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CC03-28-2018Min_SMLONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION Longwood City Commission Chambers 175 West Warren Avenue Longwood, Florida SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES March 28, 2018 3:00 P.M. Present: Mayor Ben Paris Deputy Mayor Richard Drummond Commissioner Abby Shoemaker Commissioner Matt Morgan Commissioner Brian D. Sackett David P. Dowda, Acting City Manager Dan Langley, City Attorney Michelle Longo, City Clerk Lee Ricci, Human Resources Director Magdala Ridore, Human Resources Generalist 1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Paris called the meeting to order at 3:08 p.m. 2. DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL DECISION CONCERNING THE SELECTION OF A CITY MANAGER. Ms. Ricci said we have had two very full days with group interviews yesterday and follow up interviews today. She said the candidates had tours of the City yesterday and thanked those that provided the guided tours. She thanked all of those that have been involved in the process. Ms. Ricci went over the next steps and where we are in the process. She suggested to open the floor for Commission discussion on the candidates and stated she did have a consensus form/worksheets they can use. Discussion ensued on the candidates. The Commission used the worksheets to rank their candidates and Ms. Ricci tallied the votes and presented totals. Ms. Ricci advised Mr. Klimm had no votes, Mr. Comiskey had one vote, Mr. Murphy had four votes, and Mr. Cox had five votes. Discussion ensued on the results of the votes. CC 03-28-18/1 Mayor Paris said he had spoken with the attorney and rather than appoint anyone at this point, I think we should vote to make an offer. Mr. Langley said you can break this up because we have two agenda items, the first one would be to select the top candidate to make an offer and then we can get into the details of what that offer will look like. Commissioner Sackett made a motion to make an offer to Mr. J.D. Cox to become our next City Manager. Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. 3. DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL DECISION CONCERNING OFFER TO AND CONTRACT FOR SELECTED CANDIDATE FOR CITY MANAGER POSITION. Discussion ensued on an offer and questions asked about having a secondary candidate. Mr. Langley said a secondary candidate is a good point. You could do that now or you could do that at a future meeting if it falls through. He said if you want a contingency in place now, you can appoint someone as the secondary candidate to make an offer. We do have a meeting next Monday, so after this meeting if an offer is extended we can obviously contact Mr. Cox and ask are you still available, would you take this offer and we can report on Monday. That gives you sometime to act on a secondary but it is totally up to the Commission whether you want to do that now. Commissioner Sackett made a motion to have Mr. Martin Murphy as a second possibility if a contract is rejected by Mr. Cox. Commissioner Morgan said it is my understanding that Mr. Cox is being recruited by a couple of places. Mayor Paris said every one of these candidates, I feel very strongly will receive offers from multiple municipalities. He said if you want to make a second so we can have some discussion. Motion seconded by Commissioner Morgan. Discussion ensued on a secondary candidate. Mr. Langley said just to clarify the motion, I think it was to designate a second candidate not necessarily to make an offer to that person. Mayor Paris said in case the first offer falls through, we just immediately go to this person. CC 03-28-18/2 Motion carried by a four -to -one (4-1) roll call vote with Mayor Paris voting nay. Ms. Ricci went into the negotiation portion and said that Mr. Langley sent a sample contract for a City Manager to the Commissioners. Discussion ensued on the various aspects of the City Manager Contract including duties, performance evaluation, monthly reports, goals, policy objectives, and benefits. Providing a city -owned vehicle or a vehicle allowance was also discussed. Another topic discussed was severance, termination agreements and how the city can take a big hit. Mr. Langley said the maximum permitted under Florida Statute is 20 weeks' severance. He said they passed a law, within the last five years or so maxing out what you can agree to on new agreements to 20 weeks. Discussion ensued on severance pay. Mr. Langley said before the law passed I saw some other cities have six months, it tended to be more sometimes. He said it really is whatever you negotiated and what you agree to. That is a maximum not a minimum, you can offer zero if you want or anywhere in between. Further discussion ensued on severance pay. Mayor Paris said lets go with 15 weeks. Commissioner Sackett suggested 16 weeks. Mayor Paris said 16 weeks, perfect thank you Commissioner Sackett. He asked if everyone was okay with 16 weeks of medical and severance. Mr. Langley said you can come to a consensus on a number to offer and if he says this doesn't work for me, then we can come back and talk about that. Mayor Paris said we will make 16 weeks the initial offer and if there is any counter-offers we can discuss it at the next Commission meeting. Mr. Langley asked a question on the benefits provisions in the contract and wasn't sure if it was applicable in this situation. He said there is a provision that says the�City agrees to transfer the balance of accumulated retirements earning into the Florida Municipal Pension Trust fund and pay 10% of the employee's annual salary into a qualified 401A defined contribution offered through ICMA retirement Corporation for employee in the form of a money purchase plan. CC 03-28-18/3 Ms. Ricci said most likely not that was something that Mr. Williams negotiated when he came in because he previously had been with ICMA of course the City has a relationship with Florida League of Cities. She said if the candidate that comes in and says I have 10 years with the program and I would like to see if the City will match me, then we would probably need to come back to the Commission. Mayor Paris said for right now we have Florida League of Cities that we work with and that should be our initial offer. Mr. Langley said I will work with Ms. Ricci on that appropriate language but the idea is to provide whatever a typical employee would receive. Mayor Paris moved to the discussion of salary. It was noted that the range in the job posting for the position was $115,000 to $135,000. Ms. Ricci had some local city numbers she went over. She said for Altamonte Springs they have 446 employees, manager currently is at $1.03,000 and the maximum for the pay band is $175,000. Apopka has 405 employees, manager pay is $111,550 their maximum is $132,000. She said for Casselberry I don't have the numbers on. Clermont I don't have, Debary had an interim manager so I don't have that. Casselberry's maximum is $139,000. Lake Mary maximum is $160,000 I don't have their current salary. Mayor Paris said we have a range $100,000 to $140,000 is the going rate for City Managers and City Administrators in the tri-county area for a city roughly this size. He asked Ms. Ricci what Mr. Williams was making when he left. Ms. Ricci said I believe it was $135,000. Deputy Mayor Drummond said starting salary he suggests is $125,000. Discussion ensued on salary from $125,000 or $130,000. Mayor Paris said we have discussed and a majority agree on $125,000 as an initial offer. I think that shows some fiscal responsibility and gives us a chance to get the ball rolling. He said we have an amended contract for the most part, we are going to work on the exact language and we have a salary. Mr. Langley wanted to clarify, because there was not exactly a consensus on the salary and that the motion is to approve $125,000 as the salary. Commissioner Sackett made a motion to approve the contract and offer for the City Manager position at a salary rate of $125,000. CC 03-28-18/4 11 1 1 Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. 4. ADJOURN. Mayor Paris adjourned the meeting at 4:11 p.m. en Paris, Mayor CC 03-28-18/5 j This Page Left Blank Intentionally. 1 1 CC 03-28-18/6