His final day working for the city will be September 24th and he starts work for Solano County on September 27. He has pomised to help with the transition. The council has a couple of weeks more to determine who they should appoint as interim city manager.
The staff report states that “While it is suggested that the Council appoint an Interim or Acting City Manager to serve as City Manager in the short term, it is staff’s recommendation that the City Council open a recruitment to fill the position. A recruitment for the position of City Manager requires an extensive search and evaluation process and the hiring of a professional executive search firm that specializes in these services will aid the Council in their decision making process.
Further, “Cities commonly utilize the services of an outside recruitment firm for numerous reasons. Such as, their expertise that comes with conducting numerous searches, and the familiarity with the personal characteristics, experience, and knowledge that successful candidate possesses. In addition, executive search firms often have contacts with qualified candidates and are able to utilize their relationships to encourage those who best meet the needs of the City to apply for the position of City Manager.”
The staff report does not rule out current employees. “Current City employees would be free to apply for the position of City Manager during the recruitment process,” the report reads.
In fact, it is possible that the city may only look for internal candidates. “Alternatively, if City Council chooses to look only within the City at qualified internal candidates, the Council could appoint a current City of Davis employee to the position of City Manager without going through the recruitment process,” said the staff report.
However, the prevailing sentiment seems to be to keep the options open and according to the staff report, “Moving forward issuing the Request for Proposal will not limit Council options, since the Council could make a decision to make an internal appointment at any time in the process.”
A final note to report from last night’s meeting is that the staff report also suggested appointing a Council subcommittee. The subcommittee would not be a strong subcommittee and would only be used for facilitation. However, Councilmember Sue Greenwald who has generally opposed subcommittees on her tenure said she would prefer to allow the full body to work on this process as she felt this was important.
Councilmember Rochelle Swanson made a motion to name a subcommittee of Mayor Pro Tem Joe Krovoza and Councilmember Sue Greenwald.
Mayor Pro Tem Joe Krovoza then suggested that in order to show a united front perhaps the subcommittee should be the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.
However, Mayor Don Saylor suggested that a Krovoza-Greenwald subcommittee would be a better idea to get a diversity of views.
At that point, Mr. Krovoza dropped his objection. Sue Greenwald said that while she would prefer no subcommittee, if there is to be one she would like to serve on it since she would insure the participation of the full council.
Again, it does not appear that this is going to be a powerful subcommittee, but the discussion and group dynamics were a bit fascinating.
Commentary
Councilmember Sue Greenwald has signalled that she wants to at least consider an internal candidate. I think there is a feeling of being burned by the expensive and lengthy search for Jim Antonen and to have it not work out. There is always a risk.
I understand that we would like someone who lives here, who knows something of the “Davis culture,” who has a vested interest in our community. Bill Emlen did not live here but he knew the Davis culture and he did make an effort to come to community events and , as he suggested, more so than if he had actually lived here.
That said, we also need new ideas of how to run the city. It is definitely a balancing act, thus I favor a broad search. I would point out that I think Landy Black has done a very good job as police chief even though he did not come from Davis. He certainly understands the needs of our community better than some of his predecessors. I think there are problems internally.
James Hammond is a good example of an outsider candidate who brought change. He was selected for the purpose of bringing fresh ideas and changing the culture of the district. He succeeded in doing that in a short time. Hired next was Winfred Roberson, somewhat internal, though he had only been here a year, and he may have a similar orientation. I would like to see a James Hammond kind of hire for the City of Davis.
Sue Greenwald made a point last night that Jim Antonen was not change oriented and that is a definite concern in the current search. Obviously a stipulation put on choosing an outside candidate would be to be clear in understanding the role that they need to perform. If we want change then we need to bring in someone who is capable of making changes. If we want someone who understand Davis then we will have to specify that.
Personally, I’d like to see a change in the way Davis runs itself. The city itself is great but the city government could be stronger. There were positives and negatives with Bill Emlen, as with all people. The council will have to decide what it wants and then direct the search to find those things. Is this a foolproof process? By no means. We have to start somewhere – and expressing our prime values is the place to start.
—David M. Greenwald
The Council’s moves seem prudent for once…Bringing in a headhunter makes sense for such an important position. What is up with this though:
“Mayor Pro Tem Joe Krovoza then suggested that in order to show a united front perhaps the subcommittee should be the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.”
and Saylor jumping to Sue’s rescue? hmmm…
Just guessing:
Saylor wanted to back Rochelle; and/or,
in chess, sometimes you play for a “stalemate”
am guessing if either/both of those were Saylor’s goals, he achieved them…
My guess:
Rochelle made the motion.
Joe didn’t want to serve with Sue.
Don didn’t want to serve with Sue and also didn’t want to piss Sue off.
Don didn’t care about the committee since it has no real power and felt that he could buy goodwill with Sue if he placated her.
BTW, I’m being a bit facetious here, Sue please don’t take offense.
Hire from the outside , no qualified candidates working for the city .
I hope the Council has an open mind. It may very well be that they’d decided on an internal candidate and are just going through the motions. That’s a pretty standard ploy in many organizations. Its also consistent with some of the comments above.
I agree a change would be nice…though I do not expect that from our CC. If anything they have proved the old cliche’…the more things change the more they stay the same.
Davis is not a culture of revolution. Whoever is our next manager,there will be gradual incremental change. It will have little to do with personalities but rather that,much like the current state of affairs with the State and Feds, the political strategy of “kicking the can down the road” finally appears to have been exhausted.
davisite2:
THe problem is that they will kick the can down the road for a few more years and then find (metaphorically and maybe literally) that the road is full of potholes and poisonous snakes.
It would be nice to see some politicians with gumption and foresight…
Regarding the subcommittee appointment, this is what actually happened:
Staff said that searches typically last 6 to 9 months, and recommended a subcommittee. Don is leaving in three and a half months, if you discount Christmas vacation when city hall is closed.
I was recognized first, and I said that I thought the work should be done by the council as a whole without a subcommittee, since everyone should participate equally in this crucial decision. But if there were to be a subcommittee, I thought that Don Saylor should take a back seat, since he will probably not even be on the council when the search is completed, let alone have to serve with the new city manager.
I said right off the bat that if there were a subcommittee, I think it would make sense to appoint Joe Krovoza and myself, since, again, Don is leaving shortly and I am the only council member who has experienced working with John Meyer and Jeannie Hippler, and was the only councilmember involved in our last outside search, i.e., I had more experience with different city managers and different city manager recruitments.
Steve was recognized next. He said he agreed that the subcommittee should be myself and Joe. Rochelle spoke next and supported me and Joe. So there were three votes for a subcommittee of Joe and Sue. Joe spoke next and said that he understood that the committee was going to consist of Joe and Sue, but said that he was going to vote against it because he thought that the Mayor should be on the subcommittee. Don spoke next, and seeing that Joe/Sue appointment had three votes, said he would join the majority. Joe then said that he was afraid that if the mayor was not on the committee, it would give an outside candidate the idea that the council was fractured and dysfunctional and drive away good candidates.
I responded that we have a council/manager form of government, which means that all council members are equal and that the mayor only serves as the chair and ceremonial head, and that any city manager that we would want to hire should have a profound understanding of our form of government, and would also understand why a councilmember who was stepping down before the search as likely to be completed would not be on the subcommittee.
Before attributing ulterior motives to Joe other than those he expressed, you should probably ask him directly.
I want to reassure everybody: We made it clear last night that we have a very open mind regarding this appointment.
Many posters on this blog would like to see change. But I would caution that no matter how much interviewing one does or no matter how well one knows an employee, it is very difficult to predict how someone will function once attaining that much power, and especially the total power to appoint, promote and fire. One of the most important ways a city manager can effect change is by the quality of the people that they appoint to management positions, and to all other positions as well.
As it stands now, the City Council has no role whatsoever in staff appointments; we only hire and fire the city manager and city attorney. I have been told by our City Attorney that we can, as a general law city, change that and give the council a role in hiring. It is not customary, but is possible. I have, in the past, suggested exploring that option.
Other than the extraordinarily important responsibility of hiring and firing, the responsibility for change lies with the City Council. City Manager usually takes direction from the council majority, or tries to anticipate the direction that the council majority wants them to go on policy issues.
What is the status of the city attorney?
As I understand it, as of today, same basic personnel (on key issues), new firm. To my knowledge, seamless…
Sue’s description of the subcommittee’s creation is spot on. She reports my views well, and there’s no more to them than perhaps bending over backwards to make sure all know that a smooth and deliberate process is underway. Having the Mayor on the subcommittee might have helped that goal and reduced possible speculation. My colleagues disagreed. Fair enough. There’s no more to it than that. Sue and I will be a ministerial twosome between meetings to make sure things keep moving along and all major decisions come to the full council. All key pieces of the transition are moving along nicely.
Sue and Joe, thanks for keeping us updated on what is actually going on. It is appreciated…