##VIDEO ID:iimA0xsY4xU## are you ready ma'am okay hello everybody and welcome to yes it's 6 o' you believe it all right today is Tuesday February 14th 6: PM that no I'm sorry January just trying to move things along um time now is 6:00 in the city of willingston city council meeting has come to order Miss Ro can you okay Miss Wright could you please call Ro Mary Goodman I'm sorry I'm here president Cox hello vice president hind here council member Jones here council member Martin here council member R here city manager Terry Bard here attorney Pur valo online city clerk Latrice Wright I am here and all other staff presid thank you all right thank you all for coming this evening all right opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag Mr Mayor Charles join me if you choose Lord we gather together this night in special meeting to decide the direction that the city is going to go ahead Lord I know each one of our councils have agonized over this and looked at all the information and each one has worked very hard on it and I want to just hold them up to you and ask you to bless them for your hard their hard work I ask you to be with all the people that have attended tonight and let help them to get home safely I ask this in your name amen iedge flag of United States thank you thank you sir need some water all right item one addition deletions changes to the approval of the agenda can I get motion all right we have a motion to have a second I second all right we got a second all in favor say i i i 4 Z Public participation this is your first of two opportunities to address the council at this time anyone in the audience can come to the podium and speak for five minutes on any other topic and what's on the agenda okay see none all right item three new business a possible for discussion city manager applicant short list results okay all right all right um so each of us have a list that uh the email dust with the average scores and starting at the top working down um Michael grillart next was Timothy Day Susan L uh Paul Boot and then Kyle drummer Christopher coward Brian Carney Jace Wagner James Weaver Juan Fernandez Lind Gellen Breen kristoferson and and sarra Sara Hann um so if we're looking at thinking about this here um if we want to break this down into the interview process um I would say the Michael Timothy Susan and Paul um were the double digits score 10 and above that that's where we would start with those four interviewing person I'd rather go through the rather do the interviews all the way through like maybe do three one day and four the next whatever okay because um and I'm not that's what I said I said two days and offer them one day or the other there wouldn't have to be two days in a row that's the job we're here to do so so yes sir no sir I whoever we decide to interview I would say we don't I would say that um if in that top group if we find somebody I don't see the need any for now that's my is that what you're asking that's what I'm asking I thought you meant if again in the first day you found somebody you wanted would you do second no I'm ask very clearly same thing that Alexa was talking about you got three top TI yes ma'am for those of you that have been through the intervie process for about how long that's what we we would Al youd words of wisdom yes sir well I don't think this is going to be as easy was last time by picking the guy in the back of the room um which is kind of how I got but um you know my my thing is if if I I think you youall have to decide on and I know you already talked about it that you figure out where you going to stop interviewing and if you do find a obviously a good candidate from that point then you would stop the process you have your one two and three we have had before where we had one two and three as the mayor will tell you um and we ranked him and said okay this is our first guy and basically he bailed on uh and then we went to the second person and I don't think they took the job um I think eventually Jackie got the job so um you know but you know it's really whatever the the wishes are of the council if if y'all want to start with the top three and interview them um you know I I I do I do understand Alex comments about you only had certain amount of time to do it um you know for for some people on this account Monday the problem is that you have to pick Munday at the interview day which is convenient for a couple of city council members that limits your days and then eventually you're running up get a hard time me which we've all talked about um in terms [Music] of when you say you guys doesn't matter to us because obviously staff will be it will be y'all whatever y'all decide guess my question that later so in this case I think you know um and I don't recall Mr Mayor how last time y'all did it but I'm assuming your interviews were done during the daylight hour right so I would expect that probably during daylight hour you know on a day that's convenient forever um understanding that there's some people simply cannot get off here some people have to take time off of work to be here some people fortunately you know I don't think any of your tire so um it's going to be difficult Tock a day you know but people have some people simply have this do it hope I don't know how I don't know how we did last time I was here you recall right and I know you've already essentially made up your mind but the reason I say I'd like to interview more than three is because when I look at this Miss H's top three are not in the top three in the totals Miss Martin's top three are not in the top three in the totals and my top three are not in the top three in the total how the heck do the top three get in the top three I don't know but if you look at it look right here at the comparison you'll see it for yourself um and that's why I think and when you drop down so that they are in a in the top three and I'm talking about there's some 13s and some tens under Miss H and Miss myself and Martin um you can't just do one nine without doing all of them no that's why I say I cut it off at nine and go up the top I really feel like that's the only fair thing to do because your top three are not there my top three are not there and Miss's top three are not there top and your top three not there right so then my question is why did we do a survey because that's the way somebody decided to do it normally we bring normally we bring them here and discuss it and come up with the with the ones we want to interview yeah well it does but that's what we decided to do well Mr Brian Carney um we would interview him for sure he's a I believe application well we wasn't the n and you're cutting it off at the top three stop I didn't say top three say AR the from 10 and above we would do that that's one two that's four and if we interview Mr Carney then we would interview those five people start how do you know the rest of these [Music] people because we give Veterans Preference it's part of our support it's part of federal contracts that we that we have you are not going to decide if you get your top three this list you guys out of that don't [Music] you because that's why I figured if we interviewed them just hypothetical let's say two weeks from Monday or two weeks we interiew and we don't get a group we don't get anybody from that group before we get somebody um then just go up from there so i' say take group group grou yes sir I people on this list them about just ask because I inir people that made I personally made it app Point not to speak to any of the candidates so no one that made the list has had of people defined conversation I said hello city min nope no you said any conversation I said hello to Mr coward earlier I talk to Chris all the time we go to church yeah so so I think if you if you're narrowing down your question to the staff um of course I can't speak for Brooke she is online and I think my answer I think my answer was very clear and I think my answer was very clear to you also the answer is no and I can tell you I go to church M Mr coward and I see suette quite often at CH but I understand what the mayor but what's the reason that I I have a problem with having them out of 51 people go through I have a problem with ofing is you're else IDE you're and elide so I back to Deer um when you're looking at applications and trying to just determine equally and fairly um if somebody is qualified for a position you have to have the qualifications now granted based on what our qualifications are none of them meet the qualifications the the entire qualification but based on the qualifications that we had listed these are the ones that come closest to meeting what we have set for um I had a couple of questions related to a couple of the questions that we had to look at when we scored and basically it was the same information that we um said we were looking for in African it just to me read a little bit differently but once I got the clarification I understood why now we sat here and we came up with standards if there was an issue about the standards it should have been said then I had some but we had already voted which is fine so this is what we have um and secondly I don't believe that we should be going through six seven eight nine people we have we just need to figure out where our line is and um be careful because we do have to come back here and sit here and there are lot of different things that are going on in people's lives yes were elected to these positions but we also still have things in our lives that we have to do as well so we have to have some sort of common balance not just say that this is what you were hired for because it's never that simple so um I say at this point we just kind of discuss how many people related to what's up there we want to look at um and still take into account how many of these people met most of the qualification and I know too when you start calling them to arrange an interview there's three or four of them not going be able to come even if you did the if you cut it at nine which would include all of our top three by the way what there'll be there'll be a couple that kick that won't come yeah that's right or they're not going to move here or the salar is not what they want it to be or they are from out of state I mean there's one was the salary posted it was but there's already a couple right here that already negotia if you read their cover sheets and everything I know y'all probably didn't get the whole I've got all 52 of them not y but but these are the ones that are on the short list these are all 52 of them over here um there are some of them that are already negotia for for one reason or the other like I'm retired military I don't need benefits I don't need retirement I don't need health care um so I won't M there's some that are already doing that and and that's it had a lot to do with where the I rank them and that's fine they have a right to do that as well they do so we just need to figure out how many people we're going to interview based on what is up there so if I could ask a question because m j did get all candidates were there any that were AR s 52 let yeah and there she actually is helping me out and the ones that you got at least met very close to the minimum qualif at least enough to get the score on the P okay so I'm in agreement with DAR um that you know I'm comfortable with the ranking system that's what we established to help us get a little further and and to kind of give us a the ability to prioritize who we interviewed first and if we cut it off at nine that's seven candidate so if we could break that into two groups you know a group of four and a group of three maybe starting with the top four and then going to the next three the nines um in terms of scheduling I know for me and I think I can speak for alexic we're in the same industry Monday is a great day for us for the rest for the three of you um is Monday an option for an interview day I can make I'll just and we're talking about during the day interview during itting yeah I mean that you could do it like like the mayor said you can set whatever D you want um but yeah normally these kind of interviews are during the daytime and mainly because when they come they come from out of out of County or out of state even you have to put them up we don't normally pay for their hotel room but they would have to pay forel I know but if it's in the daytime they don't normally have to not not say that of course they will yes sir so dark why would you continue down yeah it out again yeah I mean if if the people that we have selected to interview we don't find a candidate in there then it needs to go back out we don't continue down the list because they're not qualified if they're further down the list and I've never seen so many police officers so many it people so Car Sales I mean if you look at all of them that's what we got here that's the majority of of Bankers how are Mondays for you in your life I can rearrange my Monday so I think that gives us at least a good launching point to say if we scheduled for whenever it's appropriate yeah whatever is an appropriate timeline to give the candidates you know heads up and that we can be available on Monday for a set amount of time um and just go through the first four and if we have our you know big winner at that point and we decide this is the person great but not we continue well I'm going to throw a little C right um reading online about one of the candidates one of the things that uh the council did and I think we should do this mainly because uh the staff Works has to work with the man so if we pick somebody I would like for the staff to interview that person oh like a second interview would be with the Stace it interview I know it's something that probably hasn't been done here in the past but after reading that like you know what Mak perfectly good done that as a second but we did the but questions asked byoun what we that's kind of what I used and then we Chamber of Commerce M and our staff just and we had mingle together so you guys said that we have Veterans Preference right so if the person who is a veteran is in that group of nine then he gets preference over that over over those n right what is it I think you got one so if we if we're basing it on that average it would make him equ Am I Wrong Am I yeah so so in the VA if I'm not mistaken when somebody has Veterans Preference they get an extra amount of points their their their spouse gets an extra amount of points so once so say that we H we're giving him Veterans Preference what are our points is he allotted because if that's the case then he gets extra points on top of that nine this is a question yeah he he actually so if you want to talk about veteran purpose and do it right let's do it right so Florida State Statute 2 95.8 specifies the actual point that their individuals are supposed to get they're in the 15 20 and 30 point range so we did not score for that right uh but if it says you have if you have a scoring section then basically you set it up in favor of doing something like that is what for State yeah we should have had a point system that that gave extra points when we were doing that right it also says you may waiver postsecondary education requirements for a veteran um if all things are equal as the mayor said if all things are equal and you're requiring a four degree and he has a two-year you cannot Mark him down for not having or her I apologize for not having that the statute reads pretty clearly I'm just going to read it uh those disabled veterans person's got to be disabled begin uh who have served on active duty yeah Florida State Statute 2957 so the state and its political subdivision shall give preference and appointment and retention to positions of employment to those disabled veterans who have served on active duty in any branch United States Arm Services have received an honorable discharge have established uh the Pres existence of a Ser service connected disability that is compensable under public laws administered by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs or it goes on to talk about spouses wi things like that um and then I read you to step it out of the other yes sir good it does say disabled those disabled better you're no I reading from the Florida state statute of the state FL right and what does it say there and this guy right here is also Carney it is carne a veteran with the service connected disability who is eligible for or receiving compensation disability en for under public laws administered by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the person you're arguing for you gave a six so how is it even relevant if the veteran or not I'm not arguing for him you are arguing for him you're trying to Railroad everybody into getting what you want done and that's not what we're going to do the person that you're arguing for okay it's a six so that doesn't even matter and would put him up to a seven that's still not one of the highest give him nowh I'm my point was a nine not a six it literally no no we're talking to one on average your name that says Jones and then Brian Carney you gave him a six out a 15 so that's a 50% and you're arguing for this guy to get an interview when you gave him a six Alexa I said cut it off at a none I didn't say cut it off at a six you gave him a six I did exactly but you're arguing because you want him interviewed because he his averages in nine when you are the one that gave him so if he was a veteran that would put him to a seven which is 50 so you're getting him not even some that's qualified Mr speak yes sir I would just uh I'd like to remind the council if they didn't know um when it comes to disabled veterans and things like that um 0% disability still qualifies as disability in some cases um so if they are a disabled veteran and they're registered with the VA and they have zero% disability would still have to treat them as a disabled in this particular case Mr Carney who retired as a chief warrant officer too um or honor honorably discharged being disabled I have no idea the percentage it doesn't matter to me right he and he's if he's retired I think that qualified as well right uh no it specifically says disabled okay but he can be retired and disabled so it's the same thing and it goes on to give others too you can also be the spouse of a veteran you could be the veteran of any war that Serv active duty this is just straight out of our will application this is out of our own application and this being fill it out the only reason I have it in the book Miss B since you're online would you like to throw some words of wisdom to this is so referencing the very first thing that it says is that you all are to put together as a subdivision a policy um so willson will have a policy on this and because of that I see that Brooke has her hand up in our little uh meeting and I know that she has been wanting to say something so I imagine that that's probably what she's gonna say so I'll hand it over to her thank you ma'am can you hear me yes we can okay so what Miss Jones is reading is basically the criteria that allows you as an applicant to select if you are requiring or requesting Veterans Preference that is exactly what Mr Bard had read out of the criteria of that it doesn't give you the protocols or the procedures in which we have in place excuse me um for dealing with Veterans Preference the secondary State Statute that Mr bravar read was that if we have a scoring for our applicants and we do not have a scoring across the board for any applicants for the Veterans Preference that is the secondary State Statute that Mr Bard read so with moving forward um I do not have in front of me any of the procedures for how the city has previously dealt with veterans preferences and that is something that I can bring to you tomorrow um and get with you all individually about but um so I think that this is this would be obviously my first procedures in dealing with um hiring a city manager and having the Veterans Preference so again there's not a procedure that we have in front of us saying that this is how We have dealt with this Veterans Preference prior to now does that make sense except what's in our application I would think well it's in there to show that you're qualified or you have the qualifications to be considered to have Veterans Preference that's that is just what has been in our application for years be honest with you all right thank you who smk okay so it seems to me that rather than arguing this at the moment would be a logical Way Forward would be for Brook and um kirston and patri whoever whoever needs to be involved in this to find out who qualifies as a veteran in the app the 13 that we got to add the appropriate point for that person because it would be a point added to their average not I mean it doesn't matter if it's Point added to all of our scores because they're a veteran then it'll be Point added to the average at the end and adjust the list accordingly and we still proceed forward with interviewing our top four and then moving on from there just in the sake of breaking it into two days I mean I'm happy to interview all top seven in one day if necessary but I don't know that that's feasible but I don't feel like this is something that we need to decide about whether that's that's a policy we don't need to be discussing that and wasting our time discussing that that should be something that Brook karston Terry and Latricia sort out and adjust this so can we agree Maybe just to move forward with the top four y anybody I just have attorney that cannot is that accurate so you're kind of far away from your microphone but I think that what your question question was is are you able to do less than what the state statute says was that the question that's exactly my question okay yes in some cases and no in some cases it depends on really the the requirement is you can't be more or less restrictive when the statute says you can't be more or less restrictive so in this instance what is required is that we put together a policy and so it seems like we do have a policy regarding how we put these together that's really what the criteria is the rest of the information um in the statute and I apologize the rest of the information in the statute is informative regarding how those policies can be put together does that make sense yes ma'am uh it's just I just love to talk to lawyers because yes sometimes and no sometimes for the same answer well well done well done I have no other questions thank you again all right before um right I just want to let you all know August 6 20120 the interviews that were scheduled for the candidate or around after 5:00 so it was Wednesday August 26 2020 there was a uh candidate at 5:15 the second one was at 6:15 Thursday August the 27th of 2020 the first uh candidate was at 5:15 the second was at 6:15 so they were in the evening you only no I was just saying when we did the interviews back in 2020 from my um email I'm looking at it right now and those are the times that they had chosen was in the afternoon I'm sorry the all right before we go any farther remember we're representing the city candidates could dial in us not know who they are and they see us the way that we're acting they're not going to want to come so you know let's be civil discuss it and let's move so kist I I have a question can you hear me yes ma'am so if we go ahead with the top four candidates does that put us um in trouble related to Mr Carney I'm not um no so no so what um Brooke and I will do and I'm gonna put no and just put a little Aster by that uh Brooke and I are going to take a look um through the policies and we'll go ahead and take uh a stab at what we have um for Willison make sure that all appropriate points are given but you all if that puts Mr Carney in the top four or uh even right below the top four then then we'll let you know and we can uh reevaluate accordingly but um I think the point been made earlier that there's really the requirement boils down to all things being equal veterans receive preference or all things being similarly equal veterans receive preference um and I haven't looked at uh this individual's uh materials but it seems like there's some pretty uh there's pretty much a consensus that all things are not equal or near equal but if that changes your top three or four then the Brooke and I will definitely let you know once we account for the appropriate uh percentages all right so do we that was my question the next for someone that make a motion that we continue with the interview the top four pending their reorganization of the top four necessary oh I can make I make a motion that we interview um the top seven candidates starting with the top four pending any numerical changes that Brooke and kirston make based on our policy and based if we find somebody that all right we have first got a second all those in favor say I I I four to one so right the one is next Soo was the one that all right all those in favor say I I I I those opposed say no no three to two um next is interview in process Item B so is we are having them to come here so the intention of Item B um is that so we will um myself and staff we can after we get the final numbers um reach out to all of you guys if we what dates we want to um what dates you would like to interview what time would you like to start which you've had some discussion on having an hour interview a 15 minute break and then another interview um was some discussion that I I did pull from this conversation um and then we can have have them in person now what if you run into a situation where you have somebody out of state do you want to only have interviews in person do you want to try to schedule them by video that's kind of what the intent of Item B is is try to make sure that we understand how you would like to further the process with the interviews President mayor kirst did I hear you correct that you're going to that you feel that we need to negotiate don't we set a date and if they don't come they don't come right what I do yeah we don't need to negotiate with them on a date we give them normally we give them two dates and they come one or the other okay I I don't care I just want to make sure we don't we're not going to try to negotiate with each individual to try to create a consensus it's going to get very no I yes I agree with that mayor that's that wasn't my intention and I'm sorry if it came across that way it's it was not that it is you we'll set the dates you um the council will set the dates on which you want to interview those would be the dates which that we fill with these applicants I just want to make sure that we want to do all the interviews in person um so if we do have individuals who are not able to be here that that is just the option as we are doing interviews in do they need to vote on it cirs the style in which we conduct the interviews I I whether they have to be here or not be here I I think we at the very least need to have a consensus on that I think a motion would be appropriate to solidify for a conversation I think the only one just looking at them real quick there's only one that's from Missouri whether he has any connection in Florida I don't know figure that out I have not either M JMS to be honest with you when I look through and that was what my one of my concerns was is that individual also he last worked in Missouri but he he says that he hasn't worked there since March of 24 so he may retired somewhere that would be Mr wag he he oh yeah you're right never mind the other one's from Utah I don't think you made cut either it was just barring that if there was any residential changes on your top that that was we have it already decided that we are going to do interviews with in person not over um a meeting over video if that is what the council chooses right and well for me that's correct anybody else now was just saying for me it's I said correct and then I was getting ready talking I said well for me it's correct but I don't knowbody anybody I don't want okay so um and this is what I I need to say um if I'm gonna take a day off to do interviews I prefer to do all the interviews um um as opposed to coming back because when I take off i l so if I'm going to do that I prefer to do it all it matters it's just a consensus of same way with me I got to make adjustments we will get all the interviews done in a day we'll just get all the interviews done in a day okay so I I'm sorry so I understand that we want to do it on the Monday and you want to try to get them all scheduled within the hours of that day is that like take off right but I'm still taking taking off and then you know going into a night I mean it's enough that's the same no it's not that's how we interview that's that's how we where where I'm FR now