they...can't remember if it was this group or some other group, but.. . Wright/ That certainly doesn't seem to be the case now. Bailey/ No! I think...I think it's very, um, very as you direct it, but I have some ideas, and that's what I expect in a consultant. I don't want you to...I mean, I don't want you to completely defer to client, or you know, to the client, because you're not going to bring your expertise to the table, which is what we're paying you for. So, I...I think it...I think either one would be (mumbled) Wilburn/ Did you think of something? Dilkes/ Well, our recollection is that there was some, uh, inner-council dynamics that might have been at play in terms of Slavin the last time. (laughter) Hayek/ Don't look at me! I wasn't here! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 65 Bailey/ Well I remember I wasn't...I wasn't...I remember I wasn't impressed with them before and I can't remember what it was. Dilkes/ They were involved, they were involved in the League search, um... Bailey/ Oh, I know exactly what (both talking) got it! Wright/ What was it again, the... Bailey/ They were involved in a League search at that time. Wilburn/ Oh, okay, yep, I got it! (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ ...the reflection of the dynamics in the discussion, I think. Wilburn/ There was a former Council Member who was involved with the League search. Bailey/ Very actively involved in the League search. Hayek/ Yes. (several talking) Wilburn/ Maybe there might have been some projecting going on, so... Bailey/ We're a different group. And I... Mims/ But it's nothing that reflects negatively on the company itself, that we should be considering. Bailey/ No. I think it was circumstantial to that particular search, which was a very challenging search. Mims/ Okay. Wright/ Do you want to just poll us or... Bailey/ I think it's clearly Slavin. Wright/ I would go with Slavin. Bailey/ I'm comfortable...I'm comfortable with either. I think that we...we will engage differently, but if most people are comfortable, I think you're right, Matt, it is, did you use the word...I don't know, it's a different approach that might be more appropriate for the size of our community? And the complexity of our community. I'm fine with that. Mims/ Yeah, I mean I see pros and cons to each of them, and I think as you say, one, I really like Slavin's experience with the university communities. I think they understand that better, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 66 they have a lot of experience with it, and as you say, bigger communities. I think Brimeyer, one of my concerns is most of theirs have been with much smaller communities, or not the top position in bigger communities. I really like, um, I like their on-boarding idea. I like their, and how...you know, how effective it is and how much difference it makes, their...their testing stuff that they do. I think that's interesting, but I think a lot of people have probably done this work very successfully for a long time without that. And...at least a couple of them this morning talked about their gut reaction. I mean, I think just being able to read people, you know, as you, you know, you're doing a very, very thorough interview. If you ask all the right questions, and, you know, they seem to be able to pick that up, but... so I think there's...I can go with either one of 'em, but I think... given the university experience, I probably would lean a little more towards Slavin. Bailey/ What I would like to, if we do lean toward Slavin, I think that they're open to some sitting down at the beginning, I mean, some form of on-boarding or discussion or mutually setting goals, if that's something that they have experience with, maybe making that part of the negotiated, um, contract, how we interact with them. I think... Wright/ If they (both talking) Karr/ Regenia, excuse me, just to remind you, Slavin did mention the six month and the twelve month and the goal setting, which would dovetail into your... Bailey/ Oh, I didn't remember the goal setting. I'm sorry (several talking) I think that that would be adequate, I mean, because when you do the personality, yes, with Brimeyer it was interesting, but you have to put credence in those kinds of tests. Mims/ Right, exactly. Champion/ And...and frankly, they just don't have the experience. Wright/ With the community of this type you mean, yeah. No, I agree. (several talking) I think they're a solid firm (several talking) Hayek/ What Slavin does in terms of assessment, uh, at the City's option we can arrange for, uh, assessment or psychological testing of the candidates. If that's something that we're, we have interested people in (mumbled) it's been something recommended to me. I have zero idea whether it makes sense or not. Bailey/ The one thing that another group recommended was a full, um, comprehensive background check, which we did for (mumbled) and I don't think that would be a horrible idea, the um, what's it called, there's a technical, then...the background checks with the police department and emergency personnel do, that's much more comprehensive than anybody does. But one of the...one of the, maybe it was the first one recommended that that happened. I was interested in that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri19, 2010. April 9, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 67 Champion/ Yeah, they did a big background check. Bailey/ But I mean... Hayek/ Well, we can...we can, I mean, we can have this conversation with them, um, at the, you know, at the beginning, to decide exactly...if there are any extra bells or whistles we want to add to this, um, can they do that and do they recommend it, so... Dickens/ Do either of these do a written...is one of...or was that the (several talking) Bailey/ ...had them prepare some written answers, which was particularly helpful last time, I thought, their approach to management or leadership. We had some (both talking) the candidates also wrote a personal statement for questions, that I thought was helpful, and I do think that given the exposure and the amount of, uh, written communication that this person will have to do, that's always good for us to see. Mims/ Slavin does, page 8 at the top, request that all candidates provide us in writing substantial information about their accomplishments and their management style and philosophy. Bailey/ Yeah, that's maybe...but somebody else said leadership, yeah, leadership style, personal qualities. Hayek/ So... Wright/ Poor writing abilities won't fly in this town (several talking) Hayek/ ...last time, I remember some doozies in terms of typos and... (several talking) so it sounds like we're going to pursue Slavin here. (several talking) Okay. I agree (several talking) Wright/ I think any of the four would have ended up netting us a good candidate, but... Hayek/ I think you're right. Karr/ With the goal to have it on the 27th? For action? Hayek/ Yeah! So, um; I will follow up with you guys, and then...I thought the two of you were going to participate...oh (mumbled) (several talking) in whatever we need in terms of negotiation, right? Dilkes/ I think we'll get it started by...asking them for their standard contract that they use, and then we'll work from that. Hayek/ Great. Good work everyone. Thank you for, uh, your hard work (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 9, 2010.