- Let's call this meeting of the most excellent hiring committee of the City Council to order on April
- 2nd, it is 5.35. With us, we have the Honorable Isabel Piedmont-Smith, and the Honorable Sidney Zubik,
- and the Honorable Clerk
- Nicole Bolton and the chief deputy clerk and the honorable Dave Rallo and the most experienced person
- in the room with the questions that we're talking about. I don't know what your last name is now that
- I think about it.
- Today, hopefully a pretty straightforward agenda. We have the immediate action of needing just to go
- through the comments that HR made and just make sure that we action all of them. It's been approved
- and then we can then start the process of giving that to you. You're going to sit there the whole time.
- Sorry to give you my back then. I'm going to sit there.
- So, so we'll go through that and then here's no, no, I'm good. Nobody minds. And then I had hoped to
- have two letters of engagement at least for us. I have one in concept and then one actual letter of
- engagement that we can discuss.
- and if those two are not enough information, we can continue discussing about part-time staff, and then
- as time permits, we can talk about the retained search possibilities. That seemed like a good idea.
- Could we also talk about the current individuals working for the Common Council? Yes. Because we got
- that note from- Yes. That would be a great point.
- them whiting down their time. Exactly. Exactly. Because they have three weeks, basically. Anything else
- that we'd like to add to today's agenda? Sound good? OK. So I'm just going to pull up here. And let
- me join the Zoom meeting. Chief Deputy Clerk, are you able to share your screen? And then I can edit
- it on this side.
- A bit faster. What am I pulling up? The actual redlined text that was in our packet. Actually, will
- you do it on your computer, join with Zoom, and then load up on there? Yeah. It's packet one from us.
- Addendum, the first addendum, right? Or if it doesn't matter. There was the edit in the second addendum,
- do you prefer that one? Yeah, there's just that, it's inconsequential for us, but we do also need to
- pull up solvers. And if somebody could, I'll pull this up on a separate sheet, because we need to also
- look at the hiring memo, because we mentioned that there was
- there was a discrepancy. So, okay, so once you have it all, you're probably this one. Oh, it's cold.
- We tried to turn off the heat looks like it shouldn't be doing it. Yeah, you want me to do it like that?
- Oh, I'm going to just. It should be okay. It's like Councilmember Rosenberger was using one of them
- a lot ago.
- Well, while they're, while they're pulling that up, does anybody remember, um, what comes from over
- Strasburg had, um, the points? Yeah. What, what, what was the thing that was missing? So we can add
- that. The bottom of page two, we need to cross out non-essential. Yeah. It's like the only shift. Is
- that the only one? Did you see it? Yep. Right there. Yep. Got it.
- Okay, so we'll just go through it this way. You can also see their notes on the side, which made up
- the memo. Sorry again for not catching if that wasn't in there, but those don't print out. Okay, so
- just the title. We're all okay with that. They gave us the answer for the job grade.
- The incumbent serves as the principal legal advisor to the common council while directing the operations
- of the common council office. This position provides strategic leadership and administrative oversight
- to ensure effective governance continuity and the efficient functioning of council activities. The role
- operates in both legal council and executive leadership capacities in support of the council. No typos
- or any issues there.
- And then fixing primary. Added paragraph here. That's just minor editing. Serves as the council administrator
- attorney for council. That's just being consistent with the name. Did we want to put in a minimum number
- of years? I put in a minimum of five years prior.
- It's fine. Yeah, that's what HR recommended. They asked to take away the adjective there. That's taken
- away. Not putting this in.
- I just removed, oh, sorry, I'm sorry, let me, I shouldn't have actioned that that way. Well, I've resolved
- it. They said that they said that they said that we shouldn't have the explicit sentence may make revisions
- subverted job description organization to improve council office effectiveness because there's like
- a whole extra set of processes that have to happen to do that. And that's that that's already like,
- I mean, we can mention it during the interviews. Exactly. Yeah. I think their point was that it's a
- tautology anyway. So that's everything. Right. I mean, we have to. So again, now also one thing that
- I'll just say what Shar did bring up is that she feels
- like we have, and I think you've done this on purpose. So I think that, I think it's okay, I'm just
- saying it again, that she feels like many of the things that she can glean from the past exit interviews
- and interactions with past council staff members, that we have kept many of those things in the job.
