HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/01/2019 02 Interviews of Interim City Manager Applicants BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
AGENDA STATEMENT
Item No. 2.
For Meeting of: October 1, 2019
ITEM TITLE: Interviews of Interim City Manager applicants
SUBMITTED BY: Connie Mendoza, Director of Human Resources
SUMMARY EXPLANATION:
At the September 24, 2019 Special City Council meeting, Council directed staff to schedule
interviews with Interim City Manager applicants 2, 3, and 4 from group A. The schedule is as
follows:
4:00—4:30 PM Alex Meyerhoff (Skype)
Withdrew
4:45 — 5:15 PM James Patrick(Skype)
ITEM BUDGETED:
STRATEGIC PRIORITY:
APPROVED FOR
Interim City Manager
SUBMITTAL. �— t P1
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
BOARD/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Upload Date Type
Distributed at the I/01
etin ° ' `�t
Claar Tee, Sonya Me g(�? (�
From: Kay Funk <kfunk1591 @gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2019 10:22 PM
To: Claar Tee, Sonya; Price, Cally; Martinez, Cynthia; Mendoza, Connie; Funk, Kay
Subject: Interim City Manager Hiring Process
Sonya, et al. -
Pd ease forward the attached note to the entire Council, and include it with the agenda documents of tonight's
meeting.
I'm sending this from my home computer because, as of 5:05 PM, I've been locked out of my city email
account. I reported it to IT earlier in the day, but we were not able to figure out the problem with the reset
procedure, and we agreed to take care of it tomorrow.
Re Interim City Manager-Google Docs.pdf
Regards,
Kay Funk, MD
Yakima City Council, District 4
509 969 5488 (cell)
316 S 9th Ave, Yakima, WA, 98902
1
Re Interim City Manager
Sept. 30th, 2019
Kay Funk
Thank you for attaching the "Interim City Manager" position announcement. I am sorry that we
did not have it available for review earlier in this process. I am distressed it it does not clearly
state the intention of the Council to hire an Interim City Manager only until a permanent
replacement can be found. I definitely do not want to hire, into this interim position, someone
who is looking for a permanent position.
In the "Possible Interview Questions" document, #5 states that the interim position could be
anywhere from "six months to 18 months". My recollection is that our plan is to hire a new
permanent City Manager as soon as possible after the new Council is seated. That is three
months away, so it's appropriate to describe the interim position as six months, but certainly not
18 months.
The "Strong Mayor" memo and discussion in the July 23 Council meeting were inappropriate. I
am concerned that those who are expecting this major revision of the City Charter, think that the
Permanent City Manager hire can be delayed for approval by the hypothetical "Strong Mayor".
Such a plan should have no part in our discussion and current selection process.
I would like to review all the documents created by the Council regarding the process for the
Interim and Permanent City Manager search. I would like to have those documents available
before the interviews on Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, I would like to know what Mr. Larry Patterson was told regarding the time
frame/duration of this position. By his resume, he appeared an ideal candidate for a six month
position, and probably would not want an 18 month position. Was this clearly stated?
The question that I would like to have asked of the candidates is "What do you think is most
important in managing the transition between one City Manager and the next?
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_:'co. . ''h, OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Meeting .7 I� Kathy Coffey,Mayor
il,`L 129 North Second Street Dulce Gutierrez, Assistant Mayor
•'�•1 - •' City Hall, Yakima, Washington 98901 Holly Cousens
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1 Phone(509) 575-6050• Fax(509) 576-6335 ELndez
`� ',,Is ,... MEMORANDUM Jason White
(AS REVISED BY COUNCIL CONSENSUS ON 7-23-19)
To: Yakima City Council
From: Mayor Coffey, Deputy Mayor Gutierrez, Council Member Hill — Ad Hoc
Committee reviewing the City Manager and Assistant City Manager vacancies
Date: July 23, 2019
Subject: Ad Hoc Committee recommendations
Council Colleagues,
The Ad Hoc Committee empaneled by the full Council on July 16 to discuss the city manager
and assistant city manager vacancies met on July 18. This memorandum represents the
recommendations from that meeting that the Committee wishes to share with the full council for
consideration.
First, we recommend that Sara Watkins be named as acting city manager starting on August 21.
Ms. Watkins would serve until the City is able to contract with an individual to serve as interim
city manager. It is estimated that the process to contract with an interim and have that individual
available to start working for the City would take up to two months to complete. Note that Ms.
Watkins will be on vacation starting September 12, so we will need to act with purpose to
identify an interim city manager by that date.
For an interim city manager, we recommend that the City contract with an individual from the
ICMA Manager's In Transition database. We propose that the interim serve through at least the
end of February 2020, with a possible extension. ICMA requires a position description for the
interim role; a draft of that document is attached.
