of office and finance. I would have to say my weaknesses are control. I like to be in control and I like to make sure that things are done efficiently and properly. So really, cushion control would be a weakness for me. My second question, I guess one of the major debates on the City Commission through the years is sort of the role of the City Manager and the City Commission. So our charter states that the city manager is the chief administrative officer of the city and that the city manager works under the supervision and direction of the city commission. If you could explain what your view is, like in practice, how the relative roles of the commission and the city manager and the commission. Is your question, how does the City Manager manager operational role work with the commission? I'm trying to understand. Correct. Like how do you see that charter directive of the city manager working under the supervision and direction of the city commission mean in practical terms, how would does that work out? You know, in your view. And technically the commission is the umbrella of the city. And the city manager is the arm of the umbrella. So the city manager will work or should work hand in hand with the commission. There should be open communication. There should be consistency that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. of the city of the City Commission has its directives for the city and those are implemented by the city manager so the communication between the two is important. So how if I think this has been a rub, I think this has been a rub in the past, is that I think your view is that the city commission should seek out the city manager for information. any aspect to the city that individually we need to go to the city manager and ask questions with rather than there being regular communication coming from the city manager to keep the city commission a breast of the administration of the city. I know you know in the past we have you know some reports not very many it's just hard to know what's going on within the city. I think the city commission has given away a lot of control to the city manager with various decisions that have been made. So it becomes more and more difficult to get a handle on what's happening within the city. I mean, do you have any plans of how you would improve that communication and flow of information? So there's no misunderstandings and that everybody saw the same page. Oh, thank you for that's clarify that Communication is key in any organization any relationship I Don't fully feel that it is the commission's responsibility to reach out to the city manager for information However, I do think it's important that if the commissioner has a question that is vital to a decision and that commissioner does not have a clear understanding, he or she should reach out to the city manager for that clarification. Now, go as a city manager or as a manager in general, information should be passed down to the commission. I think there should be weekly, by weekly summaries sent out to the commissioners of anything that is of relative nature to what's going on in the city. So there needs to be that upfront communication with the city commissioners. So that if any rumors are on the streets, he or she should be able to combat those rumors or have a response for those rumors. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For your interest in the position. You state you mentioned like weekly and biweekly summaries and I like that idea. So what are your thoughts? What would be appropriate to be in such a report weekly or biweekly? So in all honesty, there are several departments under the city management umbrella, right? So there's a lot going on. So in order to keep you abreast, I think that it will be a responsible methodology to at the end of the week or whenever time deems possible to send an email to all of you stating what is going on and give you that opportunity to respond to questions that you may have. I mean, it's a difficult and challenging process to do something along those lines, but I think it's important because if you don't know what's going on, you don't know what questions to ask, and you don't know how to filter the questions or to fill the questions that may be opposed to to you in your day to day walk. And should you be city manager what are your thoughts mean because even a plough or job like this you have to think about the future what would your what do you think the first, have you identified any priorities that you think that you would address? Yes. I have three priorities, initial initiatives. One is to update the personnel policy. I think it's, the personnel policy is rather antiquated and it needs to be updated. Staff needs to know where they are, where they're going. And I think there also needs to be some form of succession plan created so that we're all aging to that retirement phase. So I think it's important that there is a process put in place so that this type of situation where you are searching and looking for a city manager that you have someone if only as an interim basis that can step into that role until you can feel that role and staff and staff and staff and staff and staff and staff and staff, along with performing and being prepared for the budget process, which is right around the corner. Other than I don't have any other direct questions, I have reviewed your resume, your letter of application. Thank you. Did you have any general statements that you wanted to make to the commission today? I do, and I'll make it at the end. Thank you. Thank you for asking that. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Elliott. Thank you. I ask my questions for you. It'll be slightly different than other candidates because with other candidates, I don't have the pleasure of already knowing them a bit So I don't have as many question marks about your character your ethics morals background because I know some of those already So I think kind of skip over some of those more basic questions The one of the primary questions I had commissioner Duncan already asked is If hired what would your top three priorities be? And you did answer that but the follow up to that is What would you say are the top three? existential problems that the city is facing what are the three biggest problems that we are facing that we need to tackle. Communication is a major issue. I think that creating the dialogue is key to fixing the problems that are underlying. One of the issues is the Otterscrawler. I mean, we need to look into getting that taken care of and that that happened relatively quickly. It is making sure that the department heads are functioning and communicating with me or with whom over the city manager work on infrastructure and making sure that the city is heard on the state level. I feel like I have created a relationship on the state level and which is going to be key in moving forward and taking care of some of the major issues that we have. Our infrastructure is very old and it requires some attention, immediate attention. Thank you, yes. One of the things, I guess, kind of Refraising this a little bit We talked about Strengths and weaknesses Can you give me an example of a particular situation of Adversity or problem in the workplace and how you overcame it? I've had a few. So I'm trying to think as a female manager. It has been difficult to take directives from a female manager. So overcome that, pretty much sit back and allow the voice to be heard, let give them the audience, create an atmosphere that both he, she, we can work together in coming up with a solution. There's always a compromise somewhere, but you have to be open to allow that compromise to take place. That is fantastic and that is all of my questions because if I continue I'm just going to start to understand redundant. But thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. I would rather you not leave the mayor. but that aside, I too am interested in, you know, staff is our most valuable asset. And I think the longer you've been at this, the more you realize that is making that everybody sing on key is how work it's done. And I know we really need that right now. I read over your application. I know you had experience managing staff. I think it's one of the issues we face here is a way to finally institute performance evaluations and ways for people to climb the ladder. You did mention that that was something that she would implement. And I appreciate that. The just looking down the list trying to figure out you talked about working with lobbyists, which was one of my questions. As you know, municipal budgeting is very valuable. We ended up in a situation this year because we needed in terms of oversight over the budget. So have you got a plan to, that doesn't happen again and get us back on track. We were looking pretty good a few years ago, so I'm hoping that that will be the case. With my background in finance and in budgeting, one of the things that I will do is look at the budget and its totality where we stand year to date and projections of where we need going forward to the end of the budget year. So that is my plan is to come in and work if I have to with finance director to make sure that we have current and financials because we need to know where we are. We need to know how we're going, where we're going and how we're going to get there. There are quite a few things that need to be taken care of and we need to know that we have the funds to do that. I also agree that communication is the key. We're really lacking that. And terms of communication with our citizens on a regular basis and communications internally which we've discussed. I think setting up regular meetings is having weekly reports would do a lot to see that happen. Do you have any other suggestions in mind that could help us? The commission communicate regularly with its citizens and an example of that would be, you know, we had a collapse of the generation for the water tank. So now all of us are experiencing it. Some sulfur smells and I still don't know if we ever put anything about that on our website. So it would be nice to have somebody who could get out in front of that maybe a point staff person working with staff to see how that could happen. I agree that their needs to be a proactive measure versus a reactive when things happen. You need to be aware of those things happening. And as a city staff need to get that information out to the community so that and keep it in the face of the community, especially if there's going to be an extended period of time of not having the issue resolved. So just need to keep that information in the forefront. And it would be ideal to have a communications person on staff, but of course we don't have the fund, so you have to share some duties. I think we have to be aware staff that, because you have a title that that isn't the only thing that you do. You have where multiple hats, the jobs that I've been in, if you don't have the team members to do it, then you I take on that responsibility and make sure it's done. I think it's important that they're across training because we are short staffed, the city of short staff, there's not enough personnel to go around to meet all of the needs, so there needs to be that cross-training. And I would propose to implement cross-training. Two questions. Are you able to work with the stated salary of $80,000? Is that something you could live with and when would you be able to start? That is something I could live with starting out and I understand the constraints of the city. So I would not want to put any hardship on the city, financially, there's still a lot to do. And I could start whenever an agreement is reached. Other questions from the commission? If there are no further questions, I just said one legal point, just for clarification for the audience. thing is that I know at the last meeting the mayor indicated to choose applying for the job. And