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05-04-87 Council as Wholek Council Workshop May 4, 1987 • Mayor Kennedy called the meeting to order at 9:30 PM. All councilmembers were present. 1. Council vacancy Mayor Kennedy handed out the letters and resumes of the applicants interested in filling the council vacancy. He suggested the council discuss how they want to handle the appointment. Councilman Manning would like to interview the candidates. Councilman Nystul asked what got us in trouble before and was told it was alleged to have been decided in a closed meeting. He then asked the appropriate manner to choose. City Attorney Neier said it should be done by Council nomination and vote. He thought the council should meet with the candidates. There is no guidance in the statutes. Councilman Grainger suggested meeting the candidates then vote by secret ballot at an open meeting. The council concurred on closing the applications on May 15, with the council setting interviews at the May 18 regular meeting. Councilman Saverud asked, and City Attorney Neier explained this term of office is until the successor is elected and qualified by the election this . fall. Then the person elected this fall to this vacancy would serve a two year term. • Candidates filing for positions from Ward 4 will have to designate which seat they are filing for. 2. Police Chief vacancy Mayor Kennedy asked the council for guidance in the procedure in selection of the next Police Chief. He referred the council to the information he had passed out regarding the advantages and disadvantage to various methods. He asked if the advertising plan was satisfactory. Councilman Saverud asked if this would be a good time to consider the Public Safety concept and only hire an interim chief. Mayor Kennedy said the Public Safety concept is a long term concept to implement and we need to hire a replacement chief in the meantime. Mayor Kennedy said other things which need to be considered are the salary to be offered and the residency requirement. Councilman Schindler suggested we take plenty of time and do it right even if we have to appoint a temporary chief. He felt we should advertise nationally. - 1 - i Council Workshop May 4, 1987 iMayor Kennedy thought regional advertising would be enough to get well qualified candidates. • Councilman Grainger doubted that reading references and interviewing candidates would help us to determine who is the best candidate. He recommended we pick from the existing internal staff. Councilman Ruiz agreed. He didn't feel it was fair to solicit applications from the existing staff if they were not going to be given fair consideration. Councilman Grainger said there is something wrong with our training procedures if there are not qualified candidates in the departments. Councilman Saverud said the outsider has the burden to prove he is better than the in-house candidates. We should look at all the possible candidates. If you are advertising regionally, add the Portland and Seattle papers. Mayor Kennedy said he would prefer to keep it within Montana if we can. Councilman Schindler said we might as well keep it in house then. Councilman Nystul commented there were probably Montanans who have left the area and would like to come back. Mayor Kennedy suggested a salary range be set depending on the qualifications. Councilman Saverud suggested the starting salary be set lower than the exiting salary. Saverud and Ruiz agreed the salary had to be higher than the existing Lieutenant salaries. Councilman Grainger asked why someone from a bigger city department would apply for the position at low salary. Councilman Schindler said set a salary and be firm about it. Councilman Ruiz said it had to be higher than any existing employee's salary so they are willing to apply for the position. Mayor Kennedy suggested a salary range of $30,000 to $33,500 and the council seemed to concur. Councilman Grainger asked the Employment Committee review the applications with the Mayor. All councilmembers are welcome to participate. Once the applications are reviewed the interviews should be conducted by the Mayor, Police Commission and any one else the Mayor selects. The Mayor's two or three finalists would then be reviewed by the Employment Committee for recommendations. - 2 - Council Workshop May 4, 1987 • Councilman Schindler suggested the councilmembers should be allowed to participate in the interviews but they must participate in all of them. Mayor Kennedy would like the council's help in reviewing the applications to select the candidates for interviews. The council was opposed to waiving the residency requirement at this time. Councilman Saverud suggested the candidates come to the interview at their own expense and the council agreed. 3. Dick Brady Mayor Kennedy asked if the council had time to consider his request regarding Dick Brady. Councilman Saverud thought the council should review all of them (non -union salaries) at some time. The Mayor said Brady was promised a raise after the probation period at the time he was hired. Councilman Saverud said that points out the need to have signed employment contracts with these details spelled out and suggested the new chief would be a good time to start. • Councilman Grainger was not ready to discuss Brady at this time. The council could not agree on a meeting time to discuss Brady and/or the rest of the non -union employee salaries. The council agreed there should be a review at some time before July 1. Is Councilman Manning requested we have a package recommendation in place this month and look at everybody. He would like the recommendation to come from Howard's committee. Councilman Grainger said "Nobody's getting any raises until July 1. Do you want to open up the process and stop what has been done and start over?" He agreed there should be an open meeting where the Mayor could be told the Council rejected his recommendations. Grainger continued, "We set salary schedules for July 1 for 1988, now are you telling me for the Committee to sit down now and re -review them and give raises back to 1987?" Councilman Ruiz said he was saying no to the mayor's request because he thought it was improper. - 3 - ti y Council Workshop May 4, 1987 • Councilman Grainger agreed, "we set the wages". Ruiz continued, if the Mayor is concerned about department head salaries, we should review them all. Mayor Kennedy said he thought the council was saying they were hurried through the review and maybe we should look at department head raises for July 1, 1987. In effect we have frozen department head salaries for this past year. Grainger said that's where they have been set, for July 1, 1987. Councilman Saverud stated the Employment Committee was the only group who had time to thoroughly look at the recommendations. Mayor Kennedy asked how the council wanted to handle the department head raises. The council concluded the Mayor should present his recommendations to the full council and the department heads are welcome to attend. Councilman Grainger, Clerk/Treasurer Halver and City Attorney Neier argued about whether or not salaries were discussed and set in a closed meeting. The meeting adjourned at 10:50 pm. Don Halver Clerk/Treasurer - 4 -