Hiring a City Manager & the City Charter

When it comes to effectively recruiting, screening, and hiring employees, I can personally speak from experience*.  Please see the footnote on this article to see my Human Resources background.

At the City Council Workshop on January 3rd, 2011, Mayor Joe LaCascia and the rest of the Council showed how inexperienced they are in this very important aspect, even with obvious "on the spot coaching" throughout the meeting from Interim City Attorney Tom Cloud. Wisely, they contacted Range Riders, a retired group of volunteer former City and County Managers to assist in the search for a new City Manager.  Hopefully, this was not done for appearances only.  Mr. Dick Simmons, a Range Rider, gave a very good presentation to the council about what they can expect from the process and made several suggestions to effectively recruit for this position.  Mr. Simmons helped recruit for two of the city's former City Managers, and has worked in the past in several Central Florida cities both big and small. He is very aware of what skill sets, as well as special experience, running a city in this area will require.  Mr. Simmons offered some wise recommendations of what needs to be included in the job description and recruitment ad when finding a candidate who will be successful and last in their new position.  Sample ads were also provided, but seemed to be ignored.  Mr. Simmons and Mr. Mark Durbin, also a Range Rider, will assist in screening the candidates and also provide recommended interview questions that the council should ask each candidate. They also strongly advised that a thorough background check be done on any candidates they are considering.  A time frame of 3-4 months was estimated to find a replacement, if all goes as planned.  With this in mind, this process should have been started months earlier as previously recommended by Councilman Kimsey.

Hopefully, council will sharpen their listening skills quite a bit better than they demonstrated in last night's meeting.  Many times when Mr. Simmons did a good job of clarifying questions the council had, the Mayor attempted to restate his understanding of what was just said, and stated almost the exact opposite of the point Mr. Simmons was trying to make.  Understandably, Mr. Simmons looked a little frustrated on more than one occasion.  Prior to the meeting, the Mayor had attempted to do his homework, prepared some questions, and quoted some wording that he thought should be included in an effective recruitment ad.  In his insistence on sticking to his "Recruiting for Dummies" notes, many important points Mr. Simmons made clearly went over the Mayor and Vice Mayor's heads.

A recommendation made by both the Interim City Attorney, Tom Cloud, and the Range Riders of REQUIRING a bachelor's degree in either Business Administration or Public Administration seemed to just be brushed aside.  In addition to the Financial/Accounting aspect of a degree like this, additional required learning in aspects of marketing, management, economics, and personnel management is just as important. Instead, the council concluded that this BS degree would simply be "preferred" but not required, if the candidate has equivalent professional experience.  Is the council qualified to determine the professional experience equivalency of a BS degree in these fields?  Interview questions can only reveal so much and anyone can falsify or embellish on a resume.   All throughout the discussed list of job requirements for qualified candidates, the council "dumbed down" or lowered the recommendations from the Range Riders.  Understandably, the city will not be able to afford a razor sharp city manager with a long track record of strong experience, not to mention it may be tougher than usual to hire a qualified candidate considering the challenges Polk City is currently facing, but they seem to have lowered the requirements for the job considerably across the board.  Are they truly seeking a qualified City Manager or simply an Assistant City Manager?

To the knowledgeable public, it sure appeared that the required job experience and educational requirements were being reduced to parallel what the existing City Clerk, Patricia Jackson, has to offer, instead of sticking to the recommendations from the Range Riders and the City Attorney.  Here is a link to some information we found on Patricia Jackson's previous short terms as City Manager in both Mulberry and Eagle Lake.  Who is running Polk City?  If Ms. Jackson was such a wonderful City Manager, why would she have been fired from Eagle Lake and then accepted a much lesser position of City Clerk in a small city like Polk City in late 2008?  She might be a great City Clerk, but that doesn't automatically qualify her to be City Manager.  If this is the plan the Mayor and Vice Mayor have in mind, this move will simply guarantee continuation of the same complete control the Mayor and Vice Mayor currently have. 

Even the strongly recommended requirement of having the City Manager currently live within city limits, or be required to move to live within city limits within one year of accepting the position, was softened to be a "negotiable" time limit to meet this requirement.  Is this "negotiable" time frame similar to the seemingly never-ending "temporary" Interim City Manager/Council Member dual roll which will have lasted close to a year if this hiring process goes quickly?  Even the Mayor had concerns about where in the city the perspective City Manager might live, considering most of the city falls into two classifications: Taxed beyond affordability, i.e. Mt. Olive & Sandy Pointe, or the poverty stricken numbered streets areas.  What does this say about how the city is currently being run?

There was no mention during discussions about requiring the applicants to complete a standardized Application for Employment.  Are these applicants being scrutinized simply on the information included in their resumes?  How does that work with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) requirements that each applicant be considered on equal ground when professional resume writers are skilled in conveniently omitting information that is not as favorable, such as periods of unemployment between jobs or short tenures.  A classic example of this creative resume writing is listing only the years of employment instead of specific dates of employment.  An individual could say that they were employed from 2008-2009 at company XYZ, when in reality they were hired in December of 2008 and were fired by January, 2009.  Typically only standard applications will reveal these vital omissions.  Applications will also provide much more detailed information on salary ranges and contact information, used when background checked are performed.  Many times during these checks, former employers will not reveal any information other than job title, dates of employment, and possibly salary information.  A thorough investigation of previous employment should not be limited to the somewhat vague information provided by most HR Departments.  Direct contact with direct supervisors will sometimes reveal a more complete picture of past performance.  This contact information can many times be obtained from standard applications, when a resume would usually not provide that much detail.  Applications typically have a standard clause that disqualifies the applicant if the applicant intentionally falsifies their experience or educational background.  This is another safeguard that the city should strongly consider to avoid potential legal disputes.  The use of standardized applications for all qualified candidates will also make it much easier for the city to defend itself in the case that there is an EEOC claim filed against them on the basis of discrimination.  Since no opportunities for public comments or questions were allowed at the workshop, these important issues were never brought up.

The second part of the workshop, "Review of the City Charter", City Charter of Polk City was a complete waste of time if you have access to the internet.  The focus was on Article III, C-7 "Town Council", and Article V, C-21 "Administration", dealing with duties and responsibilities.  When this topic was brought up as an item of discussion at this workshop, one would expect that there were parts within the existing charter that council members felt needed to be improved or changed.  For instance, placing limits on the length of time an individual can serve in dual roles of Interim City Manager and Council person.  Or, possibly putting it in black and white that it is required that the City Manager be must live within city limits so they too can enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Instead, Councilwoman Adorno requested that the Mayor read to the audience of approximately 20 people specific sections of the City Charter word for word.  Even the Interim City Attorney, Mr. Cloud, rolled his eyes at the request.  I guess he didn't mind too much considering he's getting paid very generously for his time.

*My most relevant experience is that I have worked for several years for Nokia Mobile Phones, North America as a Human Resources Assistant, as well as working for the former Colonial BancGroup, N.A.. as a Human Resources Director for 4+ years running one of their two Operations Centers with a staff of approximately 120 people.  I also have a BS degree, double majoring in both Marketing and Management.  At Nokia, I recruited nationwide for many positions that were highly coveted in the industry.  The ads were run blind, intentionally not revealing the company name, and yet many times would produce thousands of resumes and hundreds of qualified candidates.  At Colonial, I was responsible for everything from recruiting and staffing entry level positions to top level executives, payroll, benefits, personnel relations, etc., with no HR staff besides myself.

Lisa B. Shifflett