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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.23.06 Special Council Minutes SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES January 23,2006 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Soderberg called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. APPROVE AGENDA MOTION by McKnight, second by Wilson to approve the agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 3. CITY ADMINISTRATOR SELECTION An evaluation has been done on one candidate. The Council needed to decide whether to make an offer of employment or continue the search. MOTION by McKnight, second by Fogarty to extend an offer of employment to Mr. Peter Herlofsky. Councilmember Wilson stated he has evaluated the information. In many ways this is a gut instinct as to what will be the best choice for the Council, City and the residents. With respect to Mr. Herlofsky, he identified some positive and negative things. Positive - he is clearly highly motivated. He will get things done for Farmington. He does not take things too personally. It is important to have an individual who is able to take the issues and deal with them. Based on his work in Crow Wing County he has at least as good a chance if not better of improving the relationship between the City and the School District. This is demonstrated through partnerships he has established in his current position. He is recognized as a leader in City and County organizations. Councilmember Wilson stated he will be voting against the offer. One of the concerns he has is a persistent reference from the applicant himself and from peers and from the management assessment that he wants a position to move closer to his family. This is a reasonable goal, but he has yet to see from the applicant a specific reference to wanting to move to Farmington because he is excited about the opportunity to work in Farmington. He is not convinced that he wants to move here as much to be in Farmington as he is to be somewhere closer to his family. After speaking with Martin McAllister, Councilmember Wilson is concerned about the applicant's stated behavior when he walked in the door. He enjoys looking for further opportunities. The stated behavior is that he was rude and abrasive when he arrived to take his assessment. That suggests that in situations he does not enjoy being in, that his initial reaction might be to become irritable or frustrated. Mr. Herlofsky will get things done that he wants to get done or can get done versus fully embracing the goals of Council. His track record is three to five years within an organization. Councilmember Wilson did not think this was a good deal for Farmington. He does not want to have an Administrator searching for a new job and forcing this Council to be looking again for an Administrator. This is among the top two or three decisions a Council will make. Councilmember Wilson did not feel comfortable having an individual here who takes ajob in part for it to be fun. Ajob will not be fun every day. There are challenges and frustrations. There will be situations that an Administrator has to deal with that are not enjoyable, but they have to get done. Councilmember Wilson was concerned that if the job did not seem fun to him, he might look for a different opportunity that might be fun. He was not confident in reading the reports that Special Council Meeting January 23, 2006 Page 2 he is as much of a team player as the Council and the management team, employees and the residents need to see. He is a straight shooter which is a good thing. On the other hand, that has the possibility of providing some murkiness in terms of direction. Management and Council need a unified direction and mission. Councilmember Wilson was looking at his motivation, not trying to discredit his character or the many good things he has done in his current position, he is just not convinced that his motivations are truly to be the Farmington City Administrator. His motivation is more driven to be closer to his family. Councilmember Wilson did not think it was a good deal for Farmington, or for the taxpayers to be spending resources on an individual that is not as interested in what he can do for Farmington and to change some of the dynamics that need to be changed from an administrative level. Councilmember Wilson stated he will be 125% behind Mr. Herlofsky ifthat is the goal of the majority of Council. It is his gut instinct that he is not the best choice. He does not like the idea of continuing the search process, but he wants to feel we are getting a good solid candidate and he is not convinced we are there with this individual. Councilmember Pritzlaff agreed with Councilmember Wilson. He took from the interviews that it was going to be fun, fun, fun. Councilmember Pritzlaff looks at Farmington as having a lot of challenges in and outside of City Hall. The business at hand first with City Hall and with the community and City has a whole. With so many things that have to be done in the City he does not see this as a fun, fun, fun