Loading...
CCMtg03-16-09SMMin LONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION Longwood City Commission Chambers 175 West Warren Avenue Longwood, Florida SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES March 16, 2009 2:00 P.M. • Present: Mayor Brian D. Sackett Deputy Mayor John C. Maingot Commissioner Joe Durso Commissioner Mike Holt Commissioner H.G. "Butch" Bundy Thomas Jackson, Acting City Administrator Sarah M. Mirus, City Clerk Dawn Jackson, Personnel Manager 1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Sackett called the meeting to order at 2:01 p.m. Mayor Sackett said the interviews were scheduled in half hour blocks. He asked the City Clerk if the last five minutes could be delegated as review time. for the candidate as an in-conclusion summary. Ms. Minis said it would be up to the City Commission and what they desire. Mr. Jackson said if they ask questions for 25 minutes and allow a five minute closing, they would need to provide this to all six candidates. He stated once the candidate has provided an answer to a question, the Commission can ask them to expound on the content of the answer for that question, but they cannot go beyond that topic. 2. INTERVIEW CANDIDATES FOR THE POSITION OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR. 1. Donald D. Crawford (2:00 p.m.) Mayor Sackett explained Ms. Minis was the Moderator and would be asking the questions. If the Commission wants further explanation, then they will make that request. He said they would open to each candidate the opportunity to make a ~ summary statement, provided time is remaining after questioning. uestion 1. Ms. Minis advised there were two parts to Question 1. CC 03-16-09/129 Part 1. How would you deal with the current economic difficulties that have or ~ will have an adverse effect on the City? Mr. Crawford said the community was fortunate that financial wise, it was not in the tight bind like so many communities are. He stated the City has been prepared for this. He said that was good, and does not mean one goes on a spending spree. He stated eve need to remain very prudent in our spending aspects and try to keep the programs focused so that we know the short term costs, but also what the ongoing costs are going to be to the community and the tax payers. He said another aspect that we are having to deal with, which is a little more extended, is the problems with the foreclosures and the impact this is having on the individuals in the community. He stated when people were experiencing problems; they were going to spill over, in some cases, with mortgage companies taking over the foreclosed properties in which they would be lucky to catch up with the mortgage company. He said being able to keep the City records tied in so they can do the Code Enforcement and the dealings with someone who is responsible for those particular pieces of property. Another aspect will be with respect to the business community which is hurting. He stated one has to be cognizant of what the community does with regard to projects that doesn't adversely affect their financial abilities. He said that until he did some work with a lot of small businesses, he didn't realize that by closing a driveway for three. days for a water project can mean the difference between a business being profitable and a business having a loss. ~ ~ Part 2. What would be your plan of action? Mr. Crawford said, as far as the City's finances were concerned, really keeping a close eye on the finances with basic monthly cash flow projections. Realizing if anything was getting out of line, to know what is causing it, and see whether anything needs to be deferred. He stated, secondly, in dealing with individuals and their properties, to remain vigilant with respect t:o the Code Enforcement programs, but also realizing you cannot go in and tell someone who is unemployed that they have to spend $10,000 to correct a problem within 30 days. He said this just. would not happen and they would walk away from it. He stated with regards to the businesses and with respect to City projects to keep the lines of communication open with them, give great notice in advance of things that are planned, and also, to obtain their input and coordinate with the businesses. uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to tax credits for redevelopment acid green development? Mr. Crawford said he has dealt with it several ways. He stated he was very stipend of formulas from TIFA districts, taxing from. financing districts, to CRG's and CRA's. He stated you need to isolate it from districts and if providing some sort of tax credit, the money has to go back into that district for improvement. He said it would have to be tied into something as far as pay back from the particular business is concerned. He stated he had a project that was extremely great and worked well with a taxing from a financing district for the downtown area. He CC 03-16-09/130 said this allowed them to get ahead of the curve on improvements by a number of years. He gave an example of one that he inherited in which the City would never receive any benefits. uestion 3. Ms. Mirus advised there were two parts to Question 3. Part 1. How do you view the relationship between the Administrator and governing body.? Mr. Crawford said it has to be one in which there is great communication. He stated there was a matter of trust that the job of the Administrator is to see that correct items are brought to the administrative body and they were not bypassed. He said he has been in communities where the administrative body paid little attention to some of the routine things that legal y should be coming to them. He has found at times contracts did not follow the correct procedure and come before the administrative body. He stated the administrative body passes things as far as ordinances are concerned. He said that typically items he has that carry on the Agenda or the Consent Agenda often have multiple agreements and these need to be passed by resolution so there is a tracking bit and the legal authority is behind it. He stated if an Administrator signs an agreement that he does not have the authority to sign, what happens when it goes south at some point and they find the City didn't properly enter into the agreement. F[e said he tries to keep the governing body well informed through memorandums, and very brief information bits. Another way he has found, is using a tracking system to keep the governing body members informed as to what the City has .going. He gave an example of a project tivhere he would use the tracking system and said this gives the Commissioners the information they need to be able to answer questions they may be asked by the citizens. Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads and local government staff? Mr. Crawford said for one, being very reachable by them. He stated it was very important for department heads to work as a team and that they have easy access to the Administrator to share information or inquire how to make a particular decision. He said he believes in staff meetings and having staff go through all issues in great detail that may come before the Commission. The only time he gets upset with a staff member is if they don't tell him prior to a Commission meeting that the Commission is going to be upset over an issue or inform him of a resident planning on attending a meeting over an issue. He stated he wants staff to keep him informed and he is very supportive of staff members. He said he will have staff at the Commission meetings because they are the specialist in their particular area. uestion 4. How do you feel redevelopment can best be achieved? Mr. Crawford said redevelopment can best be dealt with by figuring out where you want to go. He stated in Longwood there were several different areas they CC 03-16-09/131 were looking at for redevelopment. He said they were dealing with some residential redevelopment in neighborhoods with particular problems. He stated they need to make sure public improvements in these areas were brought up fo standards. He gave paving of streets as an example and said to make sure they were paved, clean and had curb lines. He said to look at vacant properties and said in one community he was in, they went as far as the City acquiring the properties and set. them up for resale. He explained these were vacant properties, and they were made available for redevelopment according to certain standards. He stated industrial redevelopment was an entirely different thing, depending on what the community has. He said there may be a very large building that may be obsolete and they may have to work on programs to figure out how to get the building demolished. He stated come communities for redevelopment make it almost impossible due to the demolition fee they are trying. to collect. He said you want to encourage. someone to use their- private money to do this and the City can assist by trying to f nd developers to come. in and work o:n that particular project for people to come in and' be able to occupy it. 'He stated it does not do any good to build a fancy building if it was not going to be occupied. Retail was another area, and it was one of the toughest you would find anywhere. He said many do not have the money to fix their building because it is tied up in inventory. He stated this can be accomplished sometimes through tax increment assistance by doing. facade work and being able to assist them to obtain financing. He said in walking through this area of Longwood, he said you get a good feel of it and he came up with some ideas to deal with parking and how it can tie in with the new ~ Commuter Rail Station. ~.,J uestion 5. How do you describe your management style? Mr. Crawford said his management style is that he is approachable. He is interested in conflict resolution and he is interested in seeing that people do their best job. He stated he hates to see people fail to do their homework and put things together in a clear and correct way. He said he does not want people doing reports that are filled with inaccuracies or coming from the aspect of what he considers good writing. He stated with his work, he shares it with some of the staff to have their input and have. good communication. He said if-you write. a memorandum and it is misunderstood'or misinterpreted, then there is a problem. uestion 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's organization and identifying opporhnities for improvement? Mr. Crawford said one is going out and getting to know the organization and how it operates. He stated you don't make change just for the sake of making change. He said you may find that things are being handled differently than you've ever experienced anywhere else in your life. However, that does not mean it is bad. He stated you want to read all the documents available for you that have been prepared in the past. He said there is usually a library of Comprehensive Plans going back three or four generations, audits, budgets, and, minutes. He stated, as ~ far as making- change, you need to look at where there are problems and what is using all of our energy, track where they are; and how often they occur. CC 03-16-09/132 uestion 7. What role/relationship should the County and State have in Longwood with regards to services? Mr. Crawford said various counties provide different services and they definitely provide them with different quality levels. He stated you need to figure out what the cost of those services are going to be, and vrill it be equitable like in the next commtuty, or will it be different. He said a few years ago he went through putting together water and sewer rates for some 100 suburban communities in the Detroit area,, plus the City of Detroit. He .stated the big issue that keeps going on is that those who were getting services based on 1920 fixed rates were happy with the way things were. Those who were more recently, were saying. they had to pay a lot more. He said they had to go through with various formulas and come up with one that was equitable. He used the example of Longwood having a water tower and that investment helps to keep their costs down at peak times. He said the State was a whole different beast. He declared the things we get faced with most of all with the State was roads, where the}~ put their money, what formula they are using for finding, and then does their standard work. He gave an example of a road in Boca Raton where the State threw in a block that they could not go through park land. He stated he worked with a Congressman and received a waiver. He said another area in which States become involved was water and ' sewer grant programs, and you must maintain those relationships. .uestion 8. What techniques have you found to be most successful in assisting local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the conitnunity? NIr. Crawford said some of the best techniques _he has had was using planning sessions in which they reached out. He stated he has done this where they set aside t<vo or three days where someone directs this; getting all of the Commissioners involved, department heads, reach into the employee organization and have some citizens get involved.. Other areas could be some intergovernmental groups. Question 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the near .future? Mr. Crawford said the challenge in the near future will probably be the money factor because of the assessed valuation drops and how it will affect the lives of the people in the community. Depending on where this goes, it may also change a lot of the demographics in our communities. H€; stated it may encourage older people to sell their properties and move to a downsized piece of property and this may bring younger people. into that property. He said in a community that is built ~ out, like Longwood, one of the things that have to be done is to continually try to bring younger~productive people into the community and they need to .have a place to go. He stated communities tend to attract likes. CC 03-16-09/133 (question 10. Why are you interested in the position? ~J Mr. Crawford said he was interested in the position because he loves challenges. He has been through a lot of challenges through his career of various varieties. He stated he sees this position as one that will give him the opportunity to use his skills to be able to accomplish something and get it moving. He said his time would not be totally dealing with finances here.. He stated he loves looking at the big picture and the long term picture. The opportunity is here as they are looking at the planning aspects and how to provide public. services for the least cost in the long run. He declared it doesn't make much difference when you are spending some money to spend an extra. million dollars if it was going to save twenty million dollars over the next ten to fifteen years. I=Ie said he sees