like we're interviewing this thing we have a lot of good candidates to begin with so you know we start there and for some reason we feel like we haven't found the right candidate who can explore an additional day if necessary or an evening or whatever work but we have a lot of really good candidates so I say start with one day and from there and some people probably not show anyway right um quick question if I may um would it make sense um and again sorry uh Ricky here but would it make sense for on during that day that people come for the interview for the um heads of the department to also have schedule time to meet with them again not us because obviously we'll be potentially booked up but and then give us their feedback or should that happen in the presence of the city council tell you what let me do this staff would you all like to talk to a person that maybe's in the one or two of the finalists would you all like to talk to them and give us your input would youall like to do that or do you w to just have your time to be able to ask some questions are they interviewing them or they just having a conversation if you're going to try to interview them all one day y'all can take the time out of your day to talk that's my preference Miss Wright I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page too is that these interviews will have to be um advertised because it would be an open um interview correct yes I would have to advertize that we are having in well let me ask you a question this is my concern and kirston maybe you can help me out with this um I understand they're advertising but they're being videoed here's my problem because video is probably wasn't available or maybe it was I don't know um KS you may have to chime in here you're going to be going through a series of questions for whatever y'all pick or from the last one and there's an unfair advantage of the guy comes at 8:00 to the person or woman I might add to the person that comes at one who could have the opportunity to see the video or even set in here or have something how do you work that out okay okay all right I'm not sure I couldn't hear lria answered your question she said they don't have to video they don't have to live video the thing um you know so so they can't watch a video they can't but it's public correct there's no way we can do but they can sit in here for eight hours yes they can they're public yeah that was my qu one of my question was could this be one of those shade meetings no this doesn't qualify for a shade meeting there no way around you all interview them together you gotta invite the members of the public we can put up a sign they don't have to sorry we can't hear you appc in this room during the interview I would ask them not to I would put a sign on the yes Mr Mayor you got to get closer to the mic she can't hear you miss kirston can the applicants set in this room or do we have the right to tell them no you can't be in here for the applicants you can tell the applicants that they cannot come into the into the so it's their time my whole thing just of this was this was to get down to the finalist you know if we get down to one or two that we're deciding upon because that's when I would like to see staff interview them not to interview each of the ones and you clarify you said that so we're going to interview seven people to get down to one or two or if we go if it takes more if we're going to interview seven people we need to get down and that was one of my questions is that day that you do the interviews and you also put on the agenda potential picking of that app of that person so in other words you do and you do the interviews right and at the end of those interviews can we have an agenda item have but that's my question are we have a meeting or you have an interview have so basically we have to have another meeting after your interview yeah yeah I'm just trying to get the calendar my head that's all um and we do5 that's what I try to do I like that can it be can it be done at a regular council meeting so even [Music] if I'm just throwing it out there okay can you be specific so you can have the correct yeah if we if say that we interview people on the 27th just trying to provide some guidance here and we do the other end of the day do is the 20th of course that's the holiday so if you interview everybody on the 27th I hope that's not a holiday no I just I just want to know what the process is so we can be prepared for it um so if I know that we're doing the 27th then what I'm thinking is if you do your interviews on the 27th we have to have an agenda item on the fourth to either do additional interviews or make a motion to pick the city city manager new city manager see what I'm saying how you gonna do it that I'm I'm fine with that yeah I think that would be a great idea because that's in the only top we won't feel like we need to be rushed through it so can I um make a suggestion so that in order to keep the meeting um as short as possible and and also as civil as possible that we rank each our our choice from if let's say six people show up for the interview that we rank the six and that we all agree prior to that we only discuss the top two like total you know not our top two but that we Rank and whoever scores the highest point right amongst everybody that would be the top two and that we only discuss I I'm throwing out the top two but be the top three whatever you guys decide but that we don't discuss all six when we come to the meeting because we will be here for way too much time and we'll get lost in the weeds in my opinion right that special at the special like when we come or prior to the special meeting where we were going to decide who we are going to offer the position to that each of us ranks the candidates that we interviewed and based on that we only discuss the top two top two top top I mean are you guys comfortable with top two top two candidates that if if the others the bottom four did not make that top two in in our assessment that Brooke you know Brooke can give us a little sheet or however and then she can organize it so we know exactly who we're discussing when we come in and we only discuss those two so the reason why I'm getting in the Wei is because Brook will not be here very then so and so that that's why I'm trying to get this thing hammered out tonight as of what our process will be um and not the interrupt you it Rook will be yeah so so then I would say then you're going to have your special meeting and pick your whatever whatever the ones you're going to pick you you make your decision then keep in mind now additionally on top of that person has to formally accept it you have to decide whether or not there's going to be a background investigation and you know how we're going to do that and then the second thing is is that the person whoever you give them a conditional offer of employment but have to submit you a contract and that contract is going to have to be reviewed and voted on um which I guess could be done at a special meeting or at the other one um mine was fairly easy because you've seen it before some minor changes I don't know that the new person you pick won't have that same lectur or y'all won't maybe they'll give you something totally different so that's that's kind of the process so traditional offer employment background investig ation they submit their contract um they can turn in their contract whenever they want to for the most part once you give a conditional offer of appointment and then you know then you accept the contract and and start youing manag so there's other steps to this you could do that too you can you can absolutely do that can we get a get referen this um from those that we did that did not supply references within their package prior to have references we have those oh you have them already yeah yes ma'am can can we send out you've actually talked to people or you just took what they said took what they said I I've I I did verify some colleges that did not quite meet the educational standard in the United States of America those people were not included so it is what it is so you say we have references not not named on the sheet but actual yeah they they submitted actual people names addresses phone num so my question is some did submit letters refer yes we need letters of reference to see what people are actually saying about these folks yeah the the ones that were in the 15 or so that we gave you those references should have been you got you got everything we got for the app so the question would be is any of the other applicants that there there are no references in there they did not supply some may have given us telephone numbers and Nam the call but all the letters uh that they submitted with their application you got so can we get a reply from their references yeah or checkol we can start on the top nine of the ones that you chose to move forward for interviews we can start contacting references to get that information back prior hopefully prior to to hopefully the 27th okay the background check is a little more stricter um unless I'm wrong you have to have a conditional office of employment and approval of the candidate to do I will tell you um you want to be a police officer in the city it's intrusive background check you want to be an employee for the city at the brush top of you know what raining here you may have in your P well we're going to have to see just how legally far we dig any open source document we can most certainly find for you include it Ian it's out there it's on the internet have to make sure that app it's just as easy as you're checking an accredited college taking a couple steps to do that um I know in certain cases the police department does the background check so can we now are we done with that can we now discuss the number of questions we're going to have yeah yeah how many you ask feel good number we can send you a copy of what was asked before yeah okay okay also um can I just add since some people are new to this on September the 8th 2020 on the agenda there was discussion with possible action of a new city manager for the city of wi if You' like I can send you the minutes so that way you can have an idea of what was done you like yes please that I can say in reference to the questions what I have noticed um and Mr Bard and I have discussed it is that there is not a scoring a scoring on those questions it's just a list of the questions is what we have and then I I would have to go back um to those meetings and Miss Wright's knowledge on the 2020 interviews on how it was ranked because none of the questions that we had for the interviews of um the previous city managers at any ranking do you remember Miss Jones I don't think we used a number I think we wrote their answers down because there were spaces between the questions and we just took notes of our own between it and in the end we ranked that person sometimes if you rank each individual section you end up with this number correct I I agree okay it's way would like to proceed okay so if that was if that's how you would like to proceed I can email you all tomorrow the list of the questions um will combine the common questions between both both previous interviews and I can email them out so you can at least see what looking at and then the question should have all been the same ma'am oh saying the question should have all been the same you would yes yes ma'am I would say they should be but I from what I remember looking at both of them I don't believe that both of the what she's referring to BR you have two separate questions different two two different like 20 I have 20 questions from this time we hired somebody and there's 20 questions from this time so the question is as you cross reference them and see what those questions are to see if they're all the same yeah I mean because like when I looked at all these applications there were five or six basic things that I made sure I look and some of course more important than that I really wanted to know like so what we would need what we would need if we send these out what we would need is a quick turnaround on it so we send yall the question and you say you know I've looked at both of these actually we'll send you we'll crosswalk them send whatever there is it's all new questions and then you know you say okay well you haven't asked this question so we're going to need a pretty quick turnaround back from y'all so we can send it back out to everybody else they yall okay okay with this so what's the number of questions per interview did they have Brook I want to say it was maybe there was a couple pages so I want to say it was more than 10 questions so it might have been under 20 20 or under questions which is quite a few questions um I would agree with that first thing in the morning still too many 45 minutes hour so it should be 10 or left so what if sorry no you're fine so what if we look at the list and look at the questions but yet you want to ask a couple of questions that aren't on the list what's the procedure for that you need to ask them across the board you can't it would be across the board but if you just want to and that's why I think that the quick turnaround on the questions like I said tomorrow morning that can be the priority I we can sit down put all the questions together um send them out and if you know there's specific questions if there's specific questions that um are more relevant to how you want to ask or the questions that you want to ask that's more relevant to the position then we can absolutely add those in resend it out get clarification and then those can be our set of questions but I think our our Baseline needs obviously I believe that we're all in agreeance needs to be across the board the same questions just what are the relevant questions that we really want to ask so like I said I'll go ahead and put it together tomorrow morning send it out and hopefully they will cover what we're all thinking Brook can I ask a favor to since this is my first go around um protocol for us as council members during the interview if there's guidelines I don't know if that was in the binder that I have here that you gave us at the beginning um for dos and don'ts during the interview process I didn't realize we weren't allowed to ask different questions of different candidates just that's news to me as of now so I would just like to make sure I don't put a foot wrong in the interview process absolutely um I can put together some of the does and don'ts um and the in the guidelines for the interviewing and it might be in the packet that I gave you I'll I'll double check it and um absolutely I can send that out so we're on the same page yes ma'am and then can I ask one thing too kirston I know you're still on line so Brooke is it something you and Kirsten can also discuss because I'm sure she has some suggestions yeah absolutely I'm happy to I'm happy to look over anything thank you yes sir come up to the Pod mer question so I would think you know if you needed more clarification that there obviously might be questions that you ask of one candidate that you wouldn't ask of another depending on what their answer was so and then my second question is can you at some point in time give time frame by timeline of what I I know you kind of talk a little bit about what that's GNA look like so you say timeline What specifically are you talking about well they're there I don't think they've said it yet unless I missed it yeah yeah that is really going to be do to drive everything so so y'all y'all need to give us a date that you want to do the questions on I thought 27th was date I mentioned it works for I think it I don't know it works the of can I just give you a time frame of what we did in 2020 in 20120 on September the 8th 2020 we did a discussion with possible action of hiring City Manager on September the 15th we had an emergency meeting of employment of new city manager and then on September the 16th we presented that new city manager with a contract in September what year 2020 no no um who was that that it was Mr hayatt at the time that's who they had chosen okay so where sorry so where are we on this business ABC or D we're done with a we're on C we're on C I thought we discuss the so what I would say the only thing that I think that we need the clarification on is we want all the interviews in person yes yes okay so we have the interviews in person we have the top nine I believe is that we discussed one two seven seven the top seven um Miss BL and myself will um revisit all the numbers to make sure that um we're accurate in which we discussed and then um we have the date so I guess it would be now just the time in which we would like to start and and real quick just to clarify with fellow council members if of the top seven some do not make it we're not pulling from below that cut off then we just reduce the number okay want to make sure we're all on the same page about that that it seven or less corre understand yes ma'am so I guess we would just be looking at what time we would like to start interviews and then we can move forward with getting them set up for um that Monday o' the 27th correct 9 o' early I'm just joking start 8 o00 too early for 9 o I think 6:30 I know you're early bir whatever works 9:00 i r okay so we're looking at 9 o' with a 15 minute break between them and scheduled for an hour yeah that 45 minute interview 15 minutes 45 minute 15 minute break got it starting on the 27th at 9 do we need 15 or we just [Music] it's better to keep it on the corre okay I think that is all the information that we needed to move forward with um like I said we will put together the questions send them out I will miss BL myself will come up with um providing the procedures for the interviewing process process that Miss Martin requested and the um I think the only other one was Miss Hines with the references is that we still want to move forward with providing getting that information as much as that we can get prior to the interviews yes ma'am please and um I think I think that's all we really needed to be able to move forward with the process right Terry was there anything else that I've missed talking to me BR yes sir was there anything else that I think it doesn't take long to call special meeting so I would say do your interviews um and the following fourth um America call an emergency meeting pretty quickly three members of council can call it advertisement how long 12 12 hours I like that short not um so that's not as dire as like any of the other stuff we got coming up so if y'all want to have you want to decide on the 27th you you want to set a special meeting a certain time the mayor honestly can call for a special meeting quicker um quicker but you're all here we all do it but you just keep that in mind that maybe on that day we look at a special meeting I don't think you're ready to pick one tonight good I guess but uh well no I I I think the pro well you can I mean I was not thinking the same day in other words you have the what you're saying is like I'm okay with you have the interviews you end them and you start a special uh meeting question is you have have a time or what after you interview because you may have somebody o' yeah what I'm saying do you want to have that special meeting that night after the interviews well no I said so so so no so if we set a time as to when we are interviewing we let people know that these are the times we are interviewing what time can you make not well I can't get there until yeah so these are the times that we're interviewing yeah are you available Which slot do you want well then you got to keep then you're going to have to keep notifying the candidate who hasn't this person got this or vice versa or this this I agree with you mayor yes sir you heard Brook Brook said that you what question you will ask no they're the same ones we used before I think [Music] so somebody asked that question already at Le she says there's more than 10 but not as many as 20 she couldn't exactly remember you guys are going to have to divide up the question if that it depends on how we decide to do it I just this whole idea of telling Council what questions they can cannot ask we're not doing that and I don't know where you got that from we presenting the question we we were going to present them the questions that was asked last time and I specifically said and maybe you weren't the room that I need a quick turnaround time on these so in case none of these work or if you go I don't want to ask number 18 um but I want to ask this one and we're going to have to keep going around until we have the set questions that they want to ask I mean if they want us to send them none I'm okay with that I don't think they are uh just get yeah the process we we agreed to send them the past two questions that I hate to cover the ground we covered but the past two questions um from the last two city managers that were hired and then basically they have to decide in a very quick short notice so they want to ask all these questions we will crosswalk them to make sure there's not duplicates and they'll have an opportunity with a quick turnaround time to tell us what they want to do and what other questions you want to ask as you know um and like I said even if they come in here on the 27th I can ask for look I I need to cut off dat to the 24th so we can have all your questions for you they can still come in on the 27th and say I want to ask this question but just bear in mind we said we will be asking 10 or less questions won't be right but and I and I get that part and y'all can strike through as many you want um we're we're here to serve y'all whatever you need we're not driving anything we didn't drive this this was y'all's idea so we would be the ones giving the questions to ask normally during a questioning session y'all will be giving the questions back right whatever ones you want then each one of you pick a question and you normally go through you know me I go by seniority so you know Mr Cox you have the first question vice president Hines has the second council member Jones has a third Meredith has a fourth alaxa has the fifth um if the mayor's going to be involved in the process no is not he is not so so then we go around again and now if you're only doing 10 each can be asked two questions oh okay so to clarify even if there more than 10 questions on the list uh but do we have to and I guess this is my question for a book do we have to ask exactly the same question of every single candidate so of the list I picked my maybe two questions that I feel like I would like to ask each candidate and Deborah has her to right so I think I think the one question is is is can you can you as Mr coward said don't want to quot you too much but you can you can a question that you ask create another question just for that Cas oh yeah absolutely so I think you have to understand that so discuss right can I give you a sample of some of the questions no no because somebody may be listening no you can't give us well can I print it out and give it oh well never mind Brook's gonna send it to you that's whatook gonna send it to you I just think that we should have the option if there's a question not on there we should be allowed to ask so interview should not be a discussion an interview should not be a discussion you ask what you want to know and they answer to the best of their abilities of their ability it should not be a discussion but it won't you won't find out anything about them that's you will find out what you what they give you I mean I'm just saying I mean if if we sit and we start if we sit and we start having discussions then somebody else can say that we LED whomever the applicant is to the decision and that's now we are hiring them based on that to keep it nice simple and smooth ask the question let them answer and move on to the next question I get I can tell you in our hiring process here we ask specific questions and those specific questions go ahead we're very detailedly some of us are what they wrote if they said yes we wrote yes if they said yes however boom boom boom boom boom boom you write it all out yes however yeah so I think my question is to Kirsten I hate keep going back to her or Brooke if can you get if you ask question number nine and from number nine you have an additional question now from their response is that okay yes yes that's it does you got to know your candidate you really do whether you think it's not an interview for it is for a job but you're trying to learn this person that you don't know anything about um and you've got for example you say I don't know have you ever gone to the flea market and almost Happ you don't want a yes or no answer if they say well your question should not be a closed answer I mean a closed question it should be an open-ended question that way it should be tell me about your experience that way they should be able exactly my concern I agree with DAR finess my concern is that if one of us starts digging in and asking more and follow up then it does not leave room for the other council members no but to Mr Cox's point if you know if he asked his question and then it he needed to ask another question as an example but then all of a sudden that starts to creep into the time that the other council members have to ask their preferred questions so I think keeping it to one question is appropriate so that we don't then then we have to ask the right questions exactly right you do have to ask the one question but you can't be so strict with it that you don't learn about the person because that's the whole point they are and what they know how they're help looking at these questions I would suspect that anybody that that is a good fit for the city and really has the experience when they're ask a question even if this yes or no will give you a link the expanation as to what their meaning what their yes is this is my feeling that I think once you get that answer you're probably not going to have any more questions right I think somebody just says yeah sitting there at this they've lost an opportunity to tell you something about them correct unless should I hire you right now that's exactly a question we need to ask if they sit there look at you they have to think that's one of the questions why should iire you if they're quick in response that's the kind of what if it's a um citizen or somebody like that thanks for telling them what one of the questions is we have to make sure that that one is not on the question L that's why I say can you ask a question outside of the realm something that they're not going to expect that's why I was just asking I really sorry um didn't realize that you you weren't finished um I just want to uh give some guidance here we have a set question list for candidates because of all of the pro reasons that have been said one it helps to structure the timing of the interview two it helps ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to share things about themselves that they want to share and three it gives the council a way to sort of compare apples to apples but it doesn't have to be to the letter the other thing that I I want to make very clear is this has all happened before so I I don't want anyone to be so stressed about the questions out because we're going to be using questions that are at least similar to questions that we've used before and none of that is his secret that that's all public record so we um I I just don't want anyone to be terribly stressed about oh no I I leaked a question um because it's it's just not Life Death like that thank you yes thank you four that is 36 that's correct yeah that's and we rotate too some of these people won't talk they say a one a one letter answer like and some of them are gonna tell us all about it so that that will be five question minutes so that's what he was saying right so I do believe we have a motion this this Stacy did we do B as far as we did all right okay on B Sol all right C discussion with possible action city manager applicant dates we did that so all right then I guess we're Dro down to item four public participation anybody in the public anybody online Mr any announcements staff yes Mr no okay this right I have to um Thursday night at 6 o'clock Mr F will be giving a presentation about Guyana so if you aren't doing anything please come out and should be very interesting and then Saturday night uh I have tickets for the MLK Gayla if you like to purchase a ticket it's $40 a ticket and it starts at 6 okay the country the country Mr built a park over there he built a park and they after he's a fascinating individual any all right all right GNA get a motion to adjourn I'm I make a motion we adjourn I second got a first got a second all in favor say I I I 5 Z no oppos it is