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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/04/1980 Meeting M I NUT E S e EUGENE CITY COUNCIL August 4, 1980 Special subcommittee meeting of the City Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by Council President Betty Smith at 8 a.m., August 4, 1980, in the Mayor's Office, with the following councilors present: Em il y Schue, Scott Lieuallen, and Gretchen Miller. 1. QUESTIONNAIRES FOR DEPARTMENT HEADS AND STAFF, AND FOR GENERAL PUBLIC Consensus among the subcommittee was to discuss the department heads questionnaire first. Mr. Lieuallen asked if there are sample questionnaires that could be used for this process. Pat Lynch distributed copies of the City Manager evaluation form to use as a possible guideline. Ms. Smith noted that she would ask the recruitment firm representatives that she speaks with if they have recommendations for the department heads questionnaire. Ms. Miller stated that there would be another questionnaire for City staff and e the general public which would be returned by October 8, 1980, the deadline date for submitting applications for the City Manager position. Ms. Smith noted that this would not allow this input to be placed into the profile of the ideal City Manager candidate. Ms. Miller suggested a mid-September date instead of the October 8 deadline. Ms. Schue asked how the questionnaires would be distributed to the public. Mr. Lieuallen responded that they would appear in newspapers and people would have an opportunity to provide input at a public hearing on August 13 during the City Council meeting. Lynda Nelson suggested that question- naires could be made available at Parks Department's fall registration , and sent out with Citizen Advisory Group mailings. Ms. Miller noted agreement and stated that this questionnaire should ask for qualities desired or undesirable attributes in the new City Manager. Mr. Lieuallen asked about the confidentiality of responses from the department heads and how this could be ensured. Ms. Smith suggested that they could be mailed to the Mayor's home. Ms. Miller suggested the questionnaires could be submitted anonymously. Mr. Lieuallen noted that in some cases, department heads are new and might not have as much knowl- edge of Eugene's government as some of the management staff within the e 8/4/80--1 respective departments. Ms. Miller suggested including a statement in the e questionnaire to include staff which the department heads feel could appropriately answer the questions. Mr. lieuallen asked how extensive this questionnaire would be and Ms. Smith responded that it would not be very extensive; it would include only six or eight questions. Mr. Lieuallen expressed concern that the questionnaire might be filled out by department heads in a way that would be evaluative of the current City Manager. Ms. Schue stated that she would hope the department heads would go beyond that. Ms. Miller suggested making the questions open- ended. In regard to the general public questionnaire, Ms. Schue asked how the information would be compiled and expressed a desire that the questions be standardized so they could be mathematically compiled. Mr. Lieuallen stated that one portion could be mathematically scorable but felt there also should be an area for additional comments or perhaps open-ended questions. Ms. Schue expressed concern that if answers to open-ended questions were well written that they might be weighted more heavily than they should be if they were only the opinion of one person. Mr. Lieuallen stated that the council would have to rely on staff to take care of this issue. Ms. Miller noted that if the questions were to be able to be mathematically scored, a better questionnaire would have to be developed. Mr. Lieuallen stated that if the council wants to know what people really e want then the council will have to read what they submit as input. Ms. Schue noted that she would like to be made aware of similarities occurring in numerous questionnaires. Pat Lynch, City Manger's Office, stated that he is troubled by the logistics, realizing the profile is to be developed by August 13. Ms. Smith stated the information compiled from the depart- ment head questionnaire would become a part of the profile but the input compiled from the questionnaire to the general public would not be. However, the general public would have an opportunity to speak at the public hearing on August 13. The information from the responses by the department heads would provide some perspective to the representative from the recruitment firm for the process of interviewing the councilors toward determining the profile for the ideal City Manager. Mr. lynch noted that the profile will include testimony from the public hearing as well as answers given by the councilors during the interviewing process. Mr. lieuallen stated that the department head questionnaire should be open-ended and his hope is that they will think about this matter in depth. He noted that there is a tremendous resource in the department heads. e 8/4/80--2 The quest ions to appear on the department head questionnaire were developed e as a rough draft and consensus of the subcommittee was to recommend these questions. The counci 1 ors wi 11 make a determi nat ion on the quest ions on Wednesday, August 6. 1. What qualities do you think are most important in a City Manager? 2. What qualities do you think are least desirable in a City Manager? 3. What leadership style do you think is appropriate for a City Manager? 4. What do you think is an appropriate department head/City Council relationship? How much direct access to the City Manager should there be? What should be the City Manager's role with the department heads? What is an appropriate City CouncillCity Manager relationship? 5. What background and experience should be sought for the position of City Manager? 6. Should the recruitment be regional or national? 7. What qualities in a City Manager are most important for positive relationships with the media and the general public? 8. Other comment s? e Subcommittee consensus was that the deadline for returning the question- naires by the department heads would be at noon on Monday, August 11, 1980. I Mr. Lynch stated that the recruiter might want to meet with department heads collectively or individually for additional input. Ms. Smith noted that the subcommittee dealing with selecting the recruit- ment firm had narrowed the choices to two firms. Ms. Miller indicated that she would like to see an open line of communica- tion between the department heads and the City Council during the selec- tion process. Ms. Miller asked, in regard to the questionnaire for the general public, if the questions would be open-ended or specific. Ms. Smith noted that Carol Baker, City Manager's Office, might be able to provide help develop- ing that particular questionnaire. She suggested that Beth Campbell, City Manager's Office, and Carol Baker assist in developing the questionnaire for the public with a rough draft to be returned to the council by e 8/4/80--3 Friday, August 8, 1980. Ms. Schue noted that she would like to see the e neighborhood newsletters contain the questionnaire. Ms. Nelson stated that the Parks Department's Leisure Schedule mi9ht be able to contain a brief statement for the fall schedule regarding the questionnaire. Mr. Lynch will attend to these items. I Consensus was for Greg Page, City Manager's Office, to receive the questionnaires completed by the general public. The meeting was adjourned. (Recorded by Lynda Nelson) LN:kb/CM7bI4 e e 8/4/80--4