some exciting things Longwood was looking at as far as recreation is concerned. He stated people in the near firture were going to be looking for what is closer to home in wanting to do things. He said he got this feel when walking through the community and said Longwood will have.one of the first commuter stops in the metro area that can work or fail. He stated'he has seen it work in areas and not work in others. NIs.1Vlirus asked very briefly is there was .anything he would like to add or summarize. Mr. Crawford said hopefully he has pointed otit things that he sees as things that ~ excite him. He stated the. Commissioners may be looking at other things and one of the biggest tasks they have immediately is selecting the right Administrator. He said he hopes he is that person and stated he is a competent Administrator and has worked with a variety of things and he was relatively a flexible Administrator. Commissioner Holt .left the meeting at 2:26 p.m. and returned at 2.:37 p.m. 2. J. Kevin Grace (2:30 p.m.) Mayor Sackett welcomed Mr. Grace. He explained. that Ms. Minis was the Moderator and would be asking ten questions. Following. that, if there. is time remaining, Ms. Minis will provide him time to summarize. uestion 1. Ms. Minis advised there were two parts to Question 1. Part.. l . How would you. deal with the current economic difficulties that have or will have an adverse effect. on the City? Mr. Grace said basically, ~as~ he mentioned to some of the Commissioners this morning, the financial issues are probablythe most important issues for. an Administrator coming in to get a handle on initially. He stated Longwood was not the only one dealing with this. It is happening to every local government across the State and businesses. He said his own business has .gone through two productions in force over the last year and a half. The: f rst thing he would do is get a handle on where they were on the finances and the budget. He stated they CC 03-16-09/134 ' would hopefully know soon what is happening with our tax base from the Property Appraiser and what he expects to happen. He said he would work with the Commission on what we were trying to accomplish in the next year. He stated he would hope to do some .goal setting sessions, even though they may have to be abbreviated the first year, in order to get a sense of what.the priorities and goals of the Commission are, and then fold this into the budget that they will be addressing soon. Part 2. What would be your plan of action? Mr. Grace said the initial plan of action was to .get a handle on the budget and take the actions necessary to essentially make the budget balance and present to the Commission a clear understanding. ofwhat it was going to take to do that. He stated whether it was going to be raising additional revenues or the trade off of reducing services, or whether they were going to be able to fit the pieces of the .puzzle together to avoid those two difficult decisions.. He said putting together the action plan was what .they would have to do. uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to taxcredits for redevelopment and green development? ' Mr. Grace said he didn't really have a policy regarding that. As far as tax credits and incentives for economic development, he was part of the original team in Seminole County to put together the Economic Development Plan in the early 1990's that led to their job growth incentive fund leading to thousands of jobs locating to Seminole Cotmty. He declared he was a fan of the concept of incentives when done properly. He stated he was not a fan of giving away all of the benefits of having the business there. in the :first place in order to get them there. He said he did not think it was the, role of the Administrator to set policy. That is the Commission's role. He stated. he has ideas and thoughts and recommendations, but any policy would be set by the Commission. Ms. Mirus advised there. were two parts to Question 3. Part 1. How do you view the relationship between the Administrator and governing. body? Mr. Grace said he viewed it clearly as the Commission was the policy making body and the boss who is accountable to the citizens and residents of the City. He is accountable to them to take the policy decisions they make and implement them essentially with the staff team. He stated he clearly understands the role and-said it was his responsibility as the Administrator to make sure the Commission has the information, the knowledge, the options of the solutions, and the alternatives to consider setting policy and making those, kinds. of decisions. It is then his responsibility, in conjunction with the. staff team, to carry that out as enthusiastically and effectively as he can. CC 03-16-09/135 Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads and local government staff? Mr. Grace said he touched on this in his last answer. They are a team. He considers the Commission,. the Administrator, and the .staff all a team. He stated they have different roles, but they were all a team. His approach to staff is a team approach with open and honest commlu~ication, and mutual respect. He would empower staff to do their job and make sure they know what is expected of them, what the goals are, and what they are trying to achieve. uestion 4. How do you feel redevelopment can best be achieved? Mr. Grace said redevelopment was a little different than standard economic development where you are trying to get a corporate relocation or something like that. He stated economic redevelopment often was where most of the puzzle has been put together, but you are missing a piece or two. He said you have to find something that fits into that and at times you may have to compromise what you would prefer to do in order to fill in that piece. He stated sometimes if may take putting in an improvement that ordinarily you might not consider doing. It may require. some modification of your code: in order to accommodate something coming into that piece of property. He.said you need to have flexibility and be innovative. Sometimes you are looking to take a pie;ce of property that was designed and laid out 20 or 3:0 years ago and trying to get someone to put a ~ modern business into there. He stated this was generally his approach; to ~ approach it from an innovative standpoint and be flexible. uestion 5. How do you describe your management style? Mr. Grace said there. were a lot of different management styles and a lot of different terminologies for them. He stated his, he would call inclusionary, or some might call it a consensus building style. Again, it is a team oriented style where he essentially views the Commission, himself, and staff as a team working toward the. same .goals. He said his style is open communication and stated they would probably communicate with him more than they have had experience in doing. He declared he did not like surprises and knows the Commssior does not like surprises. He believes in a lot of open commLm:ication and the Commission would know where he is coming from. He stated they would get recommendations and information from him on how to address the issues put in front of them. Basically an inclusive team oriented, open communication, mutual respect approach to local government. .uestion 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's .organization and identifying. opportunities for improvement? 1VIr. Grace said. initially he would have to rely on feedback. from the Commission and from ke<y staff. He would solicit their thoughts, certainly to identify areas that are critical or need attention immediately. He stated he would rely on staff and solicit input from staff on those things, as well as, perhaps business leaders and CC 03-16-09/136 others from the public. He said as he has time i:n the position, he would use his own observations, learn the people, the processes of the City, and basically ' determine what he thinks the strengths and weaknesses are. He would share that information with the Commission and make recommendations accordingly. uestion 7. What role/relationship should the County and State have in Longwood with regards to services? 1VIr. Grace said he thinks it should be a partner relationship that is guided by the policy of this Board. He stated there were opportunities, which he knows the City has taken advantage of in other areas, like partnering with the State on median maintenance and things like that. He said it ought to be a cooperative relationship. He stated he thinks the City ought to explore those and see if there, were beneficial situations possible. He said it largely needs to be a policy decision of this Board, based on what is in the best interest of the City. He stated he thinks there are potential cooperative relationships beyond what currently exists. They should be explored, but only pursued, ultimately, if it is a benefit to'the City. uestion 8. What techniques have you found to be most successful in assisting local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the community? Mr. Grace said he shared this with some of the Commissioners this morning in their individual discussions. He stated he has been through any number of goal setting processes,. strategic planning processes, and said there were a number of different terminologies for them. He said there 'was any number of different approaches to it. He has been through some that were very long, multi-year, organization wide,. sometimes management fads, and some that were effective, some that weren't. He stated he has reached the point where he thinks the most affective thing is a series of goal priority setting workshops by the Commission, and staff participating, to essentially lay out the issues, the programs, -and the major decisions coming down the pike. Discuss these opening with the Commission and get direction from the Commission regarding their priorities and goals. He said this should be done prior to the budget so that when the Administrator prepares the budget, he or she has that input from the Commission. He stated he also shared with some ofthem this morning that he believes if there is one document in City Hall that should be a re;flection of the Commissions' priorities, it is the budget. He would propose, if he were the Administrator, doing a series of those kinds of Work Sessions prior to the budget that, would allow him to prepare a budget that reflects those priorities, .:uestion 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the near future? i ~ 1Vlr. Grace said in the near future, he would say the financial situation that is going on and the recession. He stated the company he works with, works with a lot of cities around the State and there is a wide rangE; of impact out there. He said on the surface it doesn''t appear that Longwood's finances have been radically CC 03-16-09/137 affected. He stated there are others that have been very impacted and there were ~ some local governments that are facing default on bond issues. In general, small ' cities short-term, and how they deal with what we have already seen in tax reform and what the ongoing recession has done. He said the other shoe that may drop in tax reform; the Legislature was still debating some of those issues. Question 10. Why are you interested in the position? Mr. Grace said most of the Commissioners knew hi:m and know that he has had a fairly long history of working in local government in Central Florida. He has had 20 years of local government experience in the State of Florida, 17 years of that in management positions. He stated he has been working the last three years as a private consultant for local governments and has come to the conclusion that he is a local government manager and that is what he does best. He said this is what he knows and he thinks he is good at it. He also happens to love this community. He lives in Seminole County and does not want to leave. He has had opportunities to go elsewhere and has chosen not to. He stated he was interested in this position because. he thinks it is a good fit, not just for him, but for the City. He said he feels the City needs a good experienced manager and he can bring that. to the table. He knows the local issues and he knows the local people. He can lut the ground running and does not have to figure out who the players are. He stated he thinks he has the management style, the temperament, and the personality to fit in with the organization to hopefiilly help the City continue the path they have been on the last decade or so, which is improvement. He said the City has done a great ~ ~ job the last several years of improving facilities,.beautifying roads, and he hopes to be a part of continuing that trend. Ms. Mirus asked very briefly is there was .anything he would like to add or summarize. Mr. Grace said lastly, he thinks he has the skills, the experience, the knowledge, and the abilities to do this j ob and do it well. He would like the opportunity to do that and appreciates the opportunity they -have given him to interview for the j ob. He stated he would be interested in talking to them fitrther. 3. Ronald W. McLemore (3:00 p.m.) Commissioners Holt and Bundy left the meeting at 3:01 p:m. and returned at 3:03 p.m. Mayor Sackett. explained they had ten questions to go through over a half hour period of time. He said if there was any time remaiiung after those questions; they would leave time for him to have the opportunity to summarize. He stated Ms. Mirus would be the. Moderator and would be asking the questions. uestion 1.1VIs. Mirus advised there were two parts to Question 1.. ~J' Part 1. How would you deal with the current economic. difficulties that have or will have an adverse effect on the City? CC 03-16-09/138 ~ Mr: McLemore said you have to look at your. core operations and be ready to strip down to the very basic core of what is absolutely essential if they face the .situation where they do not have the resources to sustain the level of services they would like, or they would have to raise revenues. He stated there. were a lot of different ways to go at that and said these were the basic alternatives. He reiterated to understand and get an agreement on what is absolutely essential core services they have to perform and what are those they .are willing. to give up to some degree. Otherwise, they've got to raise additional money. Part 2. What would be your plan of action? Mr. McLemore inquired plan of action for what. He. asked to be given a little more information. Ms. Minis said in dealing with the. current economic difficulties that have or will have an adverse effect on the City. Mr. McLemore said he believed strongly in involving the department heads and people in an honest straight forward dialogue once you get clear direction from the Commission what their parameters are. He stated to allow them to be a part of the discussion iri developing some alternatives. Those alternatives should be brought back to the Commission so they are put in a decision making situation where they can make the best decisions they can, knowing what the consequences of each one of those decisions are. He said nothing is worse with employees in wondering what you are going to do and feeling outside of that process. .uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to tax credits for redevelopment and green development? Mr: McLemore said he thinks that tax credits arse fine if they are available and you 'can afford them. He stated this whole green thing was extremely important in conservation of energy. He said there was a lot of money out there right now-that they probably are not aware of, unless they have been really close to it, that he c~~uld spend some time talking to them about. He stated a lot can be done by cities with cities in this whole green effort. He said the other part of that, if he understands the question, is that we have to live with the reality that we may have. to do more to incentivize development. He affirmed he would be in support of that, understanding what the rate of return is. He stated if there was no rate of return, then people are just using your bank for their benefit and he was not sure that was a good decision for the City. uestion 3. Ms. Minis advised there were two parts to Question 3. ~ Part 1. How do you view the relationship between the Administrator and governing body? CC 03-16-09/139 , Mr. McLemore said the governing body he concludes to be the elected officials and that it needs to be a relationship of trust and one of respect. That cuts both ways, the manager toward the elected officials, and the elected officials toward the manager. He stated it was extremely important that you understand from your manager that you have his complete loyalty and dedication in helping you determine what your alternatives are in all situations and the consequences for those decisions and understanding and know that the manager is not playing one off the other. He does not play any games with you, being involved in your elections, and know that he is just strictly business. Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads and local government staff? Mr. McLemore said this was really the same question, just in a different direction. He stated your employees need to know that you respect them, that you appreciate the contribution they make, that you have put them in a position where they can make contributions. They are allowed to grow, allowed to make mistakes when they are doing their best and have a good thought process without punishment and retribution..They need to know that your door is open at all times for them to be able to communicate with you and that you are available. Also, that you as a manager are there to demand excellence, demand performance, and if you can't get it, then you have to deal with that. He reiterated it was a matter of trust and respect in both directions and making very clear what your core of values are and what your values are relative to work and performance. He said those that can't get on the boat, then the boat is going to leave without them. Question 4. How do you feel redevelopment can best be achieved? Mr. McLemore said redevelopment was very difficult. He stated. redeveloping land that is already developed requires a different set of tools in a different way. The biggest problem with redevelopment is the owner of the land and his willingness to give it up. He said if a property is valued in the market place of the eyes of the people who are doing the investment at $1 million an acre and the property owner demands $2 million an acre, you have a real problem in redevelopment. Secondly, he stated you need to be able to provide enough density of development that makes the project feasible frorri an economic development prospective. Thirdly, you need flexibility in your regulations to allow it to fit. He said as long as the quality is there, it takes a lot of working together to make it come about and assuming you've got land values that work in the economic formula. He reiterated that you need~flexibility of design, land at a reasonable price, and you need to be able to work with the developer to make it fit in what you have now. He stated the other piece of that is whether you are prepared through incentives or through gap financing to make that project work when it won't bank. He said this sounds easy, but it is not as easy as it looks. He stated , there are a lot of projects out there you can get into the gap with and they're just not creditable projects and a lot of your money is going down the tubes. He said you have to be very careful with that. Incentives, gap financing. when it's needed, CC 03-16-09/140 I density of development, regulations that are flexible, and that guy that owns the land. uestion 5. How do you describe your management style? Mr. McLemore said he would call his management style a participative style. He stated he likes for people to be involved in decision making. He likes for people to be contributors to the strategies and the way they are doing things and for everybody to feel like they are making a positive contribution. He said his requirement of department heads, for example, he rates them first on their willingness to cooperate and work with their fellow department heads. He stated if he rates them on that, this goes down the line. He stated he understands that nobody holds all of the knowledge these days; things are just too complex. He said you need the maximum contribution from all of the skills and abilities and savvy that people can bring to good decision making. That,, again, requires a participative style where people feel free to participate and want to participate and help each other out. He stated the day of the kingfish is .dead; you can't do anything on your own anymore. uestion 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's organization and identifying opportunities for improvement? ~ Mr. McLemore said the first thing he would dq is to sit dotivn and review the files ~ on each of the key people. He would then sit down with them and have discussions with them to begin to get an understanding of where his top two or three levels are. At that point in time, he would then need to make some decisions about if they are going to be able to deliver within the performance environment that he expects and the performance environment that this Commission sets for the next four or five years. He stated that once he understands what the Commission expects to happen over the next four or five years, then he knows the capacity of the organization that he needs. If he does not have that capacity, then he has to get it, or he is not going to satisfy the Commission's expectations. He said that is one of the first things he will do is determine what level of skill and knowledge ability he is going to have to have in the first couple of levels of this organization. Once that is taken care of, there is clear direction given, and everybody knows where we are headed, then h.e will hold that first level accountable for the rest of it. uestion 7. What role/relationship should the County and State have in Longwood with regards to services? Mr. McLemore said generically speaking, again, if yoti go back to this thing that we are so interconnected now at every level, we really have to have positive relationships up and down the ladder with all organizations that have an impact on ~ us, have some regulation over us, or something. to offer to us in resources. He stated that resource could be money, knowledge, or that resource could be a decision to make yes or no on a determination, or example by FDOT. He said it was really important that that entire network of people that can have an impact on CC 03-16-09/141 you, that. you have good relationships with them. He stated that does not mean you bend over,. it means you have a respectful relationship. You need to establish first that you are there to work with them and most of them will want to work with you. He said waiting for them to come down a~ld ask for you was not a good strategy. ,Question 8. What techniques have you found to be most successful in assisting. local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the community? Mr. McLemore said he strongly believes that you have to have an interaction with the community so that the elected officials of the comintmity and the community have a common expectation of where you are going. He. stated that is the starting point. He said he has seen elected officials in his, forty years going in opposite directions of the community over and over and. wonder what happens at election time. He stated the City needs to be in communication and setting an agenda, and every so often that agenda needs to be reset so that you have some common understanding. and some, common ground on where you are going. Once that is done, then the direction for everybody else. becomes clear. He said then all you need to agree on is how you. get there. That is the function of the disciplines and the professionals trying. to suggest to you .for this strategic plan of five years or ten years, these are the strategies we need to put in place and if you do or don't agree. If you don't agree, then you may need to change what your goals are, or we need to.look for another way to get it done. He stated going. off in ten different directions with ten different expectations on how to .get it done is a very destnietive course. He said this was hugely importa~.lt to try and get everybody on the same page with where you are trying to go :and how you are, trying to get there. He stated easy said, more difficult to do, but necessary. uestion 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the near future? Mr. McLemore said. number one, the economy, because of its unilateral impact, .not only from financial resources; but from peoples' attitudes. He stated he has never met so many depressed people in his life and said this economy was having a huge :impact on us emotionally, as well as financially. He said that has got to be the starting point of those things. He stated secondly, he does not think there is a .leadership in the State of Florida that has the interest of communities at heart. He said political systems have got to care about ot~r local communities. He stated it's got to be a cooperative thing up and down the ladder for us to be able to service our residents. He said everybody can get into their ideological stance, but ideology is no good when you get down to the pragmatic thing of getting things done. He stated he was fearful of where the leadership at the State level is going.. and what its impacts are going to be, particularly if we try to dig out.. He said while the values of homes are down dramatically; if more Hiles are put on us so they cannot come back to where, they should by virtue of a free marketplace, what ~ do you think we .are going to do? He stated when you can't have any other forms of revenue, and we are not going to let the free marketplace give you any back, CC 03-16-09/142 what do they expect us to do. He declared it was going to be very difficult in the days ahead, and unless we can get some better dialogue going on with the Legislature and with the Governor in terms, of realities of what it takes to deliver services. He. said because we were going in that police and fire corezeal soon. He stated he does not pull punches and he was very straight forward in the way he feels about things. He said he has been at it and doing this a long time and all of his answers to them will be straight forward and candid. He stated he will admit he is wrong sometimes. Question 10. Why are you interested in the position? Mr. McLemore said he was very fortunate and blessed to be sitting here. not because he has to. He stated he was not looking for a job. He has a formal offer to another City. He said he was here because he wants to stay here. He stated this is his home and he is deeply rooted in the communty and deeply rooted in his chluch, which is very important in his household.. He said what happens here everyday is important to him, no matter where it lies on the level of priority. He reiterated that this is his home and where. they plan to retire. He stated that being in Longwood for him is staying home and staying rooted in this community and continuing to practice his profession in a way that hopefully makes a great contribution to this community and this place where he wants to be. Ms. Mirus asked very briefly is here was anything he would like to add or summarize. Mr. McLemore said he was very earnest about being. here, because he wants to be here, and he was not here under the stress of not having. a job at this difficult time. He stated he has about eight more years left that, he plans to do this. He said he has forty years of experience that is probably wader and deeper than maybe 5% of the other City Managers in this country. He stated he does .not want to go quietly in the night; he wantsto go out with a splash. His splash for him, would be perfect to be in this community, in his home, where he is deeply rooted and be able to look back and say, "Look what we did in Longwood my last eight years of service." He said that is what he is all about here today. He did want to stress to them, he has the credentials, but he has something he thinks. is more important, and that is he has a proven record of understanding what his clients needs. are, - acting on those things and getting them done. He stated he wanted to give four or five examples. In Winter Springs, his clients said they want to be known for excellence and they want to be known nationwide as a great community and they did it. In Martin County, his charge was to balance the environmental interest with development interest. He gave all of the Commission a letter from the Development Council saying they moved a long way in that direction. In Collier County, his charge was to develop the organizations capacity to deliver services in the fastest growing economy and fastest growing community in the United States. He said to be able to service the environmental side of that interest, which was huge there, they took a capital improvement project that was five years behind and brought it up to date and had it done in two years. He stated in Biloxi it was to work with the. community and loosening organized crime's hold on that CC 03-16-09/143 community, and taking an organization that was totally incompetent and building its capacity. This was done in three years. He talked to them about this broken i economy and in Jessup, Georgia within four years he took it from a broken economy to strong and viable economy, so much so, that the European Organization of Community Developers came to their community to write and give other communities in Europe the example of how you do this. He said his commission in Dublin, Georgia was to save the City from bankniptcy and this was done in 18 months: He stated they had three demand orders from the State because they had a sewer plant that had never been turned on, a water plant that had never been turned on, and a landfill that didn't operate in accordance with State directive. He said within two years all bf these consent orders from the State had been taken care o£ He stated he knows how to get in, understand what the needs and desires are .and get them done. He said his commitment to the Commission was to accomplish their vision, once he understands clearly what it is, accomplish their priorities and lie understands those to be light rail, the hospital expansion,. and to try to revise the Publix Project. Heknows they have the Dog Track.issue, and if it can be done. to do it, and he knows what the opposition is. He stated, obviously; they want to continue the development and expansion of Reiter Park and Candyland Park. They want to be more business friendly and he will have a more business friendly development process and regulatory process and have better relations with other agencies.. He said this is what they have told him and all of these are things he has dealt with before and he is confident they can be accomplished. He stated the issue with the Dog Track, he is not sure how to deal_ with it, as he does not know where they are with it today, but again, he knows their opposition and that can be formidable. He declared he was willing to try if that is their direction to help mediate that situation. He said his commitment to them was to put them in a position of making inl:onned decisions and gives them alternatives to look at so they are not operating in a vacuum. He will treat all of them alike in terms of access. He reiterated he is straightforward and they do not need to worry about him playing those kinds of games. He demands excellence of our organization, and will represent. the City in a professional and positive way at all times and stay out of their politics. 4: Patrick. Miller (3:30p.m,) Commissioner Holt left the meeting at 3:28 p.m. and returned at 3:30 p.m. Mayor Sackett explained that Ms. Minis would be the-Moderator and would be asking ten pre-determined questions. He said depending on the time remaining, he will have time to do a summary. uestion 1. Ms: Minis advised there were two parts to Question 1. Part l . How would you deal. with the current economic difficulties that have or will have an adverse effect on the City? Mr. Miller asked for both parts of the question. CC 03-16-09/144 ~.I.-' Part 2. What would be your plan of action? ~ Mr. Miller said he would like to answer this. backwards. His plan of action would be to come in and see what has. happened here since 2006, which was the last time he was here. When he left,. the real estate market was peaking and people were getting very good prices for their homes and things seemed to be growing and going hard and fast. He stated they had worked on a couple of plans then, one being the train station and the other the Pie n' Save Town Center. Another was the Whitehead property down on County Road 427. He said there were some. plans for economic stimulation at that point. He stated times have changed now and he does not.know what is .going to happen with the State funds drying up. He said with the local governments having to be more o:n their own, a plan of action would be to come in, see what the Commission sees and what has been happening, then start putting. a plan of action together. He used an example he is in right now and said he is working for a private developer in property management. One of their properties is called City Walk where they have 150 to 200 units. Their standard unit is 1,000 square feet and slowly businesses are coming in. One of the businesses is The Green Business and he only needed half that size so they worked to see if someone might share the space with him. He stated he would come in and .see what has than€;ed over the last few years, make his own. assessment, talk to`staff, talk to the business community, if this is the direction of the Commission, and then he would form a plan and present it to the Commission. i i uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to tax credits for redevelopment and green development`? Mr. Miller said the short answer is that he does not know if we will have the ability to give. those kinds of credits to get that to happen. The biggest concern is being able to find the pot of money to give them. He stated when you can give some type of incentives, if it is within the allow ability and they are going to treat everybody equally, it is a good idea. He said yoti look for sustainability types of businesses. He stated he liked the idea of green .and felt it was important to watch our natural resources and take care of them. He said he has watched the quality of water in Florida go down and he thinks that means the natural.resourcesnre being. tapped pretty heavily. He stated we know Georgia has had a problem and they are fighting with us over water coming down into the Kissimmee basin: He said if you can find the money and it is not going to be too negative on the bottom line of getting things done in the' City, they should find. incentives for not only green, don't go overboard,., and weigh that. He stated developers lately have said it is too expensive to get the right incentive for them to put. some of the things in. However, they were successful in Flagler County with some of that. He would .like to see incentives if they can, but it has to be weighed. Questions 3.. Ms. Mirus advised there were two parts to Question. 3. Part 1. How do you.view the relationship between the Administrator and governing body? CC 03-16-09/145 Mr. Miller said he thinks it is an overused term sometimes, but he thinks it is a team effort. He stated each of them were individuals and each of them were a part of a Commission. He would be working with them to learn their desires and wants, the things they don't like .and do like. He said Commissioners have some of their own things they would like to see done, but he would work with each of them to work with their fellow Commissioners to see if they can do those things, weigh them, evaluate them, toss them around with staff and bring back to the Commission if it was a project they were looking at. He stated we were all here as the caretakers, including the staff; of the City and the need to do what the .residents want. He said they need to make sure the residents get, within reason, what they want. He stated he hoped they run a democracy so that everybody gets treated equally. His relationship with each of them would be a high communication level, learning what they want to get done and how to move it forward if'its in the interest of this City and the .goals and objectives. Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads and local government staff? Mr. Miller said to work hard together,.. because they were all in it together, same as with the. Commissioners. He stated he was a very open communicator; he has had good and bad things happen to him, and one thing he wants to build is tnist. He said he wants staff to feel they can trust him and he can trust them. He .stated he would let staff work with the Commissioners and said they all know the limits and knows what they can or cannot do under the Charter. He said the idea is to open up comrriunication because they may have seen or heard of something that needs to be done. He stated this was atwo-way street, when he is out working with the commuuuty and his peers; and he wants staff to work with their peers and get to know what is going on. He always said he likes to be on the leading edge,. but not the bleeding edge. He said the dea.s to work with the staff and let them do their jobs. uestion 4. How do you feel redevelopment can best be~achieved? Mr. Miller said the government incentive packages and things were in such turmoil right now economically, that he actually thinks redevelopment is going to be the way to go. He stated he thinks we will. see people more concentrating into more centralized areas. He said people are not going to want to travel as much and were going to try to be more home centered. He stated he thinks this will help redevelopment. He said the same thing they did,when he was here, they talked about this was Longwood, your town, your city, and your municipality, a place where we want you to work, enjoy, and live. He stated all you can do is provide the opportunity and redevelopment can happen that way. He said he thinks the sprawl has played itself out for a while and they will slowly see redevelopment happen. If they provide the incentive for redevelopment and show them. the City will stand by them as a business and for the business community, he was all for ~ redevelopment and getting it going. He said by not putting too many things in the CC 03-16-09/146 way, but keeping the sincerity of the system or l':ustorical value of the buildings in I tact. - uestian 5. How do you describe your management style? Mr. Miller responded participatory management. He believes. you have to allow everyone, to a certain degree, show you: some o:F the things they can get done. He said it has to work both ways, up the ladder and down the ladder and let people do their jobs. He stated if they feel they are not valuable and you can't show them their value, you are not going to get what you want out of them and they are not getting what they want out of themselves. He said to make it a place where people know we've got a job to get done, but enjoy trying to get it done and make it a challenging place. However, they shouldn't be afraid to make a mistake. He said his style was open communication. Question 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's organization and identifying opportunities for improvement? Mr. Miller said he would go in and meet. with all of the departments and divisions, mostly department heads first. He would then start looking at what they're doing and what they were expected to do. He stated what he might find out in meeting with the Commission what was expected of there and if they received that. message. He said if you don't let them know how you want to get things done or have them involved in designing a way to get things done, then they don't know. He stated you have to be able to communicate. The idea is to come in and see what they can do, what they have done and set u.p their system to function in. He said they have done a good job in a lot of cases and when he was here he never felt he lacked direction from anyone. He stated to let the solutions came forward and show the department heads that they can do it and set up a process they feel comfortable with. He said as long as they know where they are going, they can accomplish it, and if they cannot, you might work with them to go somewhere else. uestion 7. What role/relationship should the County and State have in Longwood with regaxds to services? Mr. Miller said he was starting to fear we are going to be on our own, but again, it comes down to communication and whether the Commissioners want to appoint a Commissioner to interface with the County or have staff. He stated when he was working here, he was having some problems with St. Johns Water Management District and went to one of the managers there and he told him to find a way to get this done at a different level and go over his head. He said he did this and they got it resolved. He stated it was important to start learning and working with others. He said it will.. be the Commission's decision of what level and intensity they will want. them to interface. He would recommend letting staff interface at their level, but it would be their decision if they want the Administrator to interface with the County Commissioners on their behalf. CC 03-16-09/147 Commissioner Durso said the question isn't so much about the interaction of staff with the County. He stated he thinks it has a lot more to do with what we expect the County to do and what we expect to do on our own without County influence. Mr. Miller said there were certain State rules and certain County aspects that were there and you have to play within those rules. He stated this is Home Rule and it was aself-determining body here under Florida Statute. So, the City would set up how they want to interact with the. County and how much the City would want their interface in your systems. He said it was the same with the State and usually we were looking for them to help us out in some way. He used an example here of going to the County on a roadway where they were not going to give us grant fields. They were told we understood it was not in a contract, but there was a good faith gesture and we ended up getting those funds. 13e said the Commission, as representatives of the citizens, was going to determine what they want for the City and said we were here to take care of the City and build it in the best interest of the citizens. He stated the whole idea is that we set the tone for what we want for the City and try to get the County and State to help us do our j obs. uestion 8. What techniques have you found to be most successful in assisting local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the community? Mr. Miller said by holding good meetings and having goal meetings. He stated some places he has worked they set them so they hold them semi-annually and get some reports back on where you are going and what you are doing. He feels, if he becomes the Administrator, that sometimes it is just simply sitting there and stating you set this goal for us and I will send you a report soon, or I need to talk with you as it doesn't look like it is going to happen or it is going to happen. He said the best plan was a.five year plan they had in Palm Springs on roads. It was a moving plan so that when you completed a road, another road came in at the bottom. At times, they had to readjust the alignment because of how the netiv road interfaced with existing roads. He reiterated having the open meetings and have your staff bring back as much information from the State and County or meetings with Chambers of Commerce. Collate this information into something you can present for review with pros and cons and recommendations. The technique is to keep communication open and have goal meetings both for long and short range and understand they are going to change. uestion 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the near firture? Mr. Miller responded money, and said it has always been the challenge. He stated they keep saying we haven't seen anything yet, that we may be looking at 2010 before we start turning the corner. He said the other is keeping the communication open on how the money is spent and why eve are going to do what we are going to do. He stated the biggest challenge right now is how we are going to get it done in ` J the economy, keep the level of service as high as we can for the amount of money we will have available to us. He said there were some cities that have had to say CC 03-16-09/148 they were sorry, but cannot provide this service anymore at this level. He said ~ Longwood has had a .good financial status for a long time and we may hit a ~ slowdown period and reassessment of where we're going and how we're going to get there, but the financial plan has to be put in order, because he doesn't think Tallahassee is going to share a whole lot of it anymore. Question 10. Why are you interested in the position? Mr. Miler said when he came here and Mr: Drago brought him here, it was on an interim basis. He went to Mr. Drago not too long after being here and said it was a nice place. He stated we have some .good things going on and he likes the concept of not having zoning, but. having strong standards and trying that method of development standards without zoning. He first wondered how it would work, but he learned. and it was .great. He said he saw the standard setting a certain style of what we want to look like. He stated this was one of the things that attracted him to Longwood. He said he was taken away because he saw money. and a different opportunity in the public realm, then the economy hit that business and he went to Flagler County.. He stated he wanted to come here because there is something about Longwood and the future. He -said they have come a long way and brought Longwood around from being negative to a good place and he would like to be part of that. Ms. Mirus asked very briefly is there. was. anything he would like to add or ~ summarize. Mr. 1Vliller said he knows they have seen him as a Department Head. Sometimes when you view a person as a Department Head, you don't see the leadership that they can bring to the table. He stated he can assure them that he was 13 years in a municipality of around 10,000 people. They hael a utility system that was two times the size of their City and he was there because he did the job needed to help grow the City to where they wanted to be. He said they have done some tremendous things since he left. He .stated he received a compliment from the City Manager there who told him he had utilized the utility system to the best interest of the City''s to make it so they could get annexation and have new things happening. When he went there it was going down and he worked with developers and Commissioners and they had one of the first Home Depot's in South Florida. He said the Home Depot acted like what he thinks the train station will here, as a catalyst or the keystone in the new architecture here. He stated he knows he can provide strong leadership. He said he won't do everything right and there will be times they will be upset with him, but he will tell them he will work through it with each of them and they can make a good job with this Commission. He will work hard with the staff to try to bring forward what this community wants from an administrative level through the Commission. He stated he will ' work both ways, up and down, to provide for this community and a stable commumity. He said that would be a goal for him, to see if we can provide a good stable community, a good balance, and a place where you like to be. He stated he liked being here. He lived here when he worked. here, and it was a good place to be. He said he would like to show the Commission his leadership quality. He CC 03-16-09/149 stated it is hard to see it when he is not there doing the job for you, but he thinks he did a good job and they had a good young. team in Planning. He promised them ~ he would be a good, strong team player/leader for them and this community. The Commission recessed at 3:59 p.m. and reconvened at 4:06 p.m. 5. Katrina Powell (4:00 p.m.) Mayor Sackett explained the process would be that Ms. Mires would ask ten questions and at the- end, if there was time remaining, she will be able to summarize and take that time for a closing statement. Ms. Powell inquired if she would be able to ask questions as well. Mayor Sackett said there doesn't seem to be, and he would. prefer to get her through the-ten questions. He stated she could phrase her questions in her summary. Otherwise, the time goes right up to about a five minute summary. uestion 1. Ms. Mires advised there were two parts to Question 1. Part 1. How would you deal with the current economic difficulties that.have or will have an adverse effect on the City? Ms. Powell said they will need to look at everything, all the. processes, and current ~ practices in place. She stated they will need to look at this and see where they will need to work to tighten that up and be a little more accountable. She said the first things they will look at is this year's budget coming up and be able to make some changes there and make. some cuts that should help in the long run, Part 2. What would be your plan of action? Ms. Powell said she covered that previously. She would get with all of the Departments as a whole and.look at everything going on. She stated it is important to look at what they are doing. She said she can't make changes to something that she doesn't know about. uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to tax credits for redevelopment. and green development? Ms. Powell said sometimes it is appropriate to give tax credits for redevelopment because people need to have some sort of incentive to want to come in and take an area, redo it and make it look better: She stated green development; certainly, she. would go that if it were beneficial for everyone. Sh.e said she was in support of both of those. uestion 3: Ms. Mires advised there were two parts to Question 3. CC 03-16-09/150 Part 1. How do you view the relationship between the Administrator and governing body? Ms. Powell said she viewed it as a partnership. She. stated they were here working as a team to get things accomplished for the: citizens. She said if they have a team and a partnership, but stated they would not always agree on everything and were not supposed to. However, they can come to a general consensus and hopefully move forward. Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads and local government staff? Ms. Powell said it was the .same concept. We are all here working for the citizens of Longwood and we are a team that has to work together. She stated it was very important that we make things work. Like she said, they are not always going to .agree with everything the department heads say or the departments, but at least she will listen and take it into consideration and make decisions based on that. uestion 4. How do you feel redevelopment can best be achieved? Ms. Powell said redevelopment can best be achieved by bringing interested parties together, as well as the Commission and figuring out the course of action. ~ How do we want an area to look, and what we need to do to make that happen? She stated we were already in the process of doing something like that with the different areas that have been set aside for redevelopment. She said that first and foremost we've .got to have ~a vision and she thirLks we have that. She stated we then just have to make it happen. uestion 5. How do you describe your management. style? 1VIs. Powell said she would say there are three types of management styles; participative,.. authoritative, and delegative. She stated at some point you apply all three of those at any given time. She prefers the participative side of it, working together, but at the same time you have to have that authoritative. side if you have to be hard. or make tough decisions. She said the delegative side is something she will need to learn how to do because she has never had a big staff she could delegate things to. She stated there are things that have to be delegated. She is certainly not an engineer and would have to delegate that. type. of work. uestian 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's organization and identifying opportunities for improvement? Ms. Powell said 'she would actually plan on visiting each department for a couple ~ of days or a week, or however long, it would take for her to look at the processes, look at what they do, and make assessments from that. She stated she cannot make decisions on hearsay and if she does not know what they are doing and what is going on, she certainly can't. make good decisions. She said she would like to vzsit each department and evaluate them. CC 03-16-09/151 uestion 7. What role/relationship should the County and State have in Longwood with regards to services? ~ e-~ Ms. Powell said in this age and time they all have to work together. She stated at times they will need each other more so than they have previously. She said with some things they are not able to stand on their own, and it is very important they forge partnerships with the County, State, and. Federal. agencies to help us get things done. She stated things would go a much smoother route if they do that. Question 8. What techniques have you found to be most successful in assisting local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the community? Ms. Powell said she has had two different instances. For one they brought in a mediator that came in and sat down with the Commission, staff, and City Manager bringing everybody together to talk about their goals, visions, and accomplishments. She also has had the. opportunity to work directly with the . Commission, department heads, and staff to have a goal setting session. 'She declared both worked really well. She stated she could not say one worked better than the-other as they were both successful projects. uestion 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the near`future? ~ ~i I lVls: Powell responded money, money, money. She said she thinks finances are ~ certainly going to be an issue and. working. with other agencies to get things accomplished is going to be important. Certainly, here in Longwood it is going to be redevelopment because we are primarily built out and need to start looking at infill and moving forward with redevelopment. She stated she thinks those are going to be the major concerns and how to pay for services and provide those services. Question 10. Why are you interested in the position? Ms. Powell said it is a great town and this was a great position. She stated she looks to it as a challenge and she thrives on being challenged. She said she has had the opportunity to work here for the last month or.so with staff and the. Commission and she sees it as an opportunity to work together to move forward. She declared she would really :enjoy it. Ms. Minis asked very briefly is there was anything she would like to add or summarize. Ms. Powell inquired how much time she had left. Mayor Sackett said Ms. Minis was in charge of the clock, but he would say 10 to 15 minutes. CC 03-16-09/152 Ms. Powell. inquired what they would consider the first priority for the City Administrator besides hiring for the current vacant positions. Mayor Sackett said this was new for them and asked the City Clerk, as Moderator, to give them direction. Ms. Mirus said her concern was whether the Commission desires to open it up for question and answer. She stated they did not offer that to the. other candidates. Mayor Sackett said his understanding, was, and he was seeing a headshake by the Personnel Manager, that by doing the questioning, they have to be fair that they did questions to every candidate in a similar approach. He stated that is why they did this ten question format. Unfortunately, he said he was afraid they may be locked into doing something that would not be fair to all candidates. He inquired if his understanding of that was correct. Ms. Mii-us responded in the affirmative. Mayor Sackett said if she could craft her questions into a summary, they would be fine with that. He suggested she formulate her talk around her questions and state where she would stand on each question. He stated he vas afraid of the fairness for all. , . Ms. Powell said she understands and has never been in that situation before. She stated in closing she would like to thank the Commission for the opportunity to interview for this position. She said that contrary to some peoples' beliefs, she has the ability to make tough decisions and will not hesitate to do so. She prefers to handle things diplomatically and professionally„ She is fair and believes in working together to get things done. She stated she did not get this far in her civilian career or her military career by not making tough decisions or going against the grain sometimes. She said Longwood was a good town and a great location and together they can make it exceptional on every level. She stated she looks forward to work with each and every one of them, if they decide that she is their choice as City Administrator. She said she knows we have a lot to do moving forward. They have Public Works; the Dog Track, the Church redevelopment, the outsourcing, of City services and looking into that whole area. She stated there. is now a vacancy in Community Services. and now i the time to look at that Department and decide whether there are things that need to be revamped and re-discussed there. She said the biggest thing .here is the Pic N' Save redevelopment with Publix, Wal-Mart, or someone- coming, in to .fill that building. She stated that State Road 434 was a huge priority for us. It is a major roadway through the center oftown and they need to look at that and how Longwood is perceived when people. drive through on 43'4. Do they even know ~ they are in Longwood? She said those were things she thinks need to be addressed for us and in quick order. She stated she was not ableto word her closing statement with her questions because they are specific to the Commission and guidance she would need as a City Administrator. She affirmed that typically CC 03-16-D9/153 asking questions is the. way you find out answers and she really wanted to know what the Commission was expecting out of a City Administrator. ~ Ms. Mirus said that was the end of her interview. However, she does have some time left. Commissioner Holt left the meeting at 4:22 p.m. and returned at 4:28 p.m. Commissioner Bundy left the meeting at 4:22 p.rri. and returned at 4;29 p.m. Commissioner Durso left the meeting at 4:22. p.m. and returned at 4:24 p.m. 6. Charles C. Saddler, III (4:30 p.m.) Mayor Sackett explained the process was fora 30 minute period of time. Ms. Minis would serve as the Moderator and ask the questions. He said if there was time remaining, and there has been around fve minutes remaining for him to summarize a closing statement. uestion 1. Ms. Mirus advised there.were two parts to Question 1. Part 1. How would you deal with the current economic difficulties that have or will have an adverse effect on the City? Mr. Saddler responded cautiously. He said at this moment in time he cannot tell what the economic circumstances are. for Longwood. He can tell them one of the first things they will be doing is a great deal of research and looking into what we can best project at this time. Particularly dealing with some ofthe hard raw data they would be able to get from some. of the various constitutional. officers in County government. He stated the real issue they need to recognize, and that the Administrator needs to work with the elected governing body to recognize, is that we are probably in for many years of economic change. He said we will be looking at some fundamental changes in the way we finance government. He :stated this has been done by the voters and the Legislature, and it is not going to be undone. The recession or the depression is just going to exacerbate the situation even more. He said he thinks it is very important for us to understand what service we are going to be providngto our citizens,, where are we going to put our resources, and come to a consensus of where we need to set priorities for funding and work from that: He stated this was not going to be a quick fix. He said he has had the fortune of working in local government through several of these economic downturns. He said he started in one during the 1970's and went through one in the 1980's and now we are goingthrough one again. They don't turn. around quickly. He stated, in fact, in government it winds up being ,far more sluggish than it is in the private sector; so we could well be looking at this for many years to come. He said the importance is for there to be a strong .dialogue between the administration and the elected officials, the elected officials and the public to let them know there are fundamental changes ahead. He stated we are ~ going to have to make choices and decisions and the Commission will have to CG 03-16-09/154 work with him. and the community in creating a dialogue to figure outwhere we want to put our emphasis, where we want to put their money,. and what kind of services they want in return.. He reiterated it was not going to be a quick fix. Part 2. What would be your plan of action? NLr. Saddler said he kind of gave this to them in his prior answer. He stated it goes back to communication, studying what we have, what we can best project, looking at the various different scenarios and what the options are that are available to us, presenting them to the Commission and encouraging the Commission to give feedback to him and staff, but to also open up that community dialogue. He declared things were going to be different and they have to be. He said the. Legislature'has ,gone to great extent to change the way local government is funded and we need to recognize; and communicate that to the public. Then when you couple the .economic downturn, it is going to be difficult. uestion 2. What is your economic policy stance with regard to tax credits for redevelopment and green development? 1V1r. Saddler said he did not know that he had one, other than he is very nervous about them..He stated he .guessed redevelopment and green development is all pretty rnuch the same thing. He said we have boiled down to what is the firture ~ vision ghat we want to create for this community and what are we collectively willing to put toward that. Whether it is investment of current fiords or tax. rebates, or other types of incentive programs, again, he :has to look to the leadership and the dialogue they have had with the community to try and set the sidebars of what is negotiable and what isn't. He asked what the tolerance level is for the community and the elected leadership. He stated the unfortunate thing is that sometimes these projects become so emotional at the time yoi~ have one of them before you, that it can wind up taking on a .life. cif its own. Ideally, we would have the opportunity to try to have this discussion anal set these parameters when they don't have a prof ect breathing down their neck and they can deal with. it coldly, dispassionately and set the sidebar so that when they do have the: opportunity, that marketing moment, when they have that agenda that has been built for us so that we can bring these things to bear, we will know what will work with the community and can move forward. Question 3. Ms. Mirus advised there were two parts, to Question 3. Part 1. How do you view the relationship between the Administrator and governing body? Mr. Saddler said the Administrator in many respects was your conduit. He stated neither one of you individually has. the .authority or ability to make things happen. ~ He said collectively, working through the Administrator, he was their conduit to the hands and the minds of the staff to try to make the change become the reality that they envision. He stated he was also a conduit to carry information about the organization, its needs, its particular vision, if you will, the view of the world and CC 03-16-09/155 the community back to them so that they can factor this into the policy choices and decisions that they make. He said, in many respects, he is the person that ~ facilitates, translates, whatever you want to call it, the collective will of the governing body into actions and policy that is implemented on the ground by the staff. He stated very little of what is done will be done with his hands, it~will be done by the hands of the staff and his job is to provide the leadership and the direction to make your choices, your desires, your policy initiatives become a reality. Part 2. How do you view your relationship with department heads. and local government staff? Mr. Saddler responded by saying leadership. He said he sets the tone and sets the standard. He winds up being the one who coaches, mentors, guides, cajoles, tap dances on the desk, or whatever it takes to wind up .getting the type of outcome that he needs from those department heads; and those staff members. He stated he would communicate to them the expectation, make sure there is no misunderstanding about what is to be done, and make. sure that they have, to the greatest extent possible, all of the tools and resources for them to do the job. If they don't have the. tools and resources, they work together to find a way to do it without those tools or resources, but they still do it. He said if changes need to be made, he will try to help the, individual either grow into the position, or find a position that better suits them, but it is his job to make sure the job gets done. j uestion 4. How do you feel redevelopment. can best be achieved? Mr. Saddler said probably the best thing and what everybody needs to remember about redevelopment, is that it is going to be costly and everyone involved must win. He stated they need to be sure that they put aside. old, past thoughts about issues, that they put aside any notion of coming out ahead. It requires everyone to be in a situation where you have awin-win-win. He said with redevelopment the stakes. are. higher that development on raw, virgin ground. He stated it is more expensive; there are more unknowns,. there are more things that can go wrong,. so you need to make sure that you have a partnership where tnily all can flourish, where no one gets the better end of the deal. He said you need to set aside personalities and certain types of differences that you may have on that regard and realize that the issues are going to be difficult enough. You need to make sure everyone is playing on the same level of playing field and that we all are partners, we share the risk equally, and we share the rewards equally. uestion 5. How do you describe your management style? Mr. Saddler said it was participatory. As he stated, he sees himself as being the coach, the .mentor, working with the professional ,staff, and with the staff to accomplish the best that they can. He also knows this about himself,. he deplores a , leadership void. He said if a department is not doing as it needs to be, he is very . quick to step in and take. the type of action he thinks are necessary. He tnily does cherish diversity and believes that having, a lot of folks trying to tear down an idea CC 03-16-09/156 ~ before they trot it out to the elected leadership of the public will make it a much stronger idea, and from that they build to make it even better after getting the involvement of all concerned.. He does not believe in being a dictator. However, he will be quick at times to remind the staff he will be asking for their input, but as the person who will be held accountable to the elected leadership he reserves the rigl`it to make the, final decision and he will also be the one who suffers the consequences. He said he wants the best possible advice he can get at all times from his professional staff and he will do everything. he canto encourage that. uestion 6. How will you go about assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our City's organization and identifying opportunities for improvement? Mr. Saddler said he did not know that it was a systematically approach that he can explain to them. He stated he would probably be spending a lot of tune sitting back, watching, observing, and listening. He said he has been in this business a ntunber of years and he is a very quick study. He stated he knows enough to know when he is hearing the truth and he knows enough to know when he was attempted to be bamboozled. He said he has had a very broad spectrum of experiences, literally from. coast to coast in this country. He has seen a lot of different ways to try to accomplish the. same. task. He stated he was also good at thinking outside the box himself. He said the first thing he would do is probably spend a lot of time with the various different members of staff, with the elected officials, seeing the lay of the land, and just observing. He stated he did not want ~ to come in and go off half-cocked, but seeing what's going on, and listening to what's being said he will learn an awful lot and will be in a better position to tnily judge in the whole. He doesn't take with a grain of salt what other folks may have said or what their experience may have been under previous administrations. He declared he does not know what. their marching orders may have been. He said he will be looking to see how people perform for him and how well they meet his expectations and how they are able to move forward together. uestion 7. What. role/relationship should the County and State have 'in Longwood with regards to services? Mr. Saddler said the State''s role traditionally has been far more better defined in providing a provision of various different services and he won't belabor that too much.. He stated the relationship between cities and counties,. however, in the State vary enormously. He said, in .fact, he .fears in many times there is an adversarial relationship between cities and counties that need not exist. He advised he has been both a City Manager and a County Administrator. He has worked in large and small organizations and said, believe you me, we all fiinction much better'if we can put aside some of our differences and work. toward common goods; share resources, forget past transgressions that may have happened 10, 20, or 30 years ago. He stated those really don't amount to anything and what they need to be looking at is what we can do together today and in the future. He said it ' can be very difficult. Having been working in counties and cities, the professional bureaucracy can have a very long memory and sometimes that is the biggest obstacle to overcome, far and away much bigger than elected officials. He stated CC 03-16-09/157 it takes a lot of building and cultivating of relationshps, interpersonal relationships, administrator to administrator, elected to elected, to try to break ~ down barriers and look for opportunities that we can partner. He said, as they can see from his resume, he has done a lot of that, everything from contracting with the Commonwealth of Virginia to maintain his streets when he was in Cape Charles, Virginia, to bringing together seven Fire Districts, a City, a County, a Port Authority, and the Sheriffs Department to deal with a merged consolidated communication system. He stated they have to constantly be looking at ways to provide high quality services at the lowest possible cost to our citizens, and many of these are transparent. He said radio communications was a good example. He stated many communities have gone through gut wrenching issues with regard to solid waste. Again, it is not so much the lobo ~on the side. of the truck; it is the quality of service. He said these were things they need to explore and not let boundaries separate us, simply because one is City and one is County. He stated it is very unique and they often talk about it at a professional level; the same folks that elect County Commissioners that elect City Commissioners, but yet we have a different constituency. He said we need to find ways to bridge those differences and find ways that make sense for both of us, and there are many opportunities out there. uestion 8. What techniques have you found to be most successfiil in assisting local government officials establish and implement long and short range goals for the community? Mr. Saddler said the techniques he has used, to a very great extent, have varied from Commission to Commission or from governing body to governing body. He stated during that time period, if he is here, that he will be observing, one of the things he will be observing is you. He said that he needs to understand the group dynamic, how you work as a group, how you collectively address issues, and from that try to determine how he can best assist in creating or fostering a long term vision, strategic plans, strategic visioning, whatever they may want to call it. He stated he knows that some work on this has already been done, but it also needs to be kept current and needs to be constantly being revised and anytime there is a change of so much as one individual on the elected body, it winds up changing that group dynamic. He said also it has to be kept current with what's happening with your public and the economic times you are in. He stated he was not sure that any of us right now are able to judge what the psychological impact of these economic times are having on our long term visions that cities and counties have, but it probably will have some, simply because the public is scared right now. He .said he thinks we are all very scared and nervous about what's on the horizon, because this is not exactly like any recession that is iri our current memory. He stated he thinks a lot of what we are going to have to do is work with our community to understand when times are harder they still have the same priorities of where they want their sources and their resources expended for the community. He said they probably do, but we owe it to them to at least check in. He stated he thinks it's time for some good citizen dialogue on some of these issues. He said they naturally occur usually whenever you start talking. about having to make financial changes, because it seems no matter what it is, every line item in the CC 03-16-09/158 ~ budget has some constituency some place that thinks it is a pet project and can't be touched. He stated one of the things he would be interested in doing is getting ' some feedback from the community about where their priorities are. He said they may have already done some work about this that he is just not aware of, but it is very surprising to him,..the public sentiment when you wind up taking the effort to go out there and mine, dig it up, and get it is often far-far different than what you hear at a public hearing... uesfion 9. What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges for small cities in the .near future? Mr. Saddler responded by aging State Legislature. He said for many years he has often wondered if they weren't trying to put all. small cities .out of business and just have everything counties.. He stated he really truly believes. that one of the biggest problems that small cities have is the fact that many of our elected leaders in Tallahassee don't realize how they have handcuffed us. He said the, rules that they have made because they either don't understand or they don't care; they wind up using it for political sound bites to turn them against us. He stated they talk about spending like drunken sailors; well, 99.44% of everything sitting in your General Fund and in your Trust Funds is there because it has to be there by State Law that tells you how you're going to spend it, where you're .going to spend it, and how you can't touch it for this project or that project, and only for this one. Yet, they take that large account balance andhold it against you and use it for justification for taking other draconian measures. He said he tnily does believe that we have miserably failed as local governments to educate our elected leadersYiip in Tallahassee as to what its like to be a local government official and to deal with the constraints that they have given us. Question 10. Why are you interested in the position? He said he very much likes City Management/County Administration and he has been doing it all of lus life. He stated there must be some sort of genetic flaw in him that keeps drawing him backto this. He said it started out as a desire to help people and he learned pretty quickly that .you ca:n do a lot more help dealing on a larger scale with a city organization rather than trying to do one particular single act at a time. He stated he enjoys the technical aspects; the mechanics of it, and he feels comfortable operating in that environment. He said he also. feels comfortable in trying to juggle those running chainsaws of personalities of elected officials, personality of department heads, and the public ~to try and navigate a successful outcome to the issues that face us. He .stated those issues kind of take on a different life everyday and you never really quite know from one moment to the next what is going to be the crisis de jour. He found, since he has a short attention. span, a crisis de jour keeps him occupied. and he enjoys it. He said, don't get him i wrong, there are days he goes home frustrated just Pike everybody else does and wonders why in the devil he is in this line of work and he questions that for a while, but he still gets up and goes back to work the next day enjoying it. He stated whether or not Longwood is the right fit for him, he does not know yet. He said much like they were interviewing. him, he is learning about them. He stated CC 03-16-09/159 he thinks there is a lot of opportunity here and he thinks that his experiences in other parts of the country and the State of Florida would be a value to him here ~..0 and hopefully to them as well. He said he thinks he has something to offer and he hopes it is the sort of thing that they both can explore further. Ms. Mirus asked very briefly is there was anything he would like to add or summarize. Mr. Saddler said they have all seen his resume and probably everyone they have talked to today can technically do the work. He stated it is now going to be a matter of who's going to be the right fit for your community. He invited them to talk to the folks of the communities he has been in. He said he has been one of those folks that have become seasoned over the years, his ambitions have changed, and he no longer wants to be the City Manager of the largest City in the Nation. He now just wants to wind up in a place where he can be proud of the work he does and the commtuuty he serves and the elected officials he serves. He stated it means a great deal to him to be able to be proud of the community and the elected officials that he serves. He wants to work where he can have the opportunity to build high quality service. He does not want to put together something that is slapped together with bailing wire and bond-o. He wants to be able to point with pride and for the people in the city he is serving to point with pride and say we have the best. As he had stated, he has cut back management several times before in his career and finds it very disheartening to do what he calls the slice of the thousand cuts, because all you wind up doing is making every .4,/ i customer dissatisfied. He would prefer that the Commission and he share the same philosophy to pick what is important and do it very well. If there is something they do not have the money to do very well or the inclination to do very well; then let us find .someone either in another sector of government or the private sector who will do it for our citizens. He said if they were looking for somebody to spread the pain around, then he may not be the right person. He has reached a certain point in his career where he wants to be able to take pride in that which he does and the elected officials that he serves. Ms. Mirus inquired if the Commission would like to recess for a few minutes to allow Ms. Jackson to add up the scores. The Commission recessed at 4:55 p.m. and reconvened at 5:07 p.m. 3. SELECTION OF THE TOP 3 CANDIDATES FOR THE POSITION OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR. Ms. Minis reported the scoring of candidates as follows: 1. J. Kevin Grace 2. Charles C. Saddler, III 3. Ronald W. McLemore 4. Katrina Powell 5. Donald D. Crawford CC 03-16-09/160 6. Patrick Miller ' Mayor Sackett said that being. the case, their scenario was that they were going to call the top three candidates back next Monday, March 23, "2009 beginning at 3:00 p.m. Ms. Minus said the earliest some could begin the one-on-one interviews was at 3:30 p.m. She stated they were going to ask Carnmissioners Durso, Holt, and Bundy if they could start at 3:00 p.m. and they would rotate. Mayor Sackett said he knows it sounded like a good idea when.they formulated that, but his gut feeling was that he met the candidates for half an hour in one building and just spent another half hour with them over here. He inquired why they said they wanted another half hour spot "Round Robin". Deputy Mayor Maingot said they ought to have something determined within their mind as far as what financial package they are looking at. He stated in terms of the score of one, two, and three could, in actual fact, be the process that will give. an automatic elimination. He said they have spoken in terms of changes they want to see with any new contract. He stated the contract they would like to present could very well be unacceptable. He said they had discussed something in terms of giving their input to the City Attorney and they were going to draft ~ something for them to see before their final go ,around. Ms. Minus said she would let the. Commission know that today she. had asked the Clerks from Seminole County to provide her with their City Administrator/City Manager's contracts and they have forward those to her. She needs to gather these. for the Commission's review. 'Mayor Sackett said they would not have somethng submitted tonight by the Attorney. ' NIs. Minus said she could not speak. on her behalf. Mayor Sackett said more than likely, probably not since Ms: Minus has more . information to add to it. Deputy Mayor Maingot said is it that. they will determine who is going. to present the contract. Ms. Minus said the Commission had talked about at 7:00 p.m. that same day speaking in terms of the contract. Commissioner Durso said he thought. the City ~?ttorney was going to take what they agreed on and present that to the candidate and/or candidates.. Mayor Sackett. said when they go from six to three; he was not sure if that means Mr. Grace is it, when they had a group of six. He stated now they do have a group CC 03-16-09/161 of three and they could probably redo the survey and they would have a different arrangement. ~ Commissioner Bundy said they need to remember it is going to take three votes to extend the contract to anyone. He stated the rankings were an indication of where they feel about them, but that does not mean the highest candidate will have three votes to get the contract. He declared with an arbitrary scoring system, it does not mean they are going to fit personality wise. Mayor Sackett said what this did was farm out the top three candidates and now they have to work with that number. He inquired what their understanding was about a contract from the Attorney. Commissioner Bundy said that actually they don't have to work with that. He stated they can do whatever they want to do in that respect. Ms. Mirus said what she had gathered was the City Attorney was to research the stipulations of the contract and whether or not it was required to offer the City Administrator position a six month severance package. She had requested the contracts being offered in Seminole County on her own for the Commission's information. Commissioner Bundy said the six month severance package vas not what made it so expensive. He stated it was the buy out of all the accumulated leave time and ~ ' everything else. He said the prior Administrator drew up the contract and presented it to the. Commission at that time. Ms. Jackson said he was able to accnie his vacation and the rest of them had a cap. Deputy Mayor Maingot said there were a number of issues that were peculiar to them and what they want to see there, regardless of who is the final selection. He stated if that is what is acceptable and they are dealing with what they agree on. He said they are now responsible for making that selection and wants to make sure they don't make the same mistakes that have been made previously. He inquired how they were going to get there. Commissioner Bundy said that was why the process they used to get down from the twelve candidates to six was better than this process. He stated they had input on that as individuals and those who had enough support of the Commissioners made the six candidates. He said he didn't intend to vote for any of the three candidates that had the rankings. He stated they were not his first choice for who he feels is the best fit for the City. He said an arbitrary ranking system like this could maybe be skewed by somebody ranking one higher than another. He stated it will take three votes to get a contract. ~J Commissioner Holt said he brought it up in the very beginning when Ms. Jackson took the first paperwork. He stated he would like to have the paperwork left with CC 03-16-09/162 ~ them for a few minutes after the process so they could go over each one individually as the way they compiled the information and then score it. He said it ' was like they were judging an event and he didn't understand the process they were using. _ Mayor Sackett said they somewhat said this was the process and that they were going to do something next Monday with these three people and talk to them again. fIe inquired what would be the outcome of talking to them,, because they wouldn't have a contract at that time. Ms. Mirus said there were a couple of ways they could deal with that. She stated they could do the one-on-one sessions, or they could do another public interview. She. suggested at a public interview they could ask questions three through five that were submitted by the Commission and didn't. make it on today's list. Mayor Sackett said that would be a subjective accounting and the objective one would be the contract in hand. Who do they want to offer a contract to, but they don't know what they are offering within the contract. Commissioner Bundy said the contract has to be crafted before they can offer it. He stated they first. would decide who they want to offer a contract to and they ~ don't have to have a contract by then. He said they can have the City Attorney handle the negotiations after input from what each of them want to see in it. He stated if necessary, that can be on the Agenda for next Monday night to discuss the contract and what they want to see in it. He said he thought they had also stated that the Attorney would bring back something after each of them had spoken with. them. Mayor Sackett inquired if the Acting, City Administrator knew if there was some sort of rough drafting of a contract. Mr. Jackson. said he did not believe there was, but with this being. a public forum, he did not know what would restrict them from talking. He stated there were basically four items to the contract, the. annual wage, separation,, benefits, and car allowance. He said if they have a range now, he did not know why they could not come to a consensus. He stated the salary rage was posted from $90,000 to $130,000, and they know what the qualifications are of the candidates. He said if 1blr. Drago's contract had some concern because of his unlimited accnials and they wish not to allow that, they can stipulate that now and they could stipulate the car allowance. He suggested now would be the time to come up with the parameters of what they would like to see in the contract. Commissioner Bundy said he thinks they could come up with those items. He stated they all know specific things they are opposed to. He said they have talked about paying employees the average of Seminole County and are they going to do less for the Administrator. CC 03-16-09/163 Deputy Mayor Maingot said that was something that he feels they have to rethink. He stated we were comparing our small City on this averaging situation and that puts us at the disadvantage. He stated cities that are bigger than us have deeper pockets; therefore, we are getting an artificial bounce every time. Ms. Mirus said her only concern about discussing these items is that it is not on the Agenda. Mayor Sackett said with Selection of the top three candidates for the Position of City Administrator, he sees it as being on the Agenda. He stated they were extending it into what they were looking at for those people. He said what they have here is the top three, but they also don't have anything that goes with that top three. Commissioner Bundy said if they have a problem with it, then he would bring it up under his report at tonight's meeting to reach a consensus on a contract. He stated they were only reaching a consensus,. not approving a contract, so it could be done at the Commission Meeting. Mr. Jackson suggested between now and tonight, knowing these four items they will be considering as part of the contract, each of them could come in with their thoughts on paper and submit them so the Attorney can nail them down to one tight range the Commission would find acceptable. He went over the four items to be considered. He advised that with a car allowance, they are giving them money ~ to use their car. He said if there should be a hazardous event, it would be their car. He stated if you drive a city car and involved in a crash, it puts the City directly in the seat of liability without any buffer between our insurance and their insurance. He said if the Administrator is driving a city vehicle and is in a crash, he would be required to undergo the City's format if wrecking a city vehicle. He suggested if driving their own personal vehicle for mileage or a car allowance, they may want to consider a small stipend for the liability shield. Commissioner Bundy said they could offer the option of using a pool car if doing official business, or pay the mileage allowance if on official business. Mayor Sackett inquired if there was a city vehicle that would be specific to his use. Mr. Jackson advised there were three vehicles in the City Hall compound that could be available. Mayor Sackett said he would say during work hours or a trip, use the city vehicle. He stated that covers the car allowance, sick and personal days. Deputy Mayor Maingot said that leaves separation. He suggested three months severance. CC 03-16-09/164 Commissioner Bundy suggested with a provision of after five years accumulate an additional month. I Commissioner Holt said in most jobs you have a ninety day period to determine if it is going to work out. He inquired if there was a provision like this. Mr. Jackson said the only thing to consider is if they have. to move, they are looking for a security factor. Commissioner Durso said they could build on the severance and have it so that after one year they are eligible for one month, two years two months,. then three years three months and that is where it stays. Commissioner Bundy said if they vohuitarily leave, they don't get a severance. He stated they will have a problem if they don't allow the three month severance package. He said just looking at how long our process takes they could be out of work for a period of time if it doesn't work out. He stated, although the Charter states that the contract is for an indefinite period, he would like it to be time specific. He said. he would like that it has to be a.n annual evaluation to determine if they are going to get a raise and determine if they are going to keep their job. Mayor Sackett agreed the severance needs to be three months, but he doesn't know how many places offer only three months when it is a $100,000 job. He said he would like to see the severance tied to,a year of positive performance before they start giving three months. Commissioner Dl~rso said he did not think it was unreasonable to say they expect them to be here six months to one year before. the severance kicks in. Commissioner Bundy said if they dismiss them with cause or if they just leave, there is no severance package. Mayor Sackett said to move on, they will say there is a three month severance upon hire and they review this annually. Commissioner Bundy said it was aroll-over contract, but it has to be positively rolled-over. Deputy Mayor Maingot said if other city administrations or elected officials want to .look at the high end of remuneration, there is no reason why we should tie ourselves to that. Commissioner Durso said we were not paying th.e high end, we were paying the average and the average protects us from having to pay the high end. ~ Deputy Mayor Maingot said we were the ones that determine exactly where we were prepared to go. CC 03-16-09/165 Commissioner Durso said they also were the ones that have to determine whether or not they were going to get quality employees. ~..J Mayor Sackett said we were at a point now where we are in such transition with the change over in department heads that we really ~Zeed to secure someone who brings forth the confidence and moves us forward. Deputy Mayor Maingot said we were then tying us into progression that whether we were financially capable of increasing it to compete with the other cities every year, they are forced to do that. Mayor Sackett said he does not see that. He stated just because they start it at $11.5,000 that it has to go up to $122,000. He said that was dependent upon the annual .review. He stated the starting salary was not always locking in to the highest end. He said they need a quality, tough person here that will be able to handle this transition. Commissioner Durso said they are asking this person to run a $20 million company. He stated they have to stop thinking of it as government and focus on doing it for the benefit of the company. Deputy Mayor Maingot inquired what was in the current budget for the position. Mr. Jackson said they had to do a budget transfer because of the buy-out and the six month severance was continuing. He stated they would have to do another budget transfer and. he will let. them know tonight. Commissioner Durso said his salary should not play anything into this discussion. Mayor Sackett inquired if $'50,000 was available for the rest of this year for the new person coming in. Mr. Jackson said probably not, as the budgeted amount for the. Administrators position was being consumed by the severance pay. Commissioner Holt inquired where the money would come from. Mr. Jackson said the reserves. Deputy Mayor Maingot said they do not have. light at the end. of the tunnel. He stated somewhere along the line they have to be realistic of where they are going to go and what fiends they are prepared to commit. fIe said they need to look at things. with a little more austerity in mind. He stated some of the people that were interviewed will understand this. He said if it were a matter of conditioning the grading depending on the economic climate they were now facing was. something they can. also look at as well. ~ CC 03-16-09/166 Mayor Sackett said the view he has is that, they knew all along when they did this process that the money was going to have to come out of there. He stated the reality is that they need to have a quality person in that position and they have to paythat person. He said the quality person is going to lead us to better financial pictures. He stated the mind set is that after the year period they are not saying anything on average salaries or natural increments. He said what comes next year is what it is. Commissioner Bundy said, with all due respect, they are facing some significant challenges, both budgetary and with maj or proj ects. He stated if you start trying to do it on the cheap, you are not. going to get the most qualified person. Deputy Mayor Maingot said he agrees with this and his thought process is not to go on the cheap, but to have some sort of an intermediate cushion in terms of what they are going to come onboard for, as opposed to what they are going to look at in a year. Mayor Sackett said he thinks what he hears Deputy Mayor Maingot saying is that if tive start on the low, this person would understand the condition our financial picture is in. He stated he didn't know if we would be able to grab that person. He said for the good of the cause, you are asking people who have extreme experience to jump in. Commissioner Bundy said the more challenges the economy presents and the situation presents is a stronger arglunent for hiring the best person you can. Deputy Mayor Maingot suggested offering $110,000. Mayor Sackett suggested $115;000. Commissioner Durso said either way was fine with him. He stated he definitely thought we needed to be more aggressive in going after people. Commissioner Bundy said he did not think either amount would get any of those three ca~ldidates. He stated he was thinking more in terms of $120,000 or $125,000.. Mayor Sackett said if they go with the $115,000 offer and everything is fine, do they give their contract person some latitude. Commissioner Bundy said they just said how low or how high they were willing to go and anyone can obtain. a copy of the audio of this. Mayor Sackett said these were people who applied for the job knowing the range was $90,000 to $130,000. Ms. Minis advised the salary range was advertised at $90,000 to $131,00.0. CC 03-16-09/167 Commissioner Bundy said normally when you give a salary range, the more experience, the closer you get to the high end of that salary than the low end. ~J Mayor Sackett said he would like to go in the range of $110,000 to $120,000 and let our contract people work on that. Deputy Mayor Maingot said he would support that. Commissioner Durso said that was fine with him. Mayor Sackett asked the Acting City Administrator to review what they have, and the procedure as far as what they have to do with the City Attorney. Mr. Jackson said now that they have drawn a conclusign on what they want those four points to be, he feels it would be appropriate for the City Clerk to take their parameters and give them to the City Attorney to work up a contract and submit it to the Commission for their review. He stated following that, they will make contact with their first choice and give them the first opportunity. Mayor Sackett inquired if number one was number one on this list. He said it was his Lmderstanding that they would take the top half. Mr. Jackson said if they take the top three they determine tonight, in no particular order, formulate this contract, then interview them again on the 23rd as was first ~ ; determined, at that point they would come up with their first choice, second, and third. Ike stated they would then extend the contract offer to the f rst candidate with whom they feel comfortable with. Deputy Mayor Maingot said they have the parameters to have the Attorney prepare a document for them to review. Mayor Sackett inquired what the process was for bringing these three people back and would they do a mass interview again. Ms. Jackson said that was of the Commission's choosing and what they desire. Commissioner Bundy said this whole process this afternoon did not have any input from the Commission. He stated the City Clerlc could have asked the questions and they could have recorded it. Mayor Sackett inquired if they said Mr. Grace, Mr. Saddler, and Mr. McLemore, could they list their preference. Commissioner Bundy suggested.they poll the Commission. Mayor Sackett said they would poll the Commission with nothing. being binding. ~ Deputy Mayor Maingot said his number one choice would be Mr. Grace. CC 03-16-09/168 Commissioner Durso said his number one choice would be Ms. Powell. i ~ - i ' Commissioner Holt said his number one choice would be Ms. Powell. Mayor Sackett said his number one choice wou d be Mr. Saddler. Commissioner Bundy said his number one choice would be Ms. Powell. Commissioner Durso said his top three were Grace,, Powell, and Saddler. Commissioner Bundy said it just. states selection of top three Candidates, it does not say they have to go by the rankings. He stated this was a tool and said just like the top ten candidates went to eleven by the Range Riders and to twelve by the Commission. He said they were not bound by it., Deputy Mayor 1Vlaingot disagreed and said he thought they were changing their guidance now, probably because. the selection has not met with the concurrence of what some would like to see. He stated they had a procedure they followed, so why have it in the first place. Commissioner Bundy said as an evaluation tool was the reason he thought they were doing this. He inquired how-many votes it takes to approve a contract, and stated it takes three. He said there were three Commissioners that stated their top candidate was Ms. Powell. Deputy Mayor Maingot inquired why this was not reflected in the scoring and how two of them could upset the whole thing. He questioned why she did not come oust within the first three. Commissioner Bundy said it was easy to do, because the figures could be mathematically skewed by putting one low and one with really high scores. Mayor Sackett asked the Personnel Manager for some guidance. Deputy Mayor 1Vlaingot inquired why they had this exercise today. He said mathematically it just doesn't prove itself. Ms. Jackson distributed the forms to the Commission for their review. Mayor Sackett inquired who the top candidate for each Commissioner was. Commissioner Durso said his scoring puts Kevin.. Grace ahead of Katrina Powell by two points. i Discussion was held regarding the scoring of each candidate. Mayor Sackett said he believes they have Grace, Saddler, and McLernore as the three candidates. CC 03-16-09/1.69 Ms, Jackson said itwas a matter on howthey want to determine their top three and if they want to determine them by the listing or i.f they want to determine ~ them by their vote. She stated it was the Commission's call on how they prefer to choose their top three. Mayor Sackett said they all had the same sheets and the indication, implication was that it would be totaled out and add value to the process. Deputy Mayor Maingot said they shared this among themselves and the equal responsibility to select the best possible candidate based on the criteria they established to go forward with. Ms. Jackson said she thinks they can play that out just like they can their opinions. She stated you can, score just the same way you can state your opinion, so it is really what they prefer and a matter of who they want. Deputy Mayor Mairigot said they did this so they would have an orderly conduct of evaluation. He stated they put forward a program which he thinks they ought to live with. Commi sinner Bundy said no candidate wants to apply for a job where they don't have three votes. He stated they could always throw it out and start over again. I Deputy Mayor Maingot -said they have aborted the entire procedure. He stated they have established it and have determined that iY does not suit us, for what ever reasons, and now they want to throw t11e whole thing out. Commissioner Holt said he wanted to take all the score cards, total them, and then hand them off for the reading. He stated you don't hand them off one at a time because you ean lose yourself on where you are. Mayor Sackett said they have their next meeting coming up and perhaps they could get direction from the Attorney. 4. ADJOURN. Mayor Sackett adjourned the meeting at 6:11 p.m. j , ~ J~ Brian D. Sacl~ett, ayor ATTEST: Sarah M. Mira.~s, CMC, MBA . City Clerk , - CC 03-16-09/170