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City Manager Taylor reiterated that the councilors could not be privy to information regarding the dismissal <br />of an employee by law. <br /> <br />Ms. Ortiz stressed that her intent was that councilors be provided some advance notice of an item that was <br />newsworthy. <br /> <br />Mr. Chouinard stated, regarding the one situation pertaining to a dismissal in the Fire Department, reporters <br />had called City Hall and staff had refused to discuss it, as per the law. The complainant in that incident then <br />went to the press and did not communicate her intent to do so to the City. <br /> <br />Ms. Ortiz asked how she was supposed to deal with the community when such issues arose. She acknowl- <br />edged that hiring and firing was not her purview. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark averred that the differentiation of what should rise to the level of a phone call was whether it was <br />a front page news story versus an event that might fall onto lesser pages of the newspaper. <br /> <br />Mr. Chouinard said he did not know how to fix a situation in which the City could not speak on a personnel <br />issue but the media found someone outside the City organization who was willing to speak on it. <br /> <br />City Manager Taylor asked for further clarification. He said when someone was hurt or killed as a result of <br />police action the council was notified. He noted that he received a report from Fire Chief Groves on <br />structure fires and wondered if the council wished to have this information as well. <br /> <br />Ms. Ortiz stressed that she was asking to be briefed in advance of items that would cause repercussions in <br />the community. She said there was a threshold and she believed that staff knew what it was. She indicated <br />that she would like to know whenever shots were fired. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman commented that she had “resigned [herself] to the fact [she] was not getting any information.” <br />She felt any time a reporter called City Hall for comment the council should be made aware of it. She said <br />one of the reasons the City Manager was the head of the organization was that he had discretionary <br />judgment. She thought it would be better for the City Manager to err on the side of caution when it came to <br />what to bring to the attention of the councilors. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor concurred. She echoed the statements of Ms. Bettman and Ms. Ortiz. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark called it an issue of political judgment. He said if something was politically sensitive it was more <br />likely to be politically controversial. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy did not want people to start “stirring” on why the elected officials were not responding; she <br />wanted to try to get out in front of issues in order to provide a “calming comment” or words to convey that <br />they knew what was happening and were working on it. <br /> <br />City Manager Taylor stated that it took him approximately three hours to give everyone a call. Mayor <br />Piercy responded that he should call her and she would call the council officers, Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Pryor, <br />and they could initiate calls to the others. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—City Council January 10, 2007 Page 7 <br /> Process Session <br /> <br />