- You mean things that are problematic? Yes. I know, wow. Yeah, I mean, I think we sort of opted for that
- with the awareness that we know things can change. And the idea being that we get this chief person
- in and then
- if necessary, we can adjust some things. I think, I will say the one area where I think that we've been
- a little bit more flexible, and I just think we should be cognizant of it, is that we tried to shift
- the burden from, you know, does the packets to, you know, make sure that the packets are done, which
- I think gives a little bit more space, which is to say that we come up with, you know,
- an improving process that so thankful for, for first Williamson and McDonald for just where we're making
- this a little bit smoother and faster for everyone, which is great.
- So, I think we'll come up with some process there, but it's like to say, yeah, it defaults to this person
- if nobody else is available to do this type of thing, which so I think that's going to ease a lot of
- tension. I think that we've also been clear about reporting lines here a little bit better. And we started
- to think about that way. I think we can still institute a lot of change around that just generally in
- our, in our own council processes.
- but I just wanted to make sure that we said that out loud, right? That so we're cognizant of some of
- these things that we may still need to address as we go through this process. All right, so motion,
- there was a motion to approve second. Any discussion on that? Okay, so all those in favor say aye. Aye.
- Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries, honorable clerk. Okay, so,
- Let's now move to... When would we expect this to be posted? So they said this in the, let's see, let
- us see here. They said hiring timeline and process will provide access to NeoGov and arrange training
- for those who prefer to review applications electronically. Alternatively, let me send this to you all
- so you can
- It was in the memo. You're reading from the memo from Char. Yes. Yes. So they recommend keeping the
- position open for 20 business days. But it doesn't say how quickly. Wait a minute. Once HR receives
- the finalized job description, it typically takes up to five business days. So we're talking about it.
- Talking about it. Posting next Friday, basically. And then 20-ish days. So basically we're
- basically like end of May. End of April. End of April. End of April. Leaving it open, no, but leaving
- it open for 20 days means that we get, we start the interview process end of April, right? Yes. Yes.
- My apologies. I did not know what you meant by that. And so, so that, you know, best, best estimates
- would be like, if everything went really, really well, um,
- You know, we might have identified the candidate by sort of end of May. That'd be nice because like
- beginning with Frank, they have a couple weeks to like you can send to it. Yes, allegedly. Yeah,
- so they so, you know, if we afford it. Yeah. That's exactly it. That's a lot of the lights that you
- said. Yeah. Okay. That was that seemed seem right.
- So, I'm going to share with you all. So, the way that we had to do and the reason why we had to bring
- that additional motion yesterday about hiring was that Margie and Beagle had advised that without setting
- clear settings of, you know, the not to exceed amounts and all that stuff that we actually weren't authorized
- to do anything because we didn't have amounts attached to it. So luckily, City Legal was very, I mean,
- very, very helpfully, they used their budget to hire our external council yesterday. And so that's how
- we were able to do it so quickly. But now that we have that ability,
- We have three options, one that you're aware of, which is these people, the Robert Half people. The
- second option is that Larry Allen, former Deputy Mayor and City Attorney, has said that he would be
- very willing to work with us. I was talking to him today after our vote yesterday.
- He is interested in one of two type of engagements, and we're going to talk tonight at age, and then
- he's going to send an actual engagement letter. But he said that he would be willing to work for about
- 15 hours per week. And then he says in parentheses, not including evening meeting times to save you
- all some money. It's a nice thing to say.
- And then that he could come on as a sort of part-time temp employee and then anything above those sort
- of 15 hours then paying sort of separately. So you'd have a sort of rate for the temp employee at 15
- hours and then we'd be able to
- ask him to do more at a different rate. So the idea would be, and what he's thrown out, so his current
- hourly rate at the firm is $350 an hour, which is in line with the type of rates that we've seen, and
- I actually should show you all that. But he said that he would do, if we do it as the temp hourly, that
- he'll do it at 150 an hour,
- Um, but if we want to do just just contracting that he would do 250 an hour, but if you want to sort
- of steady, you know, 15 hours a week, he said 150 an hour. So that is generous. And, and I think, I
- think really good. Um, let me share system. Did, um, were you all copied in on the engagement letter
- from Clark Quinn? Maybe you all worked. Okay. So let me, let me share that. And I'm sorry that.
- I'm sorry, I'll do my best. How long is Larryville? That is a good question that I'll ask him tonight.
- But when we initially talked, his part of the reason why
- Like one of the reasons why I had reached out to him and one of the things that he said is that,
- you know, he's very happy to work through the budget process with us. So, you know, understanding. And
- I think that, I think to me, like, that's just like, yeah, because he gets how it works. He knows how
- he knows all the other city employees, you know, he's already in the system. Right. So, yeah, we also
- wouldn't have to because he's, um,
- So he's already working for a contractor with the city with West law. Um, and so, um, so he'd be covered
- under city legal's insurance. Um, so again, like, like, basically, like there, it's, it would have a
- very minimal hit on the budget relative to us going with external counsel just continually for day to
- day, um, type of things. Yes, has already engaged by the city.
- Is so that he my understanding is that he can work under the already existing sort of umbrella thing
- where we would then have a city council engagement letter with him specifically. So they basically point
- is that the overall cost to us would be I mean, basically we're getting what we would get from contracting,
- which means you don't have to go all the over. But at a very low rate. So I'm just concerned. Is there
- any potential conflict of interest if he's already
- If his firm is working for the mayor, I'll find out. I'll find out. And actually, so I also have a list.
- Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. So and they'll tell you to stay at the end contract. Do I speak loudly enough?
- No. OK, I just realized when you were like going, most law firms will do a conflict check before they
- do that. Yeah, they have mechanisms for doing it. Makes sense.
- I'm gonna put into the same folder, Colleen, our engagement letter with Clark and Beno, because we'll
- want, if we wanna have a conversation about them, we'll wanna have a similar engagement letter just
- actually executed by council instead of executed by them. I'm putting it in the addenda bit.
- No, sorry, I'll just put it in the general Wednesday, the first place, and it's just it's called Clark
- Quinn engage on letter. Now, one thing that I thought would be useful for us to do is to.
- Is, is that if we wanted to engage with somebody, if we wanted to engage with somebody like Larry and
- I think I think we all agree that there's lots of real benefits for that especially just on the,
- you know, he gets all things right and he's very happy to do it.
- Is that we can also continue to work with, like, Clark when, for example, on our ongoing conversations
- about the PD, right? We're already contracted with them about that. And then they can be our sort of
- additional, you know, anytime that we need, hey, we just need a legal opinion. You know, type of people
- in addition to, you know, whatever, we already have this engagement letter. Right. And.
- And I think we should use that sparingly. I mean, like, as you noted, like, I asked them to go home
- halfway through the meeting just because it's like, I mean, you know, it's expensive, right? And now
- they have a very good rate there. So you can see here, and this is the type of engagement letter we'll
- have with Larry.
- if, again, assuming that that's what you'd want to do. So their time, they split it amongst different
- things. So if you look at the fees section here, it says, the firm shall keep and record its time and
- client will be billed at an hourly rate for services related to the project. By the way, this reminds
- me of the thing I forgot. We have to, next time, Sydney, we have to motion
- during council meeting to approve us to review invoices. To approve them so that we don't have to constantly
- take them back to the whole council. Each attorney's rate depends on his or her experience and skills
- for the type of work required and the novelty and complexity of the issues involved. Rates are reviewed
- semi-annually. Time spent on a project are recorded daily except as otherwise provided herein. It's
- expected that most if not all of the legal services related to the project
- and will be performed by Clark-Kurtman at the rate of $350 per hour. Other attorneys from the firm may
- be assigned tasks by Clark-Kurtman relative to the services, and then none of those rates will be higher
- than 350. So, and then they have legal and paralegal billed at 90 to 185. So... It's a pretty big difference.
- Yes, but that's the same as like Lady Green.
- Yeah, and it's also the difference of how we pay a legal researcher. So our attorney makes $116, and
- our legal researcher makes like $45. OK. Not even? No, she makes more than that. How much does it make?
- Isn't it closer to $70 something? Oh, really? $60 something. $60.
- It's over 50. It wasn't full time. No, it was. It was just created really low. So that has gone up. Yeah.
- I think the grade 6, I think it begins 55 to 70 or something like that. I bring this up only to talk
- about how we're assessing this is that the savings of our, we have budgetary savings,
- from not having these positions filled. And so as long as this is sort of somewhat equitable to the
- ways that you would, you wouldn't be paying the person who would work your full time, right? But you'll
- note that this cost the 350 an hour, if you were to ask them to do 40 hours a week, you'd very quickly
- get rid of all of your things and you used a lot of hours for Hopewell over the last week, you know,
- so. Yeah, it seems like
- As soon as we can get the contract with Larry Allen, we should probably switch to him. Well, maybe not
- for the PD. Exactly. That's right. I was going to ask a question. Yeah, please. Do you have an hourly
- breakdown for the salary of your current employee, including the additional compensation they get beyond
- their salary, but also the cost of the medical insurance and other benefits, so their entire benefit package?
- Because while you made like the salaries for staff or say the 50,000, but the additional costs, I don't
- know if the other people think in those terms, but it may help you guys as you're making them longer.
- Exactly. It helps us understand how much we have in our budget that's not being used.
- That's why we set the not to exceed at 50. If everything goes well, we're not talking about a very long
- time here. If you think about 150, where are we? Looking at Larry's proposal, 150 times 15 is 2,250 a week.
- How many months are we saying? Let's say in two months. Maybe three. He said he was going to help us.
- Through budget time. That would be four or five. Let's call it four months. Four months is how many
- weeks? Four point three. 16, roughly. You're talking about 18,000. That's what we call a 17.
- So we're talking about like 40K, right? And so that was, and then if you imagine that we have a little
- bit of a continued engagement with Clarkton Quinn for any other sort of additional things here and there,
- I think we'll be well within that space. And we're able to pay them out of the 30K that we've set aside
- for external counsel in the first place.
- Are you thinking that Larry Allen's service might overlap with the new person? I think that would be
- the best possible thing because then it also means that there's a handover. There's the possibility
- Larry Allen might want to apply for the position, but it's a possibility. If that person can overlap
- and then he gets some handover and
- I think that would be amazing. Is there any chance that Christine Chang might reapply for something
- that we haven't yet? She emailed me about something else, so I'll see. Yeah, I had no communication
- with her, so. I'll check. Is she back yet? Yeah, she is. Something good needs, yeah. But that's one
- of those things of, you know, we'll have to
- I mean, the person. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But we could we could. I mean, there's we we we
- did. We are authorized to bring on any type of temp position was the motion. We said it as broadly as
- possible. So, you know, if, you know, if if somebody like that wanted to come in as right in some temp
- position, we could do that as well. Yeah. And I also will say just for just for everybody's awareness,
- I have talked
- both with the mayor and deputy mayor and with HR and with Jeff and probably somebody else. But they're
- also willing if we're thinking about if we need additional appropriation or anything like that, vis-a-vis
- clerk's office, they're also open to that as well. Thank you. Yeah. So we have a lot of options.
- Like if we wanted to say, hire a tab admin in the clerk's office, or if we wanted to have discussions
- around them, I don't know, other things like they're willing to engage with us at this point as well.
- We just want to go. A goat. Maybe we set up a new lawn mower.
- You know? Plus, we would have the benefit of being able to feed our residents, which is something I
- know Councilmember Raul was interested in doing. Hey guys, I'm so sorry. So the question just now is
- like, are you all okay with us moving forward with, I mean, assuming that it's that
- stays within the parameters that I read to you. Are you okay with us moving forward with the conversation
- with Larry Allen? Yes. Yes. Would you all like me once I have an engagement letter to bring it back
- to the committee so we vote on it or can I use the discretion of this is within the bounds of what we've
- been authorized to do and actually move forward with bringing him on board? As long as the rates are
- the same. Yeah.
- That's what I was thinking. Yeah, I don't think it needs to come back. I mean, I don't have to see me.
- Make it soon. That's okay. Where do we feel? Because he talked about 150 as the base and then 250 for
- things above and beyond that 15 hours. Are we okay with that framing? Is he just purely looking at the
- number of hours or is he looking at
- at the level of complexity of the work. That's a thing that we have not discussed. The way that he presented
- it, and as I interpret it, is more about number of hours. The conversation we've had has included, he
- knows all the things that the council attorney does. He himself is the one who said, and I can have
- a budget, and I can help with, I will be at meetings, and all of those type of things. Those 15 hours
- were not included in the meetings? That's what he said.
- No, no, I think we should be judicious. Well, that's something I was going to say, though, is that,
- you know, I whether whether you all felt because I I don't I don't it's it's it's nice for somebody
- to do that in like service to the city or something. Is that is that ethical? I don't think that's ethical
- for us to we need to count that time. Correct. And that's that's how I feel. Right. And so if that if
- he wants a different rate or something like that, fine. But I think that
- Um, you know, so that to the point that we also need to be thoughtful about, do we need the person here?
- Do we not need the person here? We certainly don't, you certainly don't want to pay a person $150 an
- hour, $250 an hour, $350 an hour to, you know, run a zoom meeting, um, for example. And so I, you know,
- I'm just, I'm just thinking about, you know, um, like how we, and I just think we need to think about
- like the, the structure of what, you know. And can I improve, stay on?
- I don't think the students can. So, I mean, that's the, cause they're, they're gone in May. So. And
- they will probably have a complex finals week. Right. Just the same. Exactly. You mean our newly scheduled
- next Hopewell meeting. So, so what are, so, so that was my next question. It's like, what are our thoughts
- around, um,
- What's the way forward with the overly complex setup of our Zoom, for example? Is it overly,
- is it unnecessarily complex? It's not that it's like, it is, yes, it's unnecessarily, but I would say
- unnecessarily because it's built, it's not
- It's not one ton, right? Like it's, um, it's just that because there's, there's like the cap system
- and the zoom system and the mainframe computer. So you're basically having to like jump in between different
- computers is essentially what's happening. The cat cats. So like, so it's like all meeting to get connected.
- So they need to like have the video and they have this. And so my understanding if I'm.
- You tell me, you know, better is that it's basically like 2 different computers and the timer. So 1
- quick solution would be to get a. Yeah, that's it. Get rid of the time. Get one computer is really just
- used for the timer at the podium. Not the time. The old school at the podium is actually more efficient
- because the blue sky timer breaks off them.
- Yep. Just stick it on there, just slap it, go, and then they can see it right there. Everyone knows
- that thing. That's true. Yeah. So that's the thing. The people I'm on wouldn't be able to see. You can
- still run it on Zoom, but that only thing the older people in your audience do is display it to the
- podium. To the screen. The screen. That's the only thing a computer does. That's one of the more important
- things. So running a whole timer system.
- I can show you what it would look like right here. In Zoom, you guys know how to edit on Zoom? You do,
- right? Yeah. If you go to More and then click Apps. I'm just going to stop sharing for a second. I know
- this was something that Ashley tried to do in the meeting and that it was in the middle of the meeting
- and we just never had to do it again, but I would love to know. There's no reason why we can't do it
- right now. Anyway, more tools or I don't remember any more host tools.
- No, that's right there. Timer. That's now you have a timer and then set it, set it for three minutes,
- right? Or whatever. Yeah. And then, and then click start. Um, and then set it for, set it for less time.
- Um, so take it down, minimize the screen for a second. Cause it's right. It should be right behind.
- Okay. Let me give myself some time here.
- Well, that's what it looks like to you. Oh, that's not what it looks like. Oh, can you show them?
- I can't see. Okay, so it kind of overlays over the other dimensions. And then it turned yellow. And
- so you can un-mirror, you can un- and then it plays music.
- which is nicer than me having to go back real time. I can go for your time. Exactly. So that's a simple
- solution. Great. So what are our options for getting people there? This is the question that's on the
- table. We could hire a 10 person. We can beg and plead with the clerks. We can take codes.
- We can write a law that says that personally the clerk Nicole Bolton will do it. We can do lots of things.
- And I strongly recommend that question. It does make sense to ask the clerk's office if they're willing
- and if there needs to be an additional preparation for
- somebody in the clerk's office to get that to pay or something. Or if there's just not capacity for
- simple, do something else. I actually remember. I'm so sorry. This is the problem with late nights,
- early mornings, brain kind of freeze up. I think it's something that we rushed on,
- didn't dig into the weeds in as an office because of not really knowing what direction we all were going
- in and wanting to kind of have a better sense of what we need to actually discuss in terms of office
- capacity. I know there are some limitations on evening hours for staff already. So we usually plan out
- our schedules for the office at least two months out just
- Especially this time of year. Especially this time of year. So, I agree with you. I don't think it's
- impossible, but I would like to be able to touch base with them and because it's holiday weekend, I
- really won't know for sure until Monday, the earliest. Not opposed to it. I think it's something we
- can at least make happen until you can get a 10 person in and get them trained up.
- That's a figuring tentative, like, uh, I think that's a good argument for us getting a temp. I mean,
- like, uh, you know, hiring, hiring a temporary, uh, you know, legal researcher who, who also does that.
- Now I, I have to say, I'm, I'm a little hesitant about that because I already feel like it's been difficult.
- for our staff currently and for council members to know who was in charge of our staff then, who was
- communicating with them all the time. What, you know, I've heard from Hopi that they, you know, they're
- a little bit at sea and, you know, we all have other obligations. Nobody, I don't even understand if
- it's, if it's you, Esau, who is the main point of contact, if it's Courtney, because at some point we
- said it was going to be Courtney.
- I'm very confused. So I don't want to add to the confusion by saying, oh, let's hire another person
- to be confused. Yeah. Well, so here's my assessment on the current staff, which is they have my telephone
- number. And I was like, text me if you have an issue. I will immediately write you back. And they have
- never once called or texted me.
- And then, and so, so then, and then they'll, they were gone for like, not like after spring break, they
- were gone and Ari is like, not really here. And then Evan was like gone for a couple of days without
- telling us he was going to be gone. And then came back and was like, I'm going to do the packet now.
- And we were like, sorry, we already made plans to do that.
- and then they both shut up from the meeting. So that's like the current state of things is that they're
- sort of making their own choices and even when given direction, do other things is the current state
- of affairs. Well, and also when I sent stuff for the patent agenda, I think Clark Baldwin got mad at
- me because
- The clerk was supposed to do it and I sent it to council staff and copied the clerk email. Just to clarify,
- I will tell you very directly if I'm angry, but my writing style tends to be very formal. So sometimes
- people read that as angry where it's not. Clarification is not the same thing as anger in emails. And
- when I said people are capable of doing something,
- I want to make sure that my staff who may read those emails don't think that their capacity or their
- understanding of their duties is being questioned, which even in fact can be questioned. Sometimes not.
- Well, again, it's a personal thing. It's just to say, they know what they're doing. They're good. Everything
- else, that's not. Well, that would inform me that packing it down. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Which
- is we can have better communication maybe on ESOP that way. Yeah, sure.
- But I know you're like 29. Exactly. And that's exactly right. Because I think what the four of us have
- discussed, we're thinking about, OK, these students are not going to be here in three weeks. We have
- one more meeting with them, and then they're gone. So we're trying to set up a system that works regardless
- of where our staffing situation is, while also, sorry, go ahead.
- Oh, but to clarify, and one of the things that we're doing for all council members, because they all
- asked varying versions of your question as well, is we're just writing up a simple SOP for everybody.
- This is what you need for packet materials. This is what you need if you want to reach
- and then she's sitting and cackling over her phone, you know, laughing. Like everybody will kind of
- have a rough day, not super detailed because I'm pretty sure all of you get like five million emails
- a day, but something very basic that you can reference and be like, oh, I've got this, I have to send
- it to this person. Oh, I've got this, I have to send this to this person. Because I think part of the
- difficulty is you guys are all also trying to communicate without hitting up against serial meetings or
- and staff and everything else, I think it's helpful to have that kind of point where we're there. Well,
- you know, Monday through Friday, eight to five, we're there. After that, it's probably better to just
- reach out to me and I'll be like, I got it, it's there. Or at least we can reserve rooms and do the
- basics until everybody gets together and we say, do you have this? Just to clarify for clerks that are
- in that room,
- If I sent an email in the evening or on the weekends, I do not expect a response. And I hope you're
- not even going to see it. We do not see it. That's just when I have time. Would it be helpful for me
- to be on the Zoom so you don't have to keep looking over and asking, are there any people raising their
- hand during public movement? I'm happy to do that. I mean, I've always felt like I wish there was just a way
- to just have the Zoom in front of us. Like, I mean, that feels like it. It depends on who is council
- president. I want to do it. Having that, all of that there depends on the tech savviness of the current
- council president. But can you run the Zoom from- They just move things. I don't see why not. Because
- that in many ways solves many of the problems, which is- Let's explain the one piece to it. So the reason
- one of the computers is dedicated to Zoom is to avoid
- the chat being visible to everyone and then any Zoom bombing, which really doesn't happen anymore. And
- then there's more reasons to why they originally designed it that way. So part of it was the audio and
- the video. Do you remember when we were doing the testing of the systems and trying to figure out where
- we could run the Zoom? And then appulate to the... Council members actually all used to log into the
- Zoom regularly when we started doing the virtual meetings.
- you too would remember when we were doing completely virtual meetings and everybody was logged in. So
- all the council members would log in and they would all automatically be co-hosts because if there was
- a Zoom bombing or anything else, well, I don't think most of the council members actually actively did
- it, but they could. So you can all log in and see those things. It's like an extra, you know,
- half a beat, but I know it's hard also
- You got the packets, you're taking notes, you're triangulating. Yeah, I would want an extra spring.
- I wouldn't want to take a flight. Yeah. You know, I mean, I use my computer, so I don't need little
- attachment monitors and stuff like that. I don't know, but it is something. But it is something, I mean,
- to Sydney's point. Like, if we actually could, I mean, this is both a cost-saving and a people-saving
- effort is that, you know, you could have the computer and, you know,
- There's a person who's chairing and a person who's on the computer. I mean, that's, you know, I, but
- I also personally, I could be on the computer and run the meeting at the same time. It'd be like teaching
- a class that's hybrid. It's not not enjoyable, but possible. Yeah.
- To be clear, are you talking about just doing Zoom or also the AV things? Because those, I don't know
- if they're going to be the same. What AV things? So tell us the other three things. Just so everyone
- knows, I have to leave in 12 minutes. I would like to make a decision before that. If you want to do
- that, then I can. Make the decision that's necessary here. This decision, can we make? Yes?
- Don't we need to decide if we're going to engage a recruitment firm? Yes, we did say we would have that
- conversation as well. So maybe we can have that. I can show you if you want in the afterwards. Do you
- all want to, like, I guess the question is whether we did say that we would like to do this. Would we
- like to make this a retained search?
- My thinking is the following with that. It is that you might want to phase that, which is we post it
- under normal, like the normal way. And then if you're not getting a lot of traction, you turn it into
- a retained search. And I'll explain why. I think you get the most value out of a retained search if
- the people are also helping you shape the description of the job in the first place. I think that us sort of
- We already decided the direction we're going to go in, we came up with the job description, we posted
- job description, getting a company to do the retain search now.
- It's not worth 33% of like the reason they pay so much because they also consult you along the process
- of how do I make this type of job attractive to this type of person? And so my recommendation, particularly
- because we have a very great external law firm we can work with. We have a
- very great candidate who is local, who knows all of our processes, who's willing to stay through budget.
- Of course, things could change. I mean, a good move for something. But I think that because we have
- the support necessary, I just don't know if it's worth pursuing at this time. I agree. I agree. It feels
- like a waste. Yeah, I agree at this point. If we do not get qualified applicants, we might want to engage.
- a recruitment firm, it might not be the same level of contract, you know, to focus. And I think at that
- point, you know, if we put this out on the market and it's like nothing, like we're getting nothing,
- I think then it's back to the drawing board. It's like, look, there's something, there's something that
- we're dealing with here that's beyond, you know, so we want to address that in some different way. In
- terms of timing, are you going to, if the job is open through the end of April, will you be doing interviews
- and route that time and if so, we'll need to schedule those. That's a really important question is whether
- we want to, yeah, so whether you would all want to do it in a rolling basis or whether we want to set
- a date by which we look at things and make decisions. Or if you get applicants. For the interviews,
- interview during
- the time period that the application is open. Well, so let's say that we do that. We have done that.
- We've done both, yeah. We did both. If we get it out on the 10th, it should be ready by the 30th, so
- we could look at years in the first two weeks of May. So you would want to wait until it's closed.
- I would. Yeah, I think that's preferable, unless we're in a big, really big hub.
- I mean, wait, wait, wait till closest interview. Yeah. So that we can actually compare candidates and
- not just say, oh, this one looks great. We compare them as, you know, as the process of state applied.
- I mean, the hypotheticals that you get, you get, you know,
- let's just give them a score, a person who scores an 80 on our value thing. And we're like, great, let's
- interview this person. We like them. And then we wait and we wait and wait. Week goes by, and then a
- person with a 98 applies. And now we've made significant motion toward the person who is an 80. The
- software that the HR department uses for reviewing applications allows for ranking candidates and scoring them.
- So when you guys all get your training on that software to look at the applicants, which you can do
- at any given time, you can all individually go through and look at it. And then when we get some guidance
- about the whole serial needy thing again, but you can do some sort of rankings so that when you get
- in here and you can say everybody who got ranked above the three is who we're going to at least do our
- initial phone interviews with before you then go into your
- first real interviews because he may talk to somebody on the phone and, you know, find out they're that
- person. If there's a qualified candidate, a phone interview while it's open could be possible. But then
- a formal interview would not happen until after it's closed. Or you could just wait until it's closed
- and do phone interviews and just
- Yeah. So flip side under the argument is that if we get a very good candidate applying, what we wouldn't
- want to happen is that they apply and then they get another offer in the time. Exactly. And so. Can
- we play it by ear as we get candidates in? If three of us feel like we want to interview somebody early,
- then yeah. I think that's appropriate. I guess I brought it up in terms of scheduling. So in speaking,
- I know you need to leave.
- Does this committee want to meet again? And if so, can we schedule that before you leave? Yeah, please.
- So I think should we also schedule out, like, interview times, like, and all those things at this point?
- We could also set a poll. Yeah, yeah. So what's our next point of business? Do we have any business
- before we get applicants?
- You're going to have to figure out what you're doing for your Zoom stuff, um, moving forward after the
- 22nd. So that's going to be your next point as far as I know. We want a tent, but yeah. The tent or
- some sort of agreement with the clerk staff or, um, if you want more participation. So in terms of,
- or pass an ordinance to name clinical and do it first of all, specifically.
- I mean, again, if you all are happy to, I'm happy to work through the process of making all of that
- happen. Like, I don't think we need to necessarily reach to figure out how we're going to run a Zoom
- meeting. Well, but I think we would need to meet if we're gonna decide to spend money on an interim
- administrative person. Yeah. So how about assuming the conversation goes well this evening with the
- candidate?
- Then our next meeting is on April 15th. Would you all like to meet on the 14th? That's Tuesday?
- What time? This time, 5.30. That would work for me. Yes.
- Yeah. I have to speak at a school in Indianapolis that morning, so I don't know if I'm going to come
- back, but I'm going to stay. Hopefully by then have hired
- hire the temp attorney and then we'll know whether or not they're willing to staff the things around
- the zoom if if they're not then we can do the question of about if that's happening um and we can find
- out if kelly from it could continue to be there now right because i think we need do need two people
- at the desk as long as we keep the timer but they just said if you get rid of the timer you don't need
- two people right would you agree with that call we can
- Well, I think depends on how much you want the, how in depth the meeting is as well. I'm sure you want
- to be trying to be having this. It's not just also having also have people who are like. Eating things
- in a chat that you have to respond to as well, especially during those high volume meetings, where he's
- really want your extension. Yeah. Yeah. So there's sort of nonstop. It's.
- And you at least have to continue to keep checking kind of how we do here as we look at the participants.
- It's kind of easier to have somebody don't look at them and that kind of initiates not looking. I see,
- I see. Yeah, that makes sense. So I see where you need two people. Okay. All right, we'll see you all
- on the 14th and we can move forward with the decision of a 10th person. So you couldn't stop asking.
- Bye Gigi. Yeah, I'll find that out.
- So thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. We're adjourned.