We also discussed the vacant assistant city manager position. We recognized in that discussion
that staff capacity has been impacted by having this position vacant and we recommend moving
forward with the process currently in place to have city manager Moore identify and hire an
assistant city manager prior to his departure. Mr. Moore has completed preliminary Skype
interviews with a number of candidates and has identified four finalists. Human Resources has
already mapped out a preliminary interview schedule that could be implemented quickly. See
attached.
Mr. Moore has been advising assistant city manager candidates regarding the uncertainties we
are facing, including his own impending departure, the fact that we will have at least three new
Council members in January. Given the aforementioned uncertainties, we should all be aware
that accepting this position at this point in time could well be seen as a risk. As a result, the
Committee believes that we should pre-authorize a six month severance, with a three year
expiration clause, as part of an employment agreement for this position.
Another alternative for the assistant city manager vacancy would be to name a current city staff
member as an interim assistant city manager to serve. Because time is of the essence on these
matters, pending Council discussion, the Committee is prepared to move that we suspend normal
practice at Agenda Preview meetings in order to vote on Council direction for these processes. Yakima
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�•�`... =1 OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Meeting 3.�q �� Kathy Coffey,Mayor
'-`� ' '� 129 North Second Street Dulce Gutierrez, Assistant Mayor
'�' �'' ���'s Holly Cousens
1 City Hall, Yakima, Washington 98901
%LV'k /,% ; Phone(509) 575-6050• Fax(509) 576-6335 Kay Funk
Brad Hill
,„ ••••••• '• Carmen Mendez
r MEMORANDUM Jason White
To: Yakima City Council
From: Mayor Coffey, Deputy Mayor Gutierrez, Council Member Hill —Ad Hoc
Committee reviewing the City Manager and Assistant City Manager vacancies
Date: July 23, 2019
Subject: Ad Hoc Committee recommendations
Council Colleagues,
The Ad Hoc Committee empaneled by the full Council on July 16 to discuss the city manager
and assistant city manager vacancies met on July 18. This memorandum represents the
recommendations from that meeting that the Committee wishes to share with the full council for
consideration.
First, we recommend that Sara Watkins be named as acting city manager starting on August 21.
Ms. Watkins would serve until the City is able to contract with an individual to serve as interim
city manager. It is estimated that the process to contract with an interim and have that individual
available to start working for the City would take up to two months to complete. Note that Ms.
Watkins will be on vacation starting September 12, so we will need to act with purpose to
identify an interim city manager by that date.
For an interim city manager, we recommend that the City contract with an individual from the
ICMA Manager's In Transition database. We propose that the interim serve through at least the
end of February 2020, with a possible extension. ICMA requires a position description for the
interim role; a draft of that document is attached.
As you know, there are efforts underway to change our community from a Council-Manager to a
strong mayor form of government. It is possible this current Council will be asked to move this
initiative to a vote of the people in early 2020 at a special election. For the February 11, 2020
special election, a Council resolution is due December 13, 2019. For the April 28, 2020 special
election, the Council resolution would be due February 28, 2020. We believe it would be
imprudent to start the process to identify a permanent city manager at this point in time if it is
possible that the strong mayor initiative would be sent to a vote of the people in early 2020.
Depending on the direction of the strong mayor process, council could then determine the most
appropriate course of action. If the strong mayor initiative fails, then our committee recommends
contracting with an executive recruitment firm to assist in the search for a new city manager.
We also discussed the vacant assistant city manager position. We recognized in that discussion
that staff capacity has been impacted by having this position vacant and we recommend moving
forward with the process currently in place to have city manager Moore identify and hire an
assistant city manager prior to his departure. Mr. Moore has completed preliminary Skype
interviews with a number of candidates and has identified four finalists. Human Resources has Yakima
mato
''lip;
2015
1994
already mapped out a preliminary interview schedule that could be implemented quickly. See
attached.
Mr. Moore has been advising assistant city manager candidates regarding the uncertainties we
are facing, including his own impending departure, the fact that we will have at least three new
Council members in January and the possibility that the Strong Mayor initiative could move
forward. Given the aforementioned uncertainties, we should all be aware that accepting this
position at this point in time could well be seen as a risk. As a result, the Committee believes that
we should pre-authorize a six month severance, with a three year expiration clause, as part of an
employment agreement for this position.
Another alternative for the assistant city manager vacancy would be to name a current city staff
member as an interim assistant city manager to serve until issues related to the strong mayor
initiative are resolved one way or another.
Because time is of the essence on these matters, pending Council discussion, the Committee is
prepared to move that we suspend normal practice at Agenda Preview meetings in order to vote
on Council direction for these processes.