process. Initially it will be a dredging process to get things more on an even keel on the Administrator's side as he would like to see it. He was taken aback on that. He wants it to be a hard working day rather than fun, fun, fun. Another issue is that if an offer would have come whether he would have accepted it. In reading the background information and the psychological test, he had the same issues as Councilmember Wilson. Councilmember Pritzlaff would have liked to have seen the answer as to why he wants to come to Farmington, something more to do with the City, whether it is the challenge, etc. He also saw that he was doing an immense favor to him to bring him closer to his family. Councilmember Pritzlaff also believes that family is important and it would have been nice for him to be closer to his family, but he has to look at the decision as to what would be best for Farmington and what he sees in the candidate. When Mr. Herlofsky showed up at Martin McAllister, Councilmember Pritzlafflooked at the psychological test as being an extension ofthe interview and also the background summary. In both cases several questions came to mind. Councilmember Pritzlaff felt this is a person that will move around in his position a lot. Ifthis was an extension of his interview he expected things to be more on the up and up and more professional. He was also concerned about the length oftime he would stay here. This has been a hard decision and process to go through. He would not want to set himself or someone else up in this position to have to go through this again in a short amount of time. In this field they do move about from time to time, but some Administrators in the immediate area have been around for a lot longer than five years and he would like to think that for all the work this Council has done that we would have someone for a longer time. As long as this process has taken, he feels some ofthese things that happened at Martin McAllister, Mr. Herlofsky wanted a Council to say no. In the back of his mind, would he rather decline or have the Council take him out of the running. If that needs to be done, Councilmember Pritzlaff does not have a problem making that decision. There is a question does he want to be here. If a job offer were presented to Mr. Herlofsky, Councilmember Pritzlaffwould stand behind him 100% plus, but he will vote no for this candidate as an Administrator and would Special Council Meeting January 23, 2006 Page 3 hope Mr. Herlofsky would prove him wrong and be the best Administrator for the City. If that happens, Councilmember Pritzlaff would have no problem saying he made the wrong decision. He will vote his gut and say that this is not the Administrator the City needs right now. As a further process, Councilmember Pritzlaffwould call back the rest of the pool instead of posting the position again. Councilmember McKnight stated he is very excited to hire this candidate. He has the experience and the reputation that will make him succeed in this town. Being an Administrator is a hard enoughjob. Being the first Administrator in a number of organizations makes it that much harder. The organizational issues he has had to face at Crow Wing County are very similar to what we are facing tonight and in the future in Farmington. Mr. Herlofsky has a reputation in this state and nationally as being a leader, being up front with you and telling you how it is. Councilmember McKnight had no problem with that. The number of people he has talked to that know Mr. Herlofsky in this profession and related to this profession say hire the man. Councilmember McKnight has gotten that impression from the first time they talked to him in September to the second time they talked to him in December. You want to look at someone's background, we all have something that we need to work on. Whatever his is, and that could potentially make it harder to succeed here, Mr. Herlofsky and the five Councilmembers need to note that and work on that. Councilmember McKnight feels Mr. Herlofsky will fit in great here in this town with the issues we have to deal with and he is ready to bring him on board as soon as possible. He appreciated the other Councilmembers comments that they might not want to vote for him, but do whatever it takes to make him succeed. He is on board with Mr. Herlofsky 100%. Councilmember Fogarty agreed with Councilmember McKnight. Her gut instinct is that Mr. Herlofsky will do great here. He will bring us to a whole new level that we are ready for. She interpreted many of the things that he said and did in much different ways. Both Councilmembers talked about how he wanted to have fun, and he did say that in his interview. The flip side is she thinks he considers the challenges fun, and she can appreciate that in him. Every new challenge that hits this door makes it fun and the idea that Farmington will have these types of adventures for him could keep him here longer than you think. There is a real concern with the time, but we are not going to find that in any candidate. It is the nature of the business. The time issue does not concern her. His resume is what it is because it is the nature of the field he is in. As far as the motivation for wanting to be here, she has no doubt that he is looking in the metro area because he wants to get closer to his family. She does not think we would have gotten the caliber of candidates that we got out of this pool had it not been for our location to the Twin Cities. She does not know if Mr. Herlofsky would have given us a second glance had we been a stand alone community far from the Twin Cities. She stands behind him 100%. Mayor Soderberg stated there is no doubt that Mr. Herlofsky is a man of impeccable integrity. Some of the concerns that have been voiced about family, Mayor Soderberg applauded for putting family first. He does not look at that as a negative. Were it not for his family, he would not look here he might stay right where he is at. Three to five years, that is the industry standard. He has been in his current position for five years. Given our recent history, that would be a long tenure here. Someone once told him that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. In everything you do there will be challenges, there will be drudgery, there will be things that are not considered fun, but Special Council Meeting January 23, 2006 Page 4 in the overall scheme of things if you enjoy what you are doing, it is fun. The fact that he wants to make it fun and have fun doing the job, that fun can carry on to everyone else. Ifpeople enjoy working, they will enjoy coming to work and it makes the place a lot better. Mr. Herlofsky might be direct, but there is nothing wrong with direct. Sometimes that is perceived as brash or abrasive, but that is the way it is. With regard to a team player, things that Mayor Soderberg read was that he will take input but when a decision needs to be made, he makes the decision. That is what leadership is about. He thinks Mr. Herlofsky will make a good addition to the City and -he would support making the offer to him. Councilmember Pritzlaff thanked the Mayor and Councilmember McKnight for taking the Council through the process and doing all the extra work and also thanked Human Resources Director Wendlandt for all the hard work and extra time she has put into this. Voting for: Soderberg, Fogarty, McKnight. Voting against: Pritzlaff, Wilson. MOTION CARRIED. The position will be offered to Mr. Herlofsky. Mayor Soderberg appreciated Councilmembers Pritzlaff and Wilson will support Mr. Herlofsky in his success ifhe accepts the job. Mayor Soderberg stated they need to talk about terms and conditions. City Attorney Jamnik stated given Mr. Herlofsky's experience and background we are going to be near the top of the range and top of all the parameters. We will make the offer tomorrow consistent with past practices and as low in the range as we can reasonably get, but we may be coming back to Council given the individual's current salary and benefit package. City Attorney Jamnik did not want to get authority tonight to exceed, but wanted Council to be apprised that we may not be able to wrap this up quickly. It may have to come back to Council. If it does, it would come back for the February 6,2006 Council meeting. If we have to have a special meeting we will call it. City Attorney J amnik prepared a draft based on what we have had previously and will send a copy to Council for their review and comment. It is basically the same contract as the last two Administrators with a few blanks. Mayor Soderberg agreed for Council to receive a draft and Councilmembers can call Attorney Jamnik directly with any comments. Councilmember Wilson noted it could be a lengthy timeframe between now and when he could start. He suggested Attorney J amnik encourage Mr. Herlofsky to start as soon as possible. Attorney Jamnik stated if we cannot get a full time initial start date, if we can do some initial consulting and work sessions we will try to work those in. A lot will be dependent on his schedule and family situation. Mayor Soderberg stated he has spoken with Mr. Herlofsky and he does have some commitments for February and March. Attorney J amnik stated we have enough to proceed and start negotiations and will get back to Council as soon as possible. Councilmember Fogarty stated she would like to see a six month clause in the contract. If things do not work out, she hates to see taxpayer dollars expended. It bothers her that we are locked into the severance packages no matter what. Even if it is a unanimous decision that it is time for something to separate. It is all on the person coming to work here. If things do not work the taxpayers have to pay. Attorney J amnik stated that will be very difficult given the situation, what he is leaving and what he is going into with a 3-2 vote. It will be one of the challenges. Special Council Meeting January 23, 2006 Page 5 4. ADJOURN MOTION by Fogarty, second by McKnight to adjourn at 6:01 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, ~~}r7~~ c/ Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant