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Home My WebLink About07-21-14 Admin. Committee of Whole - minutesDUBLIN CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Monday, July 21, 2014 6:00 p.m. - Council Chambers Vice Mayor Gerber, Administrative Committee Chair, called the meeting to order. Council members present were: Vice Mayor Gerber, Mayor Keenan, Ms. Chinnici- Zuercher, Mr. Lecklider, Mr. Reiner and Ms. Salay. Mr. Peterson was absent (out of town). Staff present: Ms. Crandall. Vice Mayor Gerber stated that the purpose of this meeting is to review the search firm proposals received for recruitment of a new City manager and select the firms that Council wishes to interview. The Administrative Committee met on July 8 at 8:00 a.m. In addition to himself, Ms. Chinnici - Zuercher, Mr. Peterson and Ms. Salay were present. The purpose of that meeting was to create a tentative timeline for the City manager recruitment process. They recognized that the timeline would be flexible, influenced by the search firm selected, candidate schedules and Council's schedule. Defining an initial timeframe was important, however, to begin the process of soliciting RFPs for search firms. The intent is to identify a search firm within the next couple of weeks. Mayor Keenan stated that Council interviews for the finalists are tentatively scheduled for October 28 — 30, dependent upon the consultant's and finalists' schedules. It is important to identify the timeframe as early as possible so that everyone can align their personal schedules with it. Ms. Chinnici - Zuercher noted that the candidate selected will also need to give 6- 8 weeks' notice to their current employer, so it is doubtful they could be available to assume this position before January 2015. Mr. Lecklider stated that he appreciates the effort to identify a timeline with the intent of negotiating a contract in early November. He would like to note that he will not be available the day before Election Day, as he will be serving as legal advisor to the Board of Elections. Mr. Gerber stated that the search firm selected will further define the timeline. Council can share with the search firm that Council believes there would be a benefit for the selected candidate spending some time with Ms. Grigsby before her departure. Ms. Salay stated that an alternative could be that if Ms. Grigsby's leave date is not firm, perhaps she would be willing to stay an additional two weeks, if needed. Council Committee of the Whole Monday, July 21, 2014 Page 2 Mayor Keenan responded that the retirement system timing issues may determine that for Ms. Grigsby. However, perhaps she would be willing to remain on some basis. Mr. Reiner stated that he supports the draft timeline the Committee has set, although the search firm will refine it. Mayor Keenan stated that he hopes there will be only two or three finalists, not eight, so perhaps three days for final interviews will not be needed. Council should be able to conduct those in one day. Ms. Salay responded that she hopes that there are more than two candidates to interview. Ms. Chinnici - Zuercher stated that there are two sets of interviews — the first, with three to five candidates; the second, with two finalists. Mr. Lecklider noted that some of the consultants have discussed bringing Council five to eight candidates. Previously, Council interviewed a minimum of five candidates. Ms. Salay stated that at the time Ms. Brautigam was hired, Council interviewed four to five candidates on a Friday evening and another four to five candidates the following day. She prefers to have that number of candidates, because Council can begin to have a better sense of their differences. By way of comparison, on a more recent occasion, there were only a couple of candidates. She believes it is important to have several options. Council members will probably need to devote some time to the task. Mayor Keenan stated that time isn't an issue for him, but from past experience, when trying to consider 8 -10 candidates, it is difficult to "see the forest for the trees." If they are screened properly by the search firm, it should be possible to reduce it to a more reasonable number. Vice Mayor Gerber stated that is the role of the search firm — to define the viable candidates, whether that is three or eight. Vice Mayor Gerber stated that he appreciates Ms. Crandall's work in organizing the proposals for this evening's consideration. Mr. Peterson, who is out of town and not able to be present this evening, has shared his three preferences of firms. Vice Mayor Gerber suggested that other Council members indicate their top three as well, or more if that is the case, and determine if there is a consensus. Ms. Crandall noted that executive search firm proposals were received from: 1. Colin Baenziger Council Committee of the Whole Monday, July 21, 2014 Page 3 2. Management Partners 3. GovHR USA 4. Ralph Andersen and Associates 5. The Novak Consulting Group 6. The Mercer Group, Inc. 7. Renee Narloch & Associates 8. Affion Public 9. PMG Employment Consultants After polling the members, Council members expressed interest in interviewing the following firms, ranked in order of number of votes: Affion Public Colin Baenziger Ralph Andersen & Associates GovHR USA Renee Narloch & Associates Mr. Lecklider stated that he would have preferred to have time to call references. Mr. Keenan responded that could be done now. Ms. Crandall stated that she did speak with the City Manager of Ft. Lauderdale, who recently conducted a search. They highly recommended Colin Baenziger. Ralph Andersen is also a well- respected firm. She is less familiar with Affion. However, all three firms have an outreach throughout the U.S. Mayor Keenan stated that Colin Baenziger provided a solid presentation, but his clients reflect a Florida emphasis. Ralph Andersen recently conducted the Upper Arlington City manager search. He is acquainted with one of the Upper Arlington Council members and will ask him to comment on Upper Arlington's experience with that firm. Ms. Crandall noted that the principal from that firm who would be conducting the search is actually from Ohio and therefore has knowledge of Dublin. Mr. Keenan stated that Affion provided an excellent sample search report, city brochures and had an impressive list of placements. However, their work had a heavy Texas focus. Mr. Gerber inquired if Council desires to interview all five firms or narrow the number to the three with the most votes. Ms. Crandall noted that this will be a very short timeframe in which to ask them to come in for interviews, which could present a challenge. Mr. Gerber inquired if the search firms were aware that Council's timeline anticipates interviews of search firms next week. Ms. Crandall responded that the RFP provided that information. Council Committee of the Whole Monday, July 21, 2014 Page 4 Ms. Chinnici - Zuercher indicated that interviewing the top five would be acceptable to her, although clearly there were three firms preferred by a majority of Council. Mr. Lecklider noted that the only concern he had with Ralph Andersen was a heavy California focus, and there would be an advantage to having firms with Midwest experience. Ms. Chinnici - Zuercher stated that she had asked Ms. Crandall about the heavy Texas, California and Florida emphasis and Ms. Crandall indicated that those states have more cities with a Council /Manager form of government. Mr. Reiner noted that the list of cities Affion has worked includes progressive cities, such as Austin, Portland and Boulder. Mr. Lecklider stated that he noticed that Affion had done a lot of work for Boulder. On his way to the meeting this evening, he called Ms. Brautigam and inquired about her experience with Affion. She indicated that they were excellent and worked hard to understand the culture of Boulder. She shared that Affion would aggressively recruit nationwide and not rely upon their usual "bullpen" of candidates, as some firms do. Mr. Keenan stated that unless there are Council members who have a strong desire to interview GovHR or Renee Narloch, he would suggest interviewing only the three with the most votes — Affion Public, Colin Baenziger and Ralph Andersen & Associates. Council consensus was to interview these three search firms. Mr. Gerber inquired the anticipated length of interview time. Ms. Crandall responded that an hour should be adequate. Ms. Crandall will contact the firms to schedule them for Monday, July 28, or if not available, then on Tuesday, July 29. She will do reference checks on all three. Council consensus was to plan to make a selection on Monday, July 28, but if that is not possible, Council will meet again on Tuesday to make a decision. Council will meet at 5:30 p.m., and an hour and 15 minutes will be allotted for each interview. The Clerk's office will advertise both meeting dates. The meeting was adjourned at 6:36 p.m. Deputy Clerk of Council