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13 City Council (05-24-04)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL May 24, 2004 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session, Monday, May 24, 2004, 6:00 P.M. at Paris Junior College, Bobby R. Walters Applied Technology Building, Room 1206, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Curtis Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: Jim Bell, Jay Guest, Joe E. McCarthy, Francine Neeley, Willie Weekly, Sr. and Benny Plata. Also, present were Interim City Manager Terry Townsend, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Mayor Fendley announced that the first order of business was canvass the returns of a Special Election held on May 15, 2004, regarding a proposition to exempt the City of Paris and the Paris Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund from Article XVI, Section 66 of the Texas Constitution. Mayor Fendley canvassed the returns from the seven districts within the City of Paris pertaining to Proposition I and announced the results. Resolution No. 2004-093-A, canvassing the returns for the May 15, 2004, Citywide Special Election on the question of exempting the City of Paris and the Paris Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund from the application of the requirements of Article XVI, Section 66 of the Texas Constitution, entitled "Protected Benefits Under Certain Public Retirement Systems"; making other findings and provisions related to the subject; and providing an effective date, was presented. A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, seconded by Councilman Plata, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Mayor Fendley canvassed the returns of the Regular Municipal Election held on May 15, 2004, for Council Districts l, 2, 3, and 6, and announced the results. Resolution No. 2004-094, canvassing the returns for the May 15, 2004, General Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 2 Election for Council Districts l, 2, 3, and 6; declaring the winners in said election; declaring the terms of office for the aforesaid candidates; making other findings and provisions related to the subject; and providing an effective date, was presented. A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, seconded by Councilwoman Neeley, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. The Oath of Office was administered to the newly elected Council Members by Mattie Cunningham, City Clerk. Mayor Fendley presented plaques to the retiring Council Members for their outstanding service to the City of Paris. Mayor Fendley called for the election of Mayor for the ensuing year. Councilman Wilson nominated Councilman Fendley. The nomination was seconded by Councilwoman Fisher. Councilman Bell made a motion for nominations to cease and that Councilman Fendley be elected Mayor for the ensuing year by acclamation. The motion carried unanimously. Mayor Fendley called for the election of Mayor Pro Tem for the ensuing year. Councilwoman Wilkerson nominated Councilman Guest for Mayor Pro Tem. Councilwoman Fisher seconded the nomination. There were no other nominations and Councilman Guest was elected Mayor Pro Tem by acclamation. Mayor Fendley announced that the next three items on the agenda were to receive presentations from three firms regarding the process of selection of a City Manager. City Attorney Schenk advised the City Council that at 7:45 P.M. he has to make a presentation to the Paris Junior College on the city's homestead program. He said that John Lestock will stand in for him until he returns. Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 3 Jim C. Blagg was present representing the Mercer Group, Inc. He is Senior Vice President and is in charge of the Dallas Office and the Texas practice. Mr. Blagg said he has given the City Council a folder with some of his comments plus additional information about the firm. He stated that he appreciated the opportunity to be here to talk about the qualifications of their firm and to assist the Council with this important task of hiring a new City Manager. Mr. Blagg said the Mercer Group has been around for about twenty years and it is incorporated in the State of Georgia. They have eight offices across the United States including the one in Dallas. He said the Mercer Group is more than just for executive recruitment; they do management consulting also. Mr. Blagg said they were primarily staffed with former government officials. He said he has been a long term City Manager in Texas for 25 years, served as Deputy City Manager in Lubbock, Texas for 8 years and City Manager in Abilene, Texas for 10 years. He served as the President of the Texas City Management Association, and on the Board of the International City/County Management Association. Mr. Blagg said the Mercer Group has a long history in searching in the public sector. They have done more than 750 total sector searches, and the last time he counted, there were 87 searches for City Managers positions in the last three years. They have conducted searches in all sizes of communities including Plainview, Texas, Wylie, Texas, Boulder, Colorado, and El Paso, Texas. They also conducted a number of searches for other folks beside City Managers in Texas as well as doing consulting work. Mr. Blagg said the objectives of this search will include on site assessment, need assessment, and a comprehensive position profile. They will encourage top level people to apply and encourage people who might not otherwise apply to become candidates. They would objectively assess candidates and recommend a pool of finalists who meet the city's requirements. They would keep the City Council closely involved throughout the process and would assist Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 4 the city in reaching a final decision. When accomplished, all of those represent what they believe is a comprehensive search for the City of Paris. Mr. Blagg explained that they have seven steps in their process. The first is the analysis of the position and draft a Position Profile and they felt that it is the most important step in the process. He said they will come in for a day or so to interview all of the City Council, city staff, community, and civic leaders, and business leaders if the city would like for them to do that. He said through this process they will learn what is the key element for a person to be successful as City Manager of Paris, Texas. Mr. Blagg said they will arrive at a position description profile and another product of that will be a recruitment brochure. He said there is a sample brochure in the Council's packet. Then, they will begin a recruitment and advertisement process. They will advertise regionally and nationally depending on what the Council's desire is. He said they will mail out the brochure to a number of folks across the country that they think would fit the established profile. Mr. Blagg said that once they receive the resumes, they will review the resumes. They will screen the candidates against the selection criteria that was developed in the position profile. They will then bring the City Council a list of ten or twelve semifinalist candidates,they think meet the needs of this community. They will work with Council to narrow that group down to a group of five or seven to bring to Council to interview. Mr. Blagg said that before they bring them in for interviews they will do a background investigation, criminal history, driver license check, and credit check. They will assist the city in the interview process and they would also assist the city with negotiation of a contract if they so desire. Mr. Blagg said that their budget for this search will be a fee of $13,750.00 plus expenses not to exceed $7,500.00, and the city will see the receipt for the actual expenditures. Mr. Blagg said they will keep working until the placement is made. They will not recruit the placement for other positions without the city's permission. They will not recruit any of the city's staff for two years from the date of placement, without Council permission. If the selected candidate leaves the Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 5 city's employment within the first two years, they will redo the search for expenses only. Chris Hartung with the Waters Consulting Group, Inc., was present and he introduced Ms. Pam Storaci with their office in Dallas. Ms. Storaci is a former Director of Human Resources, former Assistant City Manager, and has extensive experience both in the public and private sector. She is working with him on search assignments. He advised that his background is in local government and he spent almost twenty years in city management. He was the Assistant City Manager in Garland, Texas and was City Manager of Denton, Texas for eight years prior to moving into the consulting field. Mr. Hartung advised that he has been with the Waters Consulting Group for seven and one- half years. Mr. Hartung said they were involved in a wide range of human resource management areas primarily with local government, but they also have clients in the private sector in a number of areas. He said they have clients all over the United States, but their home office is in Texas and their primary practice is in Texas. They have extensive experience as a firm and as individuals with local government in Texas. Mr. Hartung believed that their strength draws from this experience and they do have experience in local government. They know cities in Texas, and cities in Texas know them. He said that they are just a couple of hours away from Paris and this makes it easy to make meetings and communicate with Council. Mr. Hartung pointed out the City of Kerrville and the City of Mt. Pleasant. He said they had chosen the Waters Consulting Group to conduct the search for their last two City Managers. He advised that he did the search for Kerrville in 1987 and that manager stayed there unti12000 and when he left, the city asked the Waters Group to assist in the search for their next City Manager and they successfully completed that. Mr. Hartung said in 1999 they did the search for the City of Mt. Pleasant and recently the City Manager announced that he was leaving to go to the City of Lufkin, and they have been asked again to assist the City of Mt. Pleasant. Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 6 Mr. Hartung said their overview of a search is to a develop a profile and implement advertising strategy. They believe that this is one of the most critical steps in this whole process, particularly in the case of a city that has not gone through a search for a City Manager in a number of years. He felt it is a very important part of the process. He said that the profile is the job description plus, plus. It is a way to think through and really talk about with Council Members and others in the community as appropriate. What is it that they need at this point in the city's history in terms of background qualifications and even personal characteristics for that next City Manager; what are the things that will make someone most likely to be a successful City Manager in this community at this time. Mr. Hartung said the profile becomes the benchmark that is used in every step of the process as you move forward and receive resumes. It becomes the source of questions that you would ask candidates. It becomes a source of questions that you would ask references about those candidates, so, it is critical. He said that one other thing that the profile is used for is an advertising piece to be able to have a document to send to potential candidates to interest them in the position, because the profile will include not only the information about the candidate but also information about the community. What are some of the issues that are facing the community that would be addressed by the new City Manager? Mr. Hartung said they spend a considerable amount of time with individual Council Members, members of the staff and individuals from the community to gather information about the position of City Manager. Mr. Hartung advised that once they have completed the profile they will prepare advertising, placing it in various professional publications. In the past they published in Journals, which would take months. Now they have the internet and most advertising is done on the internet. He advised that they do not depend on advertising. They believe that it is an important part of the process because it is a way for the city to insure that there is open communication with the world at large about this particular vacancy. Mr. Hartung said they would contact people around the country, regionally or nationally, at the direction of the client to identify potential candidates. He said his experience is that often times the best candidates are not in an active job Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 7 market. They are people that have good j obs and happy with that j ob, but if you present them with the right opportunity, they can become interested in the job. He said the purpose of this first stage of this process Task 1 and Task 2 of the proposal that the Council has is to try to generate the best qualified candidates. Once they do that, then they will start doing the screening process and they move through Task 3 and 4. Then, they start to screen those candidates and compare those candidates to the profile developed with the City Council. They will evaluate their resumes and the purpose of that is not necessarily to identify at this particular time who the finalists are. It is really to identify those candidates that appear not to meet the profile that the city has indicated. He said at this point, they will conduct interviews with those candidates to gather additional information about those candidates' work experience. Mr. Hartung said the only predictor of success in a position is past success in the same or similar position; so, as they go through these interviews, what they are trying to discover is what have these people actually done, what are their accomplishments, and what have they achieved in their previous position. Then they will move to the background reference checks by contacting people that are familiar with their experience. Mr. Hartung said they have the ability to check the newspaper web sites and get articles about the candidates. He said they also partner with an investigative service company in background checks in the area of educational verification, consumer credit records, criminal records, civil litigation records, motor vehicle and other records. He also said they were prepared to meet with the Council at key points at their direction as to where they are at various stages. Mr. Hartung advised that once they get reference checks, then, they will prepare a report for the City Council that will identify the recommended finalists. He said there would be four to six finalists. They will prepare a book for the City Council that will have the candidates' resumes, their interview notes, and their reference notes so the Council will be able to see what the references said about each of the candidates. They will also prepare some suggested questions for the interviews. He said they will help with the final interviews and help the Council with the final negotiations. Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 8 Mr. Hartung called the Council's attention to Task 6, which is a personality assessment, that is available, which was developed by a group of Industrial Psychologists in Dallas. He said they have used this firm for their own potential employees and they think it is a valuable tool. He advised that this is an extra option and it is available to the City. Mayor Fendley said that on the professional fees, Mr. Hartung has broken down each category and wanted to know if that is all of the fee plus the Psychological Assessment, which is optionaL Mr. Hartung said they do charge for out of pocket expenses for things like travel, printing, and telephone charges. They do not charge for clerical fees. The fee for assisting in finding a new City Manager is $15,400.00, but no fee was stated for the out of pocket expenses, which could be capped. Mr. Hartung advised that the first three personality assessments are free, but each additional assessment would be $350.00 per candidate. Mr. Hartung advised that they manage the Texas Municipal League salary web site and there is a significant amount of information about City Managers' salaries and benefits that is available. He said he would be happy to provide the Council with a salary survey that would be similar to Paris. Councilman Wilson asked Mr. Hartung if they would cap their expenses. Mr. Hartung advised that he would be willing to do that if they were chosen. He said they only charge for out of pocket charges. Councilwoman Wilkerson asked Mr. Hartung who in the State of Texas with like population, has he assisted most recently for placement of a City Manager. Mr. Hartung advised that they have just completed a search for the City of Huntsville, Missouri City and they did Abilene about a year ago. Mr. Hartung said they offer a search triple guarantee, which means they will stay with the city until a decision is made and if the Council is not happy with the initial group of candidates, they will generate an additional group of candidates and will stay with the city until a decision is made. He said if they Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 9 do that search and for any reason the candidate leaves the employment of the City of Paris or is terminated with a 24 month time period they will redo the search. He also advised that they will not come back and solicit that person as long as he is employed by the City of Paris. Chuck Rohre, with Ralph Andersen and Associates, a California based firm, came forward giving background information on Ralph Andersen and Associates. He said their company has been in business over 30 years. They are a public sector, primarily executive search firm and they also do other services such as police promotional work and organizational studies, but about 90% of their business is for executive searches for cities and some counties. Mr. Rohre advised that he has been with this firm since 1992 and he now manages their operations for Texas and Southwestern United States. He said they have been involved in about 1300 executive searches and approximately 400 of those have been for City Managers, City Administrators, or other chief executives and about 40 of those are from Texas. Mr. Rohre said if the city hires them, he would be the city's contact person and the person that you will see on a day to day basis and doing most of the work of the search. Mr. Rohre stated that if the City of Paris hires his company, and when they start meeting with them until they are back in front of the Council with a recommended interview group, it is normally 90 to 100 days. Mr. Rohre said the first step in the process is developing a recruitment profile and it is very important that Ralph Anderson, as a search firm, have an accurate handle of what the city is looking for in terms of a City Manager. What level of experience, years of experience, what type strength is the city looking for, what type potential improvements are needed, and what could the city tolerate. Mr. Rohre said the city may have a person strong in financial matters, economic development and not as strong in some other areas, but if you have a pressing need for a certain area, then they would be aware of what strength the city is looking for. They would like to know what type of individual that will fit into the community. What would be the city's salary perimeter. He asked how could they describe Paris to an applicant who was not familiar with Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 10 Paris, Texas. All of that will be condensed into a recruitment brochure that they can publish on their web site. After the City Council has approved that profile, they get to the hard work and that is the direct contact with the candidates. He said they were not passive about this. If it was just a matter of announcing that there is a vacancy and waiting for the candidates to come to the city, there would be no need for a search firm. Mr. Rohre advised that the fee for the Ralph Andersen to represent the City of Paris would be $13,500.00 in fees and a cap of $6,500.00 would be for expenses. These expenses would be for advertising, travel, phone calls and printing. Mr. Rohre said the most recent placement in Texas was the City Manager of Sherman, which was two years ago. They have placed City Managers in Gainesville, Terrell, Longview and Tyler. No action was taken on a resolution authorizing a personal and professional services agreement with a search firm to conduct a personnel search for City Manager candidates. After discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to set a meeting for Friday, May 28, 2004 at 9:00 A.M. to consider this matter. Interim City Manager Townsend advised that the Waters Group is going to come back with an update on the salary survey that was done several years ago. Councilwoman Wilkerson asked if the city was pleased with what was received from the Waters Group. Gene Anderson, Director of Finance, informed the Council that generally speaking, they were pleased with their presentation. He said that no action was taken at the time because the implementation of the recommendation would have cost the city one-half of a million dollars. The work itself was good. Special City Council Meeting May 24, 2004 Page 11 Resolution No. 2004-095, approving plans and specifications for the construction of Lamar Avenue Utility Replacement Proj ect from 20th Street N.E. (F.M. 195) Collegiate Drive and authorizing the advertisement for bids for said construction was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilman Guest, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Mayor Fendley announced that the next item on the agenda was a resolution approving an agreement with Wollack Testing Service for the use of entry level examination for police and firefighter personnel pursuant to the Civil Service Act, and this item had been tabled at the last meeting. A motion was made by Councilman Guest, seconded by Councilman Poston to bring this item from the table. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. A resolution approving an agreement with Wollack Testing Service for the use of entry level examinations for police and firefighter personnel pursuant to the Civil Service Act, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Guest, seconded by Councilman Wilson to disapprove the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK