2000-01-31MOUND CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2000
The City Council of the City of Mound, Hennepin County, Minnesota, met in a special session
on Monday, January 31, 2000, at 6:30 PM, in the Conference Room at 5341 Maywood Road,
in said City.
Those present were Mayor Pat Meisel, Councilmembers: Andrea Ahrens, Bob Brown, Mark
Hanus, Leah Weycker. Also in attendance were Acting City Manager Fran Clark, and
consultant Jim Mercer
The Mayor opened the meeting at 6:35 p.m.
REVIEW OF RESUM~ FOR CITY MANAGER POSITION WITH CONSULTANT JIM
MERCER
Mercer provided an update on the search for a new City Manager. He stated that they had
received 52 applications, which he considered a good response. He added that there were a
number of good people that applied from all over the United States. Mercer stated that he
had narrowed the applications down to 17 people.
Ahrens asked what criteria Mercer used to nan'ow the applicants down to 17. Mercer said
that he used the information that he received from the Council at the preapplicafion meeting
to determine who to choose. He reported that he had also contacted the City Attorney and
she told him how to proceed with this process. He then presented a packet to each of the
Councilmembers and the Acting city Manager with lettered resumes.
Mercer went through the resumes by letter. He noted that Resume Z was a local person, and
even though he did not think that this person met the criteria for the job, he wanted to make
the Council aware that a local resident had applied for the position. He suggested that the
Council look over the resumes and provide feed back to him in a day or two. He asked that
they narrow the applicants down to seven or eight people.
Hanus asked if the Council should just send their votes to Mercer and then he would tally the
results. Mercer said that this was a good idea, and that he might need to meet with the
Council again if they each pick totally different people as candidates for the job.
Brown asked if it was against any policies to ask someone for their age on an application.
Mayor Meisel said that it was against federal laws to do so.
Mercer explained that there were several Minnesotans who applied for the job, and who he
thinks could be qualified for the position. This might be useful because they know the
system and they would not have to move as far as others might.
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Mercer went through Resume A and noted that this person was a City Administer in a
community of 4,500 people, and had a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree, both with
honors. This person also had 6 years of experience.
Resume B was from a person who was City Administrator in Iowa ~nd they had been in the
position for wo years. Mercer added that prior to this position, this person had been a
Planner in a county government. This person had a Master's Degree.
Hanus asked if any of these 17 applicants had been notified at this point. Mercer said that
they would not be notified until they made it into the final list of applicants.
Mercer reported that the person who sent in Resume C was a City Administrator in
Minnesota, and he/she had some Planning and Development experience. This person had 9
years of experience, and was currently working on a Master's Degree.
Resume D, as Mercer explained, was sent in by someone who was a City Manager in
Alaska, and Illinois. This person had a degree Fisheries Biology. This person has ten years
experience.
Brown asked if any applicants had a military background. Mercer said that if they did, it
would probably be listed on the resume.
Weycker noted that the Council should keep in mind that salaries in Alaska are drastically
different than they are here, and that this person's salary requirements were high because of
that.
Mercer said that the person who sent in Resume E was currently a City Administrator in
Minnesota, and much of this person's career had been in Minnesota. This person had 16
years of experience.
Resume F is a person who worked in the State of Washington as a City Administrator.
Mercer noted that this person had some short stints as an Assistant City Manager. He will
need to do some research as to why this had happened.
Mercer reported that Resume G was from a person that he knew. He added that the person's
resume was not great, but the applicant was a good person. The person had 25 years of
experience, a Bachelor's Degree in English, and a Master's of Fine Arts in Writing.
Mercer reported that Resume has been an Administrator in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Resume I was from someone who had been out of a job for a year, and Mercer said that he
would have to do a great deal of checking on this person.
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Mercer commented that Resume J was from a City Administrator in Minnesota. This person
had a Master's in Public Administration, and currently worked in a community of 3,800
people.
Resume K was from a person who was a City Administrator in a third tier suburb of
Minneapolis. Mercer pointed out that this person had military experience and had 15 years
of public sector experience.
Mercer stated that a City Administrator in Wisconsin sent in Resume L. Brown noticed that
the person did not want anyone in the town that he/she worked in to be contacted. This
person worked in the same town for six years, and the town was about the same size as
Mound. He/she had a Community and Economic Development background and had a
Master's Degree.
Mercer said that Resume M was City Manager in Wisconsin for a community of 10,000
people. This person was not at the City any more and Mercer did not know why. Mercer
noted that this person was in the military as well. He said that this candidate worked for a
private company in Iowa. He said that he should do some more checking on this applicant.
Resume N was from a person who was a Village Administrator in Illinois for a village of
4,095 people. Mercer commented that this applicant appeared fairly new to the profession.
This applicant had a Master's Degree and TIF and redevelopment background. Mercer
pointed out that somebody new to the profession is not necessarily bad because this person
might be hungry for a job and have new ideas.
Resume O was from a person in Texas, and has experience as a City Secretary and a Fire
Marshall. Mercer said that this person worked in small towns in Texas. The Council noted
that this person spoke four languages.
Mercer reported that Resume P was from someone who has worked in Minnesota for three
years as an Administrator/Clerk/Treasurer. This person reviewed and processed TIF
applications.
Hanus commented that they might be more interested in someone that did more than process
TIF applications. Mayor Meisel said that it is still important to have a basic understanding
of the applications.
Mercer said that Resume Q was from a City Manager in Iowa, and worked in a town of
5,600 for four years. This person left this position and Mercer did not know why. This
person also worked as an Assistant City Manager of a large city in Michigan.
The final Resume R was from a town administrator in New Hampshire. Mercer said that it
appeared that it was early in this person's career as he/she was a Management Intern in
1997. This candidate received a Bachelor's Degree in 1996 and a Master's Degree in 1997.
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Mercer told the Council that they should take some time to look at the resumes and get back
to him individually with each Councilmember's top seven or eight candidates.
Mayor Meisel pointed out that if some Councilmembers did not feel comfortable enough with
the candidates to recommend seven or eight, they should just pick who they feel comfortable
with.
Ahrens commented that there is a lot of information that they did not have on many of these
candidates. Hanus recommended that they not throw out candidates because of a lack of
information, as this can be explored further later.
Mercer asked if the Council could get him their recommendations by Friday, February 4.
He said that he would tally up the results and then perform background checks on the
applicants that they like.
Mayor Meisel commented that she would rather do the interviews before the background
checks are done. She said that if she were doing it herself, she would do a background
check on the person that would be offered the job, and make the offer contingent upon and
acceptable background check.
Weycker asked if they could mn into problems by offering a job without knowing a person's
background, and rescinding a job offer after it was made.
Hanus remarked that they could use anything that they found that was negative in the
background check as a reason for rescinding the offer.
Mercer commented that he has done it both ways, and could do this however the Council
chose to do it. He went on to say that if they wanted to interview five people, it could
potentially take three weeks or more to do background checks. Mercer said that they would
probably be safe with making an offer contingent upon a background check.
Brown asked if it would be better for the Council to get together on Saturday morning to
review everyone's choices and make one recommendation to Mercer.
Weycker added that they were paying Mercer to do that for them. The Council concurred
that meeting on Saturday was not necessary.
Hanus asked what the chances were that a good candidate could slip away from them through
this, process.
Mercer explained that this usually does not happen, but if he believed that a good candidate
was being overlooked, he would push the Council to reconsider that applicant.
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Mercer asked the Council to set a date for the interviews, and he recommended that they be
held in two to tlu'ee weeks. He added that it is always better to have the interviews on a
Friday or a Monday so the applicants can make travel plans. It could be a one or two day
process, but Mercer recommended that the Council use a one day interview process.
Hanus asked if interviews were ever done on a weekend. Mercer said that they are
sometimes held on weekends.
Brown added that a Saturday interview might not be a bad idea and they could put the
candidates up in a hotel.
The Council agreed that February 25 was the only day to hold the interviews because of
vacations that were planned by the Councilmembers. The interviews would be held at 10:00
a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Mercer concluded by saying that he would provide a report to the Council that included
sample interview questions, evaluation forms and other interview strategies before the
interviews.
MOTION BY BROWN, SECONDED BY WEYCKER, TO ADJOURN THIS
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Francene C. Clark, Acting City Manager
Secretary
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