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Mr. Kelly said it was somewhat dismaying to him to say that the issue was not political while <br />making political statements. He believed the average tenure for city managers was about ten <br />years, so whoever was hired to be the next manager would deal with several councils. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly asked Mr. Meisner if he could think of any way the 1996 experience could have been <br />improved short of having a vote. Mr. Meisner said no. He said that it was easy to say, as his <br />predecessor had done, that they would vote the way the incoming candidate wanted, until they <br />disagreed with the incoming candidate. He wanted the incoming councilors' participation to be <br />real. He said that the decision to hire was not the only one of concern to him; he was also <br />concerned about the process of winnowing the list of candidates. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly said it was his impression the late time line had the current council doing the winnowing <br />process. Mr. Chouinard agreed. Mr. Meisner said that he was not happy about that fact. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly indicated he would place a motion on the floor that appeared to reflect the council <br />majority: <br /> <br /> Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to adopt Option A. <br /> <br />Mr. Farr opposed the motion. He did not think anyone could argue that there was going to be a <br />"sea change" on the council. He wanted to ensue that the right decision was made by those who <br />would have to live with the change. <br /> <br /> Mr. Rayor, seconded by Mr. Farr, moved to amend the motion to substitute <br /> Option B. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor hoped that Mr. Carlson would apply for and receive the job of city manager. He said <br />that the time the process took was because there was no need for haste; the City had a steady <br />"hand on the tiller." <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor said the council would have to stop everything if it had to wait on newly elected people. <br />She pointed out that the manager would have to work with a new council in another two years. <br />She thought a good manager should be able to work with any council. She thought the appeal of <br />Eugene would be sufficient for any new manager. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap8 said the recruiter recommended that the council wait and involve the new councilors in <br />the hiring of the manager. He supported the motion. <br /> <br /> Mr. Pap8 called for the question, seconded by Mr. Farr. The motion to call <br /> the question failed for lack of a two-thirds majority vote, 5:3; Mr. Kelly, Ms. <br /> Bettman, and Ms. Taylor voting no. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman agreed that the new council would not be a "sea change" politically. However, she <br />had watched since October as the majority of the council postponed the decision, and felt strongly <br />that those who were not represented were the citizens of Eugene, who deserve a topnotch city <br />manager. The council should begin the recruitment process soon, because the time line might not <br />hold. She believed the councilor could be in the position of hiring the manager in January 2003 <br />anyway, and the new councilors would have a vote. She believed the council had been derelict in <br />not addressing the issue to this point. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 10, 2002 Page 11 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />