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.