now that she has, she is acting, acting mayor right now as a need of grove. The mayor has recused herself from the hiring process and any vote on this. So, and is that that that's on advice about your own, questioning and advice of council. So, that's where we stand as far as that, if there's any confusion. I'd like to do a wrap-up statement. Yes, please. Again, thank you for this opportunity to stand before you and be interviewed for this position. I've resided in an appalachia Call of a 44 years. I am a professional, passionate team-oriented leader with experience and finance, mortgage lending, management, operations, and government. As a strategic executive, I excelled in leading diverse teams, achieving business objectives, and managing key accounts while effectively meeting meeting clients needs. I'm a seasoned professional who has a strong passion for the community that I live in. And because of this strong passion, it inspired me to enter in politics in 2009. I've worked closely with the city manager. I've attended legislative sessions and delegation state committee meetings, local county meetings and staff meetings. As you know, I previously served as a general matter of the Saint George Plantation Owners Association. I was over in that role. Three years operations managers for six years. I've managed administrative departments, oversaw annual budgets, created monthly meeting material, facilitated board of directors and committee meetings and responded to and corresponded with vendors. In addition to my experience in the community association management and government, I have over 20 years in lending experience from my previous roles as Assistant Vice President and the Linda Division of Centennial Bank, formerly Gulf State Community Bank. My expertise encompasses consumer commercial lending to name a few. Appalachical is my home. I raise my children here. I graduated from Appalachical High School. I live in shop in Appalachia College. I pay taxes in Appalachia College. I am invested in Appalachia College. And I think that I am a ideal candidate for the position. Thank you for your time. And if there are no further questions, I will... Rec progress. Okay, thank you. All right, next interview is while you're queuing that up, I wanted to read. the City of Apple, I'll call for read the ad for the audience. City of Apple Apple, I just seeking a full time city manager, the city is a council manager, a former government has a population of 2400 and in your budget are approximately $4 million,, building department and code enforcement. The city also operates as enterprise funds water department, wastewater department, a commercial marina, recreation marina, and additional information is available on the website. The I, the candidate will be experienced in communication, community relations, administration leadership, personnel management, municipal accounting, financial management, budget preparation, economic development, strategic planning. A degree in public administration, business, or related field, and or five years of public administration experience is is desirable. Starting salary is at $80,000 depending on qualifications and experience. Benefits include health insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, retirement through the Florida retirement system, paid holidays, accrued vacation sick leave. We had, correct me if I'm wrong, we have 17 applications. We felt that six were met the qualifications to be interviewed. Right now. Next we have, I guess we, Matthew Spock. We'll have two minutes. the . We have a position for six weeks on the Florida League of cities.. City website, the website. Thank you. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to go to the next page. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. I'm going to start with the first one. Good afternoon. met our gaped able to hear? One moment. Let me unmute your mic. There we go. Are you here? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Hi, Mr. Spock. Hello, my name is Lily. Good, good, welcome to the interview for City Manager. We are gonna, I'm acting as Mayor Pro Tem, Anita Grove, my colleague to my left is Commissioner Adren Elliott, Commissioner Donna Duncan, and Commissioner Desvin at George. We'll kind of do a round robin, asking you questions, and then we'll go back and see if anybody else has any questions, and then we will allow you to do a wrap up at the end. So it's 3.30 now, we'll go ahead and get started. Thank you. Donna, would you like to go first this time? Good afternoon, Mr. Sputck. How are you? Thank you. Thank you for applying for the position. The first question I have for you is, what do you think is your greatest strength in being a manager? And being in here I think it's um, um, realizing the strategic plan that the council is putting in place. Um, I think that technically used to repel the same plan that the council is putting in place and we're technically used to policy when Terry's the most the policy in place enjoyed and towards exceeding the next stage. Yes, sir. Thank you. And Should you be selected for this position? How do you foresee relocating to Appalachic of Florida. We have a bed and breakfast here and they are my wife runs, so we would have to scale that down and sell that. So we've talked about that. The reason that I'm leaving, I'm sure somebody's going to ask, is because my wife and I made a 10-year commitment to do this bed and breakfast with eight years. It typically takes a while on the cell. So that's why I'm putting my my net on the water drain now so that when the himself will be ready to go. Now let me answer your question. And it will as you call it, it sounds a lot like a reencock with a story town where the watermen are in back then, the crab and the oyster. So it's very similar that way. The size, about a about a thousand lower people than I've got. So relocating to a town or to a city, a really similar to the one we live, you're very happy here. So that looks and promising to both of us. We also, we, some of them say George, I don't like you, I don't like other people have. So we've been there to learn, we've experienced the stories and we've experienced the beaches that's everything. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I have no further questions. Ms. Eurelia. Thank you. I guess this question is just going... This question is just going to be a little more so on the background. Thank you for giving your relevance like to the area. My first question for you was going to be, have you actually been to that Black CORE? Are you familiar with the region, which it sounds like you have been here before? My question is, what would be just on the surface level as someone that wants to come in as a manager? What are issues or problems you see already here or issues you see that we could be working to address? and the unit's a very fair question. I spent a good amount of time waiting me, AC, AC, and CSC, and I noticed that probably so are a lot of probably two of the biggest changes that Dr. Rene was produced in 23, so I don't know how much progress has been made since then. But as far as what I saw, the budget was incredibly detailed and well done. The history in the Apple Asher Colour was told well and read well. The website gave me every piece of information that I was looking for. So I think whoever is lucky, we have to take this job is going to be an expert at state and federal funding for sooner and water. Yes, that is definitely one of our top priorities here. I have a little more questions about some of your technical background, I would say. So I guess your community relations and communications. So tell me more about the website that you designed, an app for visitors, initiated And there's newsletter. These are exactly the type of communications that we need to do here. We have a need for PR in general. So can you talk to me a little bit about how you do that there and what some of the results have that have been? Sure. And this one of the things that I just believe that a small community can't over communicate. And we must win, win, win, but in a way, it's just true when it happens everywhere. So when you communicate, and honestly, in an open way you communicate, to make the better the experience for the resident. So the first thing to do is a website. The first thing to do is a website. I'm shameless this way. There's a website competition for towns and I picked the format of the winning website. So when you look at it, that means the town website that won the award for national national best town website and you personalized it to make it work and feel the way we are. You know all of the... and you personalized it to make it work and feel the way we are. You know all of the convenience of paying online, subscribing to board packets. We send that email out the book packets to anybody who asks for them. We send that email out the book packets to anybody who asks for them. We send a call of major minutes and read the notes. I'm going to be waiting one this afternoon because Wednesday, we'll be closing Liberty Street and it goes on. So we'll be signs of all over the place. But if people know that it's coming, then it's not a surprise. Nobody's speaking really about it. And people understand why it's happening. As far as the app is concerned, I know that most people do business on their phones now. So if you go to either Apple or Android Store and download a mancock, you'll I'll see what I do is if you touch it, you'll get 10,000, another one on it, and each one is next. and then you can go to the main course and you'll see what I do is you can touch it or you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can go to the main course and then you can touch that bridge of your website. So it really makes it easy. It also allows you to plan your day. We want to make sure we do this. We want to make sure we do this. Also, that's some interesting things that I've added later like a tree walk. and you've got some special trees in town that are very, very interesting. So you've got a tree walk and you've got a historic house to it. So that type of thing you're all on the app so you can experience an aircock in a way that's beautiful for you. Not everybody wants to go to the art galleries, but we will start away with some of the restaurants. Excellent. Thank you so much. One more question for now, and then I'm going to hand it back off. So currently, Ashtown Manager, there, how large is your staff? What is the total number of employees you're responsible for overseeing on a daily basis? My staff is incredibly strong with four police officers in the area of six of the employees. That's it. Okay. We have closed the road and run-'re staying. There's a big chance I'll have my boots on down here making sure that you get away safe and have a leader on site. Gotcha. Okay. One more question just to go on with that. So because you have such a small staff, I think it's probably safe to assume like us in a small community, You can't really afford to have high turnover in a lot of these positions. So tell me what your conflict resolution looks like when you've got personalities conflicting or things that need to be addressed professionally in the workplace. And once again, I think communication helps every Monday morning. I've got my public works at the department. And we all sit together and we'll talk about what we're going to be doing that week. I know I've got two of my two of the three have an issue with one another. The way that we work through that is I'll meet conversation. You know, victory took the screen off of the pump, but it sucked out of the box and now I gotta take this over here. You know, and we'll just talk that through about how you can resolve it, how it needs to happen and where you get this resolved. As far as creating a work environment where conflict is limited, I think that's probably the most important thing. It is, you know, a few slide-matter desk out and it says, make it a great place to work. And that's Really and that's really what comes down to us. Understanding everybody's role, making sure everybody understands their importance and achieving this the strategic plan of the council because a lot of times people feel And I'm just going to be able to get a simple statement from what's happening. I don't know the strategy either. So tell me everybody how they feel, how important they are. And we, you know, I've had several fights with nationals. We'll please get's good to learn. So, really making a place where laughter is natural, and it comes easy, but when your age conflict walk it through, and cock it immensely through, sometimes somebody is going to yell, and you know, the other person needs to be able to hear that, but then also the leader has to be able to settle that down so that it's a conversation out of screen. Thank you so much, Mr. Spock. I will hand it off now. Thank you. Mr. George. Hi, Mr. Spock. Thank you. Going through your resume, I see you have a quite very background starting out in finance that looks like and on to consulting for nonprofit organizations and then maybe business consulting after that around the time you purchase the end and then on onto town manager, which seems kind of had no prior experience in government type. So what prompted you to take on the... I just want to ask a quick question. The way I backed the teenager was, I loved local politics, so I was attending the town council meetings. I just sit in the back and play my phone and listen and you know, what was that guy? Somebody stepped down from her, Laura, because of the conflict, and they said, you know, I here here anyway, when you point you, you know, until the seat comes up for election, it was only a few months. So I took the chair and ran it as publicly elected. In a halfway through the term, we were not going to be renewing the contract for the current term manager. So, you know, somebody say, hey, man, you'd be pretty good at this. Why do you think about it? So I did what you talked about, and we obviously took very serious interviews or haircut to take the job, but I really do believe that the background was eclectic as it is. Add value to it, especially in the school stuff. The great way to experience a health and all the the nonprofit work, I've raised millions of dollars in grant by grant for a little time. We didn't use any business during COVID, not long. So, you know, the third plus the accounting for nonprofit for governorial is very, very, very similar and thumbed again, even both is almost exactly the same. So that gave me a leg up on finances and as far as operations are concerned, that was chief operating officer for two different organizations. so that gave me the experience in public works that most folks just don't have. And you know, some of the things that I know about most accounts, so we collected background actually helps with that small team that I've got. If you were to be our city manager, I mean, Apple has called me seems like a very small city, but your city is a lot smaller. What do you believe you would have to do to gear up to to manage a larger city with more? I think first of all, I get to know each of the department heads, pretty carefully, and every person is different and every person learns and communicates differently. You know, some people just weren't either, the community didn't decide the door and have a cup of coffee, and I don't know what's going on. Other people need to sit down in the formal setting. So, we should realize we need to be communicating in what way that builds the trust and that builds the communication. So, starting with department heads and I need to be working my way down through obviously the assets that are most important to me is valuable to ecological revenues. So we make it a great place to work. We get to know people. We get to know their learning style. We get to know their learning style, their communication style. and then we all work together toward one direction and we can make that happen even better. So staff first, second would be, probably, business owners, I would want to go through and make sure that everybody sees my face and knows who I am. And I think that they can reach out every time that they want. And my self-being is in which quarter-up. I didn't mind it for a one second because without our revenues, without our residents and without our businesses, we're not much of a town. So, every business owner will feel hurt and to feel part of every idea is not a good one. So, we have to be able to share more things as well. Do you just describe to me how you communicate with your town council both formally, you know, how the meetings are structured for you to give information to the town council and also what you do to keep them abreast of the activities. We're average emails and say something's going on. So for example, we got new friends yesterday that the time is allowed to charge a cigarette tax on every car sold and there's no effort in our part. The distributors for the cigarettes companies are required to submit the dollar amounts. That one goes over me now. Um, I don't know what I call my name. I'm requiring a submitted dollar amount. That amount goes over email. I read a email that I called my media report with some months, which is in much more detail about everything that's going on and from staffs and grants to problems with roads to, you know, I talk about staff and I think they did communicate with mostly via email and I really pick up the phone call because they are better 7 phone balls and then And the person that, with 6 persons, doesn't get the same conversation as the fifth. So, even as a big tool of mine, and, yeah, so text message, you've seen that it has a quick and easy question or does it involve the rest of the council? A big question. I see on your resume that your salary requirement is $135,000. Our starting pay for this position is $80,000. Yeah, I saw that. Honestly, that's a concern because the cost of real estate around Appalachia Corp is not commensurate with that salary. So that's it. If I can't afford to live in a way where I work, that's a strategic value. I think it's where I can be addressed. For example, we can create an escalation clause in the contract and so that within three years and yet a regular I can move within the city limits. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Quickly running out of time. So I had a few questions for you. I'm gonna try to address things that weren't addressed I'm a little unsure do you actually operate water and sewer for the city? So you you provide stormwater water and sewer And actions that I devise here here, and drinking water and distribution center belongs to the town, and it's sort of a period. And certainly operating it for the first three years and when it was able to transfer ownership over to a large regional authority who was able to know where our facilities up to speed is and is a new requirement that's coming in 2025 that it will be very difficult for a small municipality to afford to comply with. So we will have a transfer that system. We're at a label. We don't have to go down. We don't have to go down. I just have a couple minutes to go. So we're going to get an idea. So, um, and what is your annual budget there? Two point four main. And are you at all from your point? Four plus the water of four main 20,000. So, she's done good 3. Okay, great. And you said that you might be some time before you could actually start the position. Well, so what would be like your earliest availability? And, of my rules, the world where I be working at my college, being a sooner-than-a-lake equal to language. Okay. We've got five more minutes. Did you have a closing statement for a couple of minutes? One of the things when I was reading through the website was the I think it, almost an assumption of funding for the water in the sewer. You'd listed in SimFly and you'd occasionally through a few days there. My question would be how confident are you that your funding is available because it's absolutely critical. We have a lot of programs that we work with currently. The legislature has been giving us some allocations to use some stormwater infiltration studies. We also at Area State Critical Concern, which is the work plan that you had read. And we hope to get that funded, which is $5 million over five years. So we're chipping away at that. It's a little difficult to let the, get the legislature to let go of it all at one time. But we work with them on the list to see that that moves forward every year. In fact, session starts in a couple of weeks. We're going to be going up there to actually lobby for that to get their money released. And we do get a lot of grants. We got an $18 million grant to redo the wastewater treatment plant. But like all small cities, well all cities period the investment in infrastructure has been delayed because nobody wants to pay increased taxes. I'm sure you suffer that up in Virginia also. Yes, we do. Yeah. I'm recording that. Those were the questions that I had. I think I saw that there were records of 30 staff members. 34. Which, which, you know, just see the debut because I made with the direct level people and scale that back down. So, I mean, when I say 100, I boots are standing in a ditch, that would not be the same level that I would have and aquararchical or much more strategic that way and much more driven that way. And I think that is a problem with my two adjectives. What if you even talk about me? Thank you. I do have one quick question. We talked about your request for a salary amount and the possibility of escalation over time. You also put plus relocation. Do you have a general figure? Thank you. You knew I was a general figure of what you think it might would cost you to relocate. I don't think it's going to be an actual question. I was the worst in the furniture and run on it, and I would say, I would say, in the weather, we we all cross, we do the workers, all the so. And it's a 5,000 or less. Right. Thank you very much. And since we have just one more minute here, are you familiar with the Florida Sunshine Law? Have you ever run across that in your Okay, thank you. Well, thank you so much for your time and we will be in touch. We've got to move on to our next interview. So We will show the very best and most sure you make the best choice for yourself. Thank you, Mr. Spock. Thank you. Take care. Next, we have Michael Brillhart. Recording in progress. Good afternoon Michael would you please unmute your mic and make your video visible, please? Maybe you're still muted, there you go. Thank you. And the commission will now take over. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brillhart for coming to the interview. I'm going to let my colleagues ask questions before I do. And I guess we'll start with Adrian. Let me'm Mr. L.A., I should say. Thank you. And maybe it'd be good to introduce ourselfs now, since he is. All right, Mr. Brillhart. Thank you for interviewing with us today. I am going to jump right into it. So based off of your work history and your resume, it seems that you started out pretty strongly in government sector roles and then kind of transitioned more into shorter tenure in these roles once you migrated away from Florida. So I just wanted to ask a little background on what kind of led to these transitions between Florida to Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and then back down to Florida. Yes, thank you. I do have a lot of experience in carrying together the United States and the government in Florida. I've had a home here for 27 years. I love it. But I was content with the 20-17 years. I love it. When I was contacted through the years by profanities that I've worked with in the city community management profession, on opportunities to take on shoulder roles in work from an environment to an environment that becomes permanent, which was the case in Bonstable County. King of the County was also an interim and currently working as an interim in Crenson City, Florida. So I've been able to use my skills to take on key critical transitions to serve as a city manager, a Canadian manager, a Canadian administrator, in one of a short term role. Although, I have experienced working anywhere from three to five years in local government capacities up to nine years in city and UC County. So I've had as you mentioned, a transition over the last probably seven years, but now I'm in a position where I can move on from the transitional meeting a benefit role to be being a more of a long term benefit role. I understand. Thank you. now right now with your position in Crescent City as an interim city manager, if you were to be selected for this role, what would your timeline look like in making sure their community is set up and making your transition up here to ours? Yes, the transition could be within a three-week time frame. I think I've been training an assistance-setting manager to work on all the projects that were currently involved in, taking on personnel, as an insurance assignments. I've been getting a budget process already, so I will be able to make that transition within a three-week time frame. Okay, fantastic. And I apologize if I did miss this particular part in your application, but the posted salary that we have $80,000. Do you have any concerns on that or any questions? Just a question. Is the JD 1000 the minimum salary or is that the established salary? That is presently our established salary for the role, just a very brief bit of background so we don't get too into the details now. We have only just had in recent few years, a salary study, and implemented types of pay scales for these roles. So they've only just been created. And there's still work to be done in that arena. So our manager pay is starting out, starting out at $80,000. It also includes on top of that, there's benefits. Yes, full benefits. So the salary, fiscal year is $80,000, but full benefits is larger than that. So, yes, thank you for sharing that with me. OK, I'll go ahead and hand it off now. This is Commissioner Desperant of George? Well, I'm Mr. Braille Hart. Okay. So I see you attended USF and Tampa. So you're originally a Floridian and? That's correct. I wrote down the master's from University of South Florida. There was a great year, a program and it was something that I really enjoyed doing. I was also working for Premier and the Community Government in Clearwater during that time frame, so I was working four-time, plus four-hour was a week and then driving three times a week over to the team, but so it was quite a good deal but it was an excuse that I thoroughly enjoyed. Okay so is your goal now I mean I see you're you're serving as an interim city manager and Crescent City is currently interviewing for a permanent city manager so you weren't you're're not interested in that position or you also pursuing that. My goal is to once again return to a community in Florida that I think is a good fit for me. And I like the golf. So I like to be with a lot of bummed-in and fishing. And so Chris and Cindy don't have a nice link. It's about a 50-minute drive to the ocean. So it's not something that I'm interested in personally at this time. OK. I see. OK. A question I always have is if you could describe your methods that you use as a county manager and as a city manager to keep the commission informed of the operation of the city, both formally and in the commission meetings and informally during the month. Yes. For each meeting, you have a staff report that's anywhere from a minimum of two pages to usually five pages that describes the ongoing effort regarding staff and operations, or improvements, concerns or issues that are typically either a project or regulatory in nature. Not only that, but I also have send out emails to all of it, to all the electric body regarding projects or programs. I put together an annual staff report or a message in the budget to the elected body and readable to the general public. So I keep the elected body informed on avoiding your issues. I'm on a daily day or on a weekly basis. desire of the elected body. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Duncan. Good afternoon. Mr. Brewerhart. My name is Donna Duncan. And thank you for interviewing with us today. I just have a question. Thank you. A couple of follow-up questions. Commissioner Elliott asked you about the salary. Did you have a salary amount in mind that you would like to request and does that include relocation? Well, I think that's a great question. It would depend on a lot of the interests of the board, all the benefits that are capable, whether or not there's relocation expenses. Typically, in my parents' work, there's always been a relocation expense. So that's open for discussion obviously based upon the financial capabilities of the city. Okay. And I'm Commissioner Grove acting as mayor mayor pro-tim at the moment Trying to pick up questions that other people may not have asked in terms of communications internally and externally How do you keep the community informed and keep your staff informed? Yes, I like to make sure that we're posting information on our community website. Data and knowledge information on our Facebook page. I see that something that you're making in the utility bill that highlights projects, programs, communication, communication, scolenders and events schedules that the city is involved with. In addition, in other communities, I've put together an annual staff report that's typically posted within the site, a newspaper, so a newspaper ad in, and I can have it available on the local newspaper's website, so that everyone should be affected, stay covered with people that are not living in the community, but let me know a little bit more information, have that capability. And are you familiar with working with legislative staff to move the city's budgets forward? Are lobbyists to do that for you? I've done so with both city and county government recently I put together a $5.4 million dollar request to the Clinton County legislative delegation. And it's last year we received, which had just a number of involvement in about 3 million. So yes, I do have that experience. For the people who enjoy it. And in your current, well, I know through all of your many positions, you've managed utilities. We manage our water, wastewater, and storm water here, which is amazing, amazingly expensive, as you know. and that we have been working hard to improve our infrastructure with our city manager and planners help. We have been very fortunate. We are considered an area of state critical concern and the legislature finally approved that two years ago. And now $5 million worth of funding goes along with that, but getting that money in hand has been difficult. So we get it in projects mostly. So hopefully we'll find out more this year, but it does take some considerable lobbying to keep that in in the minds of our legislatures. So do you have experience working with the legislature on a one-to-one basis? I do. Again, both at the city and the county level. I work with state legislators, I work with state legislators and senators. I've worked with line-beam groups, hired out of Washington to move forward specific projects. Press and cities in their critical concern. So we received that funding and what our critical room was right now was being a project manager overseeing a water and sewer line replacement, just got done with a roadway project, working on a new fire station. So those types of things I'm involved in and actually have a lot of experience in and the project management, growing funding and writing and working with legislative authorities on requests. Are you, as you know, staff is the city's most valuable asset. Do you have experience in writing performance evaluations? And we've had a salary study done, and we're getting our salaries updated based on a three-year plan. And we're trying to bring in performance evaluations on an annual basis to help staff stay longer in their positions or move up. Do you have experience in performance, writing performance evaluations and setting those systems up? I do have experience in writing, performance evaluations, about the technical analysis and methodology. That's become part of the personal policy and procedures manual. And I've also worked with three or four different consulting firms on doing competitive analysis with other jurisdictions within the region and or state? A follow-up question, Commissioner Elliott. Yes, thank you. So because with your work history, you have done a lot of larger scale projects. We're going to have a much smaller staff here. It's going to be a much more intimate environment, a lot of personality, not just within staff, but within the public. Applash Cola is one of those places that can be described as we're all characters here. So I'd like to know a little bit about your personal, interpersonal management style, how you deal with conflict in the workplace, and how resolutions can be found. Yes, I'm currently working in an organization that has 23 full-time and about 10 part-time. So I'm familiar with small organizations and the personnel dynamics that are involved in smaller communities. As such, I'm really hands on collaborative. I like to sit down with staff, citizens, and even elected officials that have conflicts or concerns on personnel or projects that are not being accomplished accordingly. And so I have that hands-on collaborative approach and I enjoy dealing with those issues on a day-to-day basis. Thank you. That was my only follow-up question there. Would you like to give us a closing statement or? Let's take. I wouldn't say to say that I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss my background and experience and interest in that that you come here. I think it's a great community. I've been there on some side seeing related activities. So I appreciate being considered for this chance to serve as the city manager. Questions? All right. Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate you taking the time to interview and So we're in for 10 minute break. We're here for 10 minute break. Thank you. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know, I'm just a can make some difference. Yeah. I have a lib down there. I have a lib down there. I have a lib down there. I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I think you're going to do something. I'm going to have to go to the grocery store. I'm going to have to go to the grocery store. I'm going to have to go to the grocery store. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I'm going to play with this. Yeah. I just like I just went with it. Yeah, I just like I just went with it. Yeah, I just like say something on the, uh, I would. the Thank thing. Early cycle. I'm just a very sickle. First hand, I do know it's nervous, turn 23. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You got a whole ranking system before. Oh, um, imagine that. So, I know this is Jackson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but I don't. So the first one is process. Yeah. the All things around, I'm just pushing. I'm going to try to hold it down, but I'm going to be arranged. I'm going to get one more. Hi. I I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I've never taught something. What is the thing, Monsieur? So we're both of these guys that you fairly simple to Google I'm doing the press bookings in for Ed and have it in charge with something that we can do that. That's important. So whatever you do today, whichever direction you go, you need to have a set for next week or something or later this week. You know, Travis's last days on Friday, I didn't even go to. And a little bit of time to be there. But I, what do you want to do to help? That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. I'm and And I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be a junior. Best show this is now. I'm a junior. I love that. I'm a junior. I'm a junior. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. I'm sure you're going to be able to do this. is one day back. The manager of what we called an OBS technical unit. So basically, I was over a statewide help desk in which I managed about five employees. And we did anything from ensuring that all of the security access was approved and that we kept up with all of the different responsibilities related to that, whether it was through FDLE audits and ensuring that our statewide population that utilizes the systems that we had, that they could get in and had the abilities to do what they needed plus do the training for all of those entities. We also oversaw what we call the court order payment system. So if there was any conflicts with any payments or any issues that was gone on with that, we had that responsibility to resolve those issues and create whatever resolution was needed for whether it was us having to go back to the courts or having to go in and adjust accounts and announce. We also oversaw the policy and procedures for our compliance with the policies and procedures and compliance with state statutes so that we could supervise our offender population. Like I'm missing one other entity that we we had but we were a statewide customer service help desk so I managed those employees in that particular department. Okay. Okay. And as far as your availability, you're currently working. Correct. I am. Okay. So when would you be available if you were selected for this position? I usually like to get least give two weeks notice, but whatever we could work out, you know, I'm very open to anything. My supervisor and my current position is well aware of, my applying for this position. So they have an expectation that something may happen. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I'm well over you. Good, thank you. In some of I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will in conflict resolution? I would like to say that I am pretty, I have pretty good skills with conflict resolution. I've really partake in a lot of motivational interviewing and being able to deal with everything that I've dealt with as far as having to resolve people who are really high, you know, I don't know how to describe it, but very upset, very, you know, I've been able to minimize the conflict and be able to get it down to at least to where we can have a conversation about what we need to do and how we need to approach the situation. Instead of just a whole bunch of yelling and screaming and not getting anywhere or people being upset. So I like to utilize the motivational interviewing and the leadership skills that I've obtained throughout my experience as well as the training courses that I've had. And I'm trying to think about this question. Because in this position, as a city manager, you'd have department heads and then those department heads would also have employees. How would you describe yourself as a manager? Do you think, do you have any problem just telling people what to do? Oh, absolutely not. I began, I was a probation officer for 22 years, I believe, give and take. So being able to give direction and instruction, that's not an issue and or a problem a problem. Obviously with employees, you have to treat it a little bit differently because of the fact that they are employees. But yet again, giving a direction or instruction is completely different than not a tempting to resolve situations, but making sure and ensuring that we're being very objective and dealing with whatever the issue may be so that we can come to a feasible resolution to this situation. And I notice that your current address is Crawfordville. Would you continue to reside in Crawfordville or would you be looking to relocate or what are your thoughts about that? My plan is to relocate if chosen for the position. I'm halfway in Franklin County in most of the time anyway, especially during the summer time, so it's not that big of a skip for me. But yes, I do plan to relocate. I have a 15 year old daughter that I'm to have to put out there on the streets right now and Tallahassee traffic is not the most ideal place to teach a child to drive. So we're looking for that hometown, small town feel. And the reason I ask is when the last place I lived before I moved home completely was Crawfordville and my son was 13 at the time. So I completely understand that. But I'm, so would you, I noticed on here that you put like 81.5 as your requested salary, which is very close to the advertised amount, would you also be looking for like a relocation package? And if that was the case, what do you think it would cost you to relocate? I don't have far to relocate so that's not something I'm really interested in. I think that it's very feasible that I'm not moving from out of state or anything like that. So that would not be something that I would request at this point. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Commissioner Elliott. Thank you. Always an excellent opportunity to have another fellow daughter of Athleticola here with us. So you do have a little bit of background in town, so to speak, with more of our issues. So I'll jump right to if hired, kind of a two-part question. One is what are top three problems that you see in town that the city commission, the city manager needs to be taking steps to address and going along with that is if selected what would be your top three priorities as a manager starting out. Ooh. Um, I guess I'm not sure if I have a top three just because I'm not here on a day-based kind of basis. But I would still like to see like the tourism to continue, but also that hometown feel. I feel like there's a little bit of that that's kind of starting to disappear just because we've lost a lot of resources that really kept families here for as long as you know some of the families have been around. So just to be able to see you know or be able to try to define other entities that we may be able to keep families wanting to stay and be hometown people. That's fantastic. I do a lot of work trying to help with affordable housing and looking for continuing economic development here. So that's excellent. Going back to if you were hired as the manager, stepping into that role, what would be your plan? Like your first 100 days, your first 30 days, you're getting your feet under you, what are you doing? Well, the first few, at least weeks to months, would be just trying to learn the landscape of how the government is laid out. Trying to meet everyone, trying to learn those people to establish those relationships, not just to be somebody who just comes in and just starts giving orders in direction and without knowing exactly who people are or what they do. I'm very, I'm one of these hands on kind of people. I don't just sit behind a desk and, you know, I travel to state of Florida right now in my current position because I try to establish those bonds and those relationships with anybody that I'm working with. So if it takes me away for a few days to a week, then that's what I do. So being able to make sure that I, number one, get that opportunity to be able to do that. And then to look into any existing issues that have been addressed, I've been looking through agendas and things like that, but of course that's just limited information. So it would be nice to be able to get a little bit more background information on those kinds of things, such as, I know you guys are looking at the office situation, trying to relocate City Seahaw and I've seen some of the establishments that you guys have had for refurbishing and revitalizing the parks and things of that nature. So being able to get back to those projects and being able to see what I may be able to lend a hand to and what are the resources that we may be able to come up with or find. I'd like to think outside of the box on a lot of things. So just not just kicking something to the curb because it wasn't my idea, but see what we can do in order to make that a priority to finish out those projects and those things for the city of Apolachola. Thank you. Guess all I've got right now. Thank you. Okay. Yes thank you for coming down. As you know the city manager is responsible for overseeing we have 34 staff that work in various departments. The budget overseeing the budget, getting the budget communicating with the board, this commission. Do you have any experience in communicating with a board of commission? I'm too, I mean, not necessarily. And seeing that things are moving forward items, whether it be water and sewer repairs or, you know, along those lines. Yes, ma'am, I absolutely do. I do a lot of program negotiations and so I have said on many, many projects, especially whenever I was in my former role as a supervisor, to where we would start projects off and then have to continuously make sure that we're moving through that we're on budget. I currently oversee a statewide program now in which every year I'm bringing on institutions to deliver the program that I oversee. So I'm in charge of the training, setting up all of that stuff. I'm a one-man shop, so I don't get anyone else to be able to do anything for me. So I do have that experience on making sure that I report it back to my bureau chief and my director each week. So then that way we can make sure that we're still on schedule for whatever the next timely agenda that we need to accomplish. Are you familiar with managing a municipal budget? I do not have specific experience in that, NAMAM. I have done some budgeting, but that's probably because of the fact that it's a state government. I was the lower man on the total polls, so I didn't have to necessarily focus directly on that. So. Grants, do you have a background successfully writing grants for projects such as, you know, we write grants for anything from trees in the park to repairing underwater, stormwater infrastructure, water plant upgrades, things by that nature. Do you have any experience with grants? I do not. Okay. I mean, I look at everything as a challenge and it would be a new challenge for me to be able to learn those things, something that I'm very excited about possibly doing. So, but I do not currently have any experience with that. What do of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a. I had to relieve two of my former employees. Also, it was a little hard because you're in state government. Rewarding, where you have a performance, we had a group come in and do an evaluation of getting our salaries to a better level. So we have a three year plan to raise the salaries of our staff to get them more competitive with area rural communities. So we need to implement a performance evaluation on a regular basis, annual basis with check-ins six months in. So do you have any experience with that sort of performance evaluation? Yes, ma'am, I do. Okay. As a supervisor, we had to do a performance evaluation on each one of the employees. If they come in as a new employee, we had a 12-month probationary evaluation we had to do, and then we would start our annual evaluation each year thereafter. And I, of course, have one on me and every entity that I've had. So I am very aware of how to lay out the, you know, whatever each one of the law enforcement words, all of a sudden, I apologize for that, but to set up each one of the lost my word all of a sudden I apologize for that but to set up each one of the steps to determine what you know we're going to scale them against to be able to give them some type of you know numbering system and then we had ours we have to go so far as if it's anything outside of a three we have to be able to justify either way so it's not just putting the number down if they're above or if they're below you have to give the reasoning why so it's very in depth and and very informative you know regardless of the whatever you may receive on it it's very informative and it breaks down each one of your tasks and duties and allows for responses back and forth and things of that nature so yes ma'am I'm familiar with this. Would you like to give a wrap-up statement? Okay well I am again I would love the opportunity to be able to come back to Appalachia Cola. Just in my current position, there's not a whole lot. I have been in and out of Appalachia Cola. I've supervised in this area multiple times over the last few years, well, probably the last ten years. So I've never really been far away. I've just not lived here precisely. But I would love that opportunity to expand my horizons. I would love that opportunity to be able to come back to Franklin County and to Appalachia Cola and to be able to give back to my community in a more direct way, as opposed to my former employment with us. I kind of feel like always was the bad guy and everything I did. So, but being able to promote Apple Aptokola in such a way that it continues to have people want to come in and want to either move in and establish a business here, or to help the everyday citizens that's already here by improving the city as much as we can. Anyone else have any other questions? Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate you coming down. Absolutely, thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it. All right. So next up we have TJ Fish. We have about 10 more minutes. I'm going to call him on. Okay, well, if he's available, I mean give him my heads up that we're recording in progress. Thank you. Okay. Good afternoon, TJ. Okay. Welcome to your interview and now the commission will take over. Hi, Mr. Fish. I'm Anita Grove. I'm Commissioner Acting as Mayor Pro Tem. With me, I have Commissioner Elliott on my far left and Commissioner Donna Duncan and Commissioner George to my right. We were going to kind of round robin ask you a few questions, and I will start with, I guess we're back to Commissioner Duncan. Sorry, I took my microphone on. So my first question is, well, thank you for your application. I read your cover letter and your application. Thank you so much. I noted that your current salary where you're at now is $126,000. Did you, what are your thoughts about the fact that right now the salary is advertised at $80,000 annually. That's a wonderful question because we all need to be up and safe and agile. Thank you for understanding. I'm happy to have you here. This process is going to be a little bit more difficult. I need to do a lot more for certain than I suspect. I think it's going to be a short-term question again. You need to have some last facts and think how this is going to be. I've made people yell, I're getting down to the last six and three houses for the United States and for the United States for the United States. But after that, the plight of the mountain was down and we were back. It's not a range. Unfortunately, the mountain is a starting range. Do you understand the facilities for the notion of the first tribe that was about that position? We want to be able to, I hate it. I will see you next time to be able to save the first. I will not being, um, I hate. I'm used to this as a topic to be the same. I'm not looking for a job. I'm not a man. I'm successful. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not I'm not a separate person, I enjoy being a part of your town and you should be a part of it. And I've been visiting right with the last two years and I've had a candidate to my life since I had a business in. What if? And so I can decide to talk to him. And as I said, in the body of the Bay, they have a tolerance system, my current with a best balance, so we do have that as well. It's going to be a trifle benefit. Thank you. So in your... How would you describe yourself as a supervisor, as a manager of others? I think because I consider the costumant to battery, it's not really, it's not looking for battery, it's not looking for battery, it's not looking for battery, it's too different to be able to use it. I think I can't believe it's not five years. I think I can't believe it. I think I can give the right of the source box. I think that's what I think. I am sure we're not allowed to... of religions, ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic ethnic major decisions. It's a lot of my experience and my gut often, so I think that's a fair amount of decisions I can give about that. Thank you. I think we're sending you a message to adjust your mic. Okay. And I'm using a zero-click. I need to hear from you about that because you can't put the same zoom in the mic. Just has a little static. I'm going to take that sounds a lot better. Wait. Okay. Is that all Commissioner Duncan? Yes, thank you. Commissioner Elliott. Thank you very much. How are you today? What's the appointment days? Love Mondays. Glad one of us does. So, with the staff that you manage now, so we have a staff that's around, the same size you said around 30-35. So that's about the same size staff that you would be working with here. Now, something in this role would be, I would see a lot of cross training. So I see that you've already got a good bit of experience being a direct director of transportation in public works. Our public works in water and sewer department are two of our most crucial departments here. So how do you feel about getting literally in the trenches, seeing what is actually going on in Appalachia Cola to figure out what's happening there, because as someone that deals with public infrastructure, that is a lot of the time the only way you can figure out what's really going on with it. I'm not going to manager with a lot of definitely biases. I love my love to be helpful, but I love everything. And I love it. And to be honest, as well as the fact that I like to be helpful, not to be helpful as needed. And sometimes you don't have to consider it as a bad relationship level. I look at that. I'm almost releasing experience and being with the doctor to share this briefly, because I don't really the town's not with the birth and the birth of a gentleman's 25,000 people are not in this institute here. And I'd like to consider the first thing of all, is to evaluate the connection between these and IPA and our interest in science and biggest problem, and small difference, and the problem is how the efficiencies that I have that are built in the specific DDPP potential sections and something that I think is more diverse. So I understand that the electrical violence has some more experience. And compliance is extremely important. Especially when you're already getting better in class one, every way that you see what you got or part of it, of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state, and I've been working with the state of the state, And that's the way we treat our water use buildings. We also have a clinic called the Asanadin. I have the station, people of our small city of heaven, the place of our plants, just on a different station, some other station stations. So, really, do you all of the city have had based on the United States, just on the station, some other conditions. So, every, do you know the restrictions about them for the past six years? You know, I think it's about the same thing. I believe, these were situations, not the same attitudes, the effect, your moving capital projects are left alone based on the existing key. So, I'm very proud help you. Let me give this to you. I will part of the security. It's just a matter of conduct. It's the nonprofits. If I have a distinction, it's very important to start with some experience. But I'm there. Excellent. Let me interrupt just a second. Shaneet, why don't you turn off our camera and see if it's us as our signal. Okay, do you want to try and turn off your camera and see if it's. Sure. That's what I mean. Fish, Mr. Fish, could you just try backing away from your mic and if it, um, Trace me a clear audio please. It just just sounds like a little bit of a new one or sometimes. In turn your camera. It may be adjusting your volume itself because our system is is pretty good here so even if you're volume is slightly lower we should be able to interpret your audio just fine. Anything to do? So, to have to wait a while so we can see it by the end. So I hope I can be able to work on it. See if that will have any news any better. Okay. Thank you. I'm going truck is not on. the in the waiting room. Should computer. Okay, thank you. Perfect. All right, thank you, T.J. Yes, much better. Yeah, much better. Fantastic. Okay, commissionally, here's still continuing on. So following that up, what is currently the amount, how big is the budget you work with now? The series budget, the general frame is only about 8% of our current budget. Most of it are capital utilities projects. So we're dealing with a more than 300 million dollar budget currently and 250 million of that are capital projects that will be both client-reinbursed projects as well as all fund and low-inchal interest loans. So we're working with quite a lot. Capable projects are driving our budget completely. That's excellent because currently AppLatch Coal, we have a lot of several million dollars worth of projects that are capital improvements to our infrastructure system, specifically water treatment plants and upgrades for a water and sewer system. Now the thing is for us in Applatch, our budget, our entire operating budget annually is just over $4 million. So it's operating with a very, very tight belt around here and you've got to be creative on finding solutions to work with our budget constraints because it's a fun time to try to get government funding for everything. So how do you feel about your ability to stretch pennies as best you can with your infrastructure department and going after that extra additional grant funding. That does quite literally exactly what my role has been for the last few years that I left a world for 13 years who've been doing nothing but transportation projects to do all the pretty records that's to get the funding so the DOT would do that project. and now I'll translate those skills for the last several years of going after a while. So we're reclaiming stormwater resiliency. All kinds of different programs that if you don't layer and if you're not creative, you're just not going to get the same results. same results. So that's a very comfortable word and I will say just so you know who you're dealing with, on much more of that kind of public works person than I am running the water plant. I mean that's what we hired good people with certifications to do. I'm more comfortable in orchestrating the capital program. I got you. Thank you. I will pass it off now. Commissioner George. I wish I were you today. Wonderful. I love talking to people from Appalach. Okay. So you visited here quite a bit. Is that what you were telling us? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I mean, I'm a very interesting background. And it looks like a lot of in-depth work and specific areas of cities and counties, planning, building, public works, utilities. If you were selected as our city manager, you become more of a generalist where you're in charge of all the departments, as you know, which would include the police department, finance, being the contact person with the public. What do you see as the strength you would bring to bridge over into that kind of environment as well as what might be some challenges for you? Well, I'll say this. I have literally referred myself in the past as a skilled generalist that I know a little bit about everything and not a lot about anyone, but I think although your observations correct and I did do some deep dives in understanding how DOT works, I get how DEP works now, how our water management districts work, with a comprehensive plan is what good-sounding regulations look like, and all those things. But when I ended up in my current position, I was at a crossroads in my life in my career. I'd been doing the same thing for 13 years and I was just ready to change things up. And the epiphany was TJ. You went to college, you got a master's degree because you thought you were gonna go be a city manager. And then you went and did all these other things. And now here you are 20 years later. And so I'm not, and I have worked with, before I say this, I've worked with many, many city managers. I mean, I was in charge of the regional agency that had 19 municipalities and two county governments. So I worked with two county managers, all the clerks, the town, the city managers. I've known a lot of the years and I've only known two that I would go work for. And so the person I'm working for now is one of those. And so when I worked for him, I was very transparent that we didn't know what my role ultimately was going to be. It was first joined the team because he wanted help in building a team, as he was new as a city manager. And I told him my story in my background and he said, let's start with infrastructure and he came to the other thing. And so from there, it's really enabled me to work with him as I got to the public works and utilities and transportation issues stabilized. So then we're very closely with my city attorney, my finance director, my procurement person, HR, and then there's this whole other realm of public safety that's, it's only more than a lot of ways and understanding how to navigate the issues that you're in the police shoes work or you're fired upon it as it was, have to do with. So I just want to let you know that the one growing thing that I recognize and I'm sure you do too is it doesn't say civil manager experience but then all these other things that I've done have led me on this, why I would even be confident at was about to ask you a question. I probably had trouble hearing me. I was asking about your availability for employment that you're currently employed. What would your timeframe be? In the position I'm in, I would know that they would appreciate more than the simple two-week notice. So I would want to literally time to prepare for the logistics of moving there. But believe me, my wife and I have discussed this thoroughly and she's already excited about the possibilities. And so we're going to figure that out, but I know that you have a pending need very soon. And I would be as expedient as I could in making all that happen knowing that it is a substantial relocation. But luckily it's all here in Florida. It's not insurmountable but I would probably be working at a month or so. Okay, got you. Okay. You had mentioned before that you currently didn't have a pension plan. City of Graveland isn't part of the Florida retirement system. Now they have a one-to-one retirement savings plan that I'm robustly participating in, but I've got 13 years in third of retirement and so I have to go back at some point and realize that that opportunity. Okay. Okay. What kind of do you have experience in working with a city or a county commission and you're reporting to a commission? I do. The 13 years I spent directing the Lake Sumter Metropolitan Claim Organization. I worked directly for a governing board of elected officials. I had all five county commissioners from Lake County, which is now about 500,000 people. And then some per county, we had two county commissioners. That is the county that substantially the village's retirement community. And then we had a elected official from each of those municipalities I mentioned. So I have always been accustomed to talking with elected officials, working for elected officials. And then even in my now now, because the city manager has empowered me to be very much supporting the director for him. He entrust me to talk directly with his mayor and the four council members, and so that is an extremely comfortable with. And I understand the pressures of elected officials being to be responsive to their constituency. So that's just baked into our approach of how we make sure we take care of the people we work for. Okay. Well, thank you very much. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Hey Jay, this is Commissioner Grove. Just had a few questions. I'm going to ask. Are you familiar with municipal budgeting? Very. This beyond the education I received, I have and we've been part of a robust budget process where I have to prepare a budget for all the divisions of my department that are general funded. So, and that money is extremely limited. So it's always a matter of building in and being ready for trade-offs. That what we intended to do with that $100,000, we did not get to do because this emergency came up and you know that's just running a budget. I've embraced the concept of the budget adjustments because your plans changed. But then there's the enterprise fund aspect and that's its own uniqueness for our utilities program to have the rather ensue or impact fees things playing in to on top of our utility rates and how all of those dollars can be in a new book or how they can it. And so I have to say I'm one of those government geeks that really enjoys the budget process. And also communicating with residents and staff, both internally and externally, as important. And I just wondered if you had experience with communicating with residents, also how you lead your staff. We have had an evergreen study done. We needed to raise our rates because we were woefully under funded in our positions. So we're over a three-year process. We're adding to the salaries. But the step we're missing is performance evaluation. So we need to add to those each position description and then create annual performance evaluations. Do you have experience in that area? I do already. There's experience in terms of personal management and I've worked in different settings over the years to where some employers have placed performance evaluations as a major priority. Others have de-infasized and made it more about the documentation that's there. Is it, are we really doing merit? Are we just looking for work? Or do we have work demands and that kind of thing? But if you don't go back regularly and check yourself in the market, you know that you're not retaining or recruiting very well. And I think that's a huge thing for any gather let municipal population is just make sure that how do you fit into your own job market in Franklin County and who are you able to attract and who have you lost because you're not offering or not offering any path, you know, for career advancement and I know it's almost when you're smaller it's like, well, we only have this many people, but I really believe after working for a small town that is facing growth pressures, we've built in new programs and terms of how we look at our personnel, we cultivate, it's exciting to see. And I'm talking about still with a very limited budget, personal otherwise, beyond the evaluations and so forth, the communications. Let me emphasize this part. One of the things that was part of my mantra as a public administrator is, you work hard and you need to work hard. But if people don't need that you're working hard and what you've accomplished, it's really not as meaningful as if they hear about it. And we've got to communicate these things. And most of all, we've got to respond. You've got to respond quickly. We don't want to sit on anything because that's when things begin to blow up because half of the issue when you have an angry resident is just talk to them first and they become the right. And then you work through what the actual relation was and you resolve it. So communications to me is as important a local government as anything that you do. The people that you vote for have to know what you're doing. Great, thank you so much. And would you like to give us a closing statement of any kind? Well, I will say I did have one question that has been lingering that I'll be very transparent with all of you. And that's it as I looked. Here over the last couple of weeks and I'm looking at what's locally happening, waiting in minutes. And everybody has a turn coming up later this year next year and how long each of you have been there. It's what are you all looking for? Because I'm one of those people that can adapt to the environment that I'm in and it's a matter of do you want some meaning that's going to lead and jump out there and make things happen or do you want someone to just quietly manage the agenda of the five of you and just take that direction? Because I'm doing both ways and I can be successful in either setting, but as you probably have picked up on, I really enjoy public service and I like to make big things happen. I don't like small plans. I like big plans and that does not mean expensive plans I just need state big and figure out the reverse engineering and how you get there. So I'll leave it at that. Okay. I'll throw that open to the commission and anybody want to on Yes, I would say that I would be looking for a manager that takes initiative that is going to go out there, find the problems, get started on them, and let the commission know I've already identified this problem. I'm working on it. Let me know if you want to handle differently. That's kind of what I'm looking for as a strong leadership style that's going to get things done, not wait around to take action and be reactive and need to be told to go out and do the job. Thank you for that. In the military, I can't really look at a senior 24-handed. I think, well, do they run state court or do they want to see some way to look at them in a fresh perspective and say, I see all this potential. Well, there's some many things. We are surrounded 90% of the Franklin counties in state and federal wild land. So the city is a mile, pretty much a mile. And we bump up against the coast and then state forest. So it's not like we could make huge strides like Crescent City so just keep that in mind. And with the reasons I love Appalachia's all-in-one little artwork and Tennessee and right next to the Buried Edge Mountains lots of state and federal land so it excites me that that's part of your character. This is Commissioner Donna Duncan and my answer to your question, which I think is a great question. I'm looking for someone who's going to be proactive, but I'm also looking for someone who can take the direction of the commission and act on it as well, but also someone who's not afraid to speak up, someone who's not afraid to say these are our challenges. It might not be the most positive. It might not be the, how am I trying to say this? It might not be what everybody wants to happen, but it may end up being what has to happen and I want someone who is willing to identify those challenges and bring them to the commission and let's address them. I appreciate that. The thing I've learned is you lay out your professional opinion or are supported with facts and then you defer to the people that got elected to make the big decisions and uncomfortable with that. And I can wear things going when it doesn't go my way. We'll move on and we'll figure it out together. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Laurence. Great question. I mean, I also want to strongly to read about I do think it needs to be a collaborative effort. The City Commission was elected by the citizens. We set the vision for the city. We rely on the city manager for, you know, for, for reformulating ideas and pitching them to us and also managing the department. So I mean, I think it's a collaborative effort. That's kind of a word salad explanation. But I don't see the city commission as a rubber stamp of the city manager. I think we've had problems in the past with communication with our city manager. And I mean, I think as much open communication as we can have to avoid, you know, there being misunderstandings and that everything's, you know, on the table. You know, that's what I'm not the kind of commissioner that wants things left on set. If there's a problem, I want to hear about it. And I want to, you know, have an opportunity to, you know, to help solve it, um, getting to know the community here, especially here recently, I completely understand some of the experiences and I will say this, I do think it has to be collaborative because again, you're elected to answer to the people that pay the paychecks of the city manager and all the people. And, you know, that fiduciary responsibility is very real. One of the things just so you understand where I'm coming from that I've had to manage here this past year is the utilities of going out and evaluating, assessing and coming up with solutions. But then when you bring the solutions It could be a little scary because now you're talking about well you brought us some good Options, but now we're talking about debt service and that's scary for any small community and so just working through that That I'm not think it's a brilliant idea, but if it doesn't feel right to the electorate, then it doesn't feel right. And I have to respect that. And so you work through what, what can we do to make this more manageable? Should we take into a phase approach? You're, you're adapt to one of the situation, man. So, I recognize some of the things you all have had to deal with. Honestly, I mean, I see so many positive indicators. When I looked at the list of projects that are plant potential projects that you either secure, or your perspective, listen to that I see so many positive indicators. When I looked at the list of projects, their plant potential projects that you either secure or you're pursuing, that's a very encouraging risk. And when I looked at some of the successes that you're all having, it's because you're out there generating and making your own work, you're generating opportunities and that's something that I immediately identified that I could definitely help build this momentum. So I just want to add that I literally am not looking but when this opportunity goes I want to look through my head in there and show you my enthusiasm for your community and if you think that you'd like to speak with me for more on this I am going to make myself available to you in person Alright, well, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you mr. Fish and we will be in touch I very much enjoy talking you all. Thank you so much Have one more candidate to interview Okay, I couldn't quite hear you when you said that so So that was our last interview. Julie Roy Smith dropped out. I was very curious about that little. All right. Well, I think with the exit of our city manager, I just found out that I was chairing this meeting when I was talking to Dan earlier. So we didn't have a big plan set aside to do this. And I've kind of had to develop that as we've gone along. But we're going to need to consider who we want to hire out of these candidates. Now it's down to five candidates. And the time frame, we want to fill this position in. And we all can't go negotiate with somebody because of the sunshine law. So I think we need to point down to do the negotiation. He didn't know that was happening either. I feel like we need to rank them in our top order. Feel free to jump in, Dan. This we're making this up on the line. I know that it's on the agenda. The the entire incident. In the end, you're going to be hearing the news. You have those options. You also have the options of pushing yourself for a later decision based on sort of what you call that. Great. I'm just going to be thanking the state of the age of the Yoshi and the Mad Quarter on the news about the sound like a sound like a mission. I don't want to be here at the other two of us. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. And we have one public comment, I think, just one. Janine, Edmunds, thank you for being patient. Thank you, Edmund. 226-9th, Street App Lunch, Kola. Thank you all for doing this and interviewing a variety of candidates. We obviously saw some from far field and some who were right on target and some who were somewhere in the middle there. It's my opinion that your job in selecting a city manager is perhaps the most important job you'll do for our community and for those of us who live here in pay taxes, drink the water, flush our toilets, have a garbage picked up. So I think it's important that you really focus on what the city needs in the city manager. If I were one of you sitting there and faced with this type of decision, I would, I think I would look first towards their educational background because I think education is so important to allow us to be and hold the abilities to do what is that, what is what is task, what we're tasked with. I think the education should focus specifically on management. I'm trained as a lawyer. I'm not trained to be a city manager, but yet I hold an advanced degree. I think specifically that management should be local government management. And I would focus also, or I'm sorry sorry I would look at the professional experience of the candidates that came before you. I would look for someone who's managed and had experience in managing the city similar to ours, one with both management, and I'm sorry struggling here from. are one with both management, management, I'm sorry, struggling here, from managing government to also being aware of the business aspects of a community. Because without the business aspects, our city is not viable. We need to be sustainable. We need to foster our businesses. We need to have a manager who understands they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they is astute with technology, technology and how to communicate with all of us who are sitting back. I looked at the phone this morning and this meeting wasn't on the calendar. I looked at the agenda. There was an agenda for the meeting. But those little details like that, I think are very critical. And technology is part of making sure the communities all on the same page is what the page that you're on. I think today we learn to the communication as a key. You obviously understand that I think in each of your questions, round robin, multiple times you spoke about the need for communication. And I think it has broken down. And I think, and I thank all of you for being aware that that needs to be addressed in our new city manager. And I think some of them have some great ideas in how to address that. And hopefully in the midst of those. I would also look towards what type of leadership style they propose. And I think the collaborative style is one that works especially in a small community. One that takes direction, one that also gives input the manager who can do both and who can work with the city. They, I'm sorry, the constituents, the city, the business community, the legal community. I think that type of leadership is so very important. According to the International City Management Association and the Cruban Guidelines, they say that the Chief Administrator is a leader, a coach, and the chief of strategy. Similar to a CEO and a Fortune 500 company, the administrator is also responsible for serving the elected governing body, managing the budgets and the financial aspects of the organization, directing the employees and ensuring quality customer service. We are your customers. All of that is to be implemented legally and ethically in your manager. During the break there was some discussion amongst us about salary and how that can be addressed because salary is an issue. Perhaps if we put that aside for now and we just look at the qualifications first as you make your decisions and your rankings, put the salary question out of your mind, rank your candidates's and then see if perhaps our salary or the proposed salary is not within your number one ranked candidates ballpark and think outside the box. Someone suggested perhaps there's some way to provide some housing. We have a lot of city properties. I understand there have been a lot of things there. But anyway, just ask that. Don't let salaries tie me us from getting the best candidate. I'll let you just call it deserves the best. You deserve the best. We deserve the best. And I thank you for ensuring that we get that. Thank you for your comments. All right. Sorry, I would, sorry, one of the is in my experience and you all have been through this before, as far as hiring for positions. Okay, but Commissioner Duncan on the spot on that, is it is the pleasure of the commission, certainly Madam Mayor, you acting Mayor, you need to manage the meeting, but if someone feels strongly about a candidate, they or a process that they wanna see this go on, they can make a motion. I do think we should take, because this was properly noticed a special meeting, we have an action item on it. We should have a, I don't want to say a consensus, but a binding vote on how to proceed from here, whether it's the ranking, whether it's a particular candidate as manager or as, or appointment of an interim manager as shown on the agenda. All right, and before this is before mayor and commissioner comments, I was just sort of outlining the road we need to go down. How we need to to rank them. We do and what kind of time frame we're looking at. And we do need to quickly set up another meeting after this so that we can hire that person. So. And Commissioner, not to contradict you, you're absolutely right. If that's the way the commission wants to go, the commission can take action as it stated on the agenda as well. Like by motion. So we can step up and do that. So obviously if we move into a process, then we do need to discuss and really nail down just what you're saying or ranking. If we go that direction, we want to make sure all the candidates are clear on it. The commission is clear on staff. Help me out here since we're going to be voting. How do we rank it? I honestly think you need a motion. I think you need a motion to rank the candidates And then discussion as to the ranking. I say two motions and maybe a motion to do a ranking and then a motion to... Someone needs to propose a ranking of those candidates, it's tricky. I mean, this is the actual ranking, yeah. The rules of order do indicate that the mayor or mayor pretend who's holding the gavel can allow a matter to be discussed or considered informally. It could give us the ability to discuss ranking choices. Because, well, I mean, well, discussion during a vote. You're trying to convince some right or a vote discussion before or after. I feel like. No, I think your idea is a good one is if you if you would like to proceed with not making a decision tonight on selection of a manager, meaning a specific manager or pointing an interim, you say, you know what, we'd like to rank them and come back. Then a vote to rank them and then informal discussion on the ranking and someone who's involved in that discussion can make a motion as to the one, two, three or, two, or however. And then the procedure of how we get there. I feel like time is of the essence on this matter. So Travis's last day is going to be Friday. So let's, I'm just speaking all in hypotheticals on timelines right now. So Travis's last day is Friday. Let's say, let's pretend it's normal. It's not Travis's last day. Oh no, he's out sick. So he's not there on Monday or Tuesday. I think that the city offices can function for 48 hours without the city manager. I do not know how long each department can continue to function without somebody over all of them pass that 48 hour period because then we will have truly entered because the city can be meeting that evening. So whatever happens next Tuesday, that following Wednesday, things are going to be really different and really up in the air for all of our staff. And it's really important that we have this entire situation clearly communicated how it's going to be going down. What are timelines are as soon as we have them on who is doing what, who is transitioning in, who is transitioning out. If we have to appoint an interim in the interim, who is that going to be, how will they be selected? How is this all going to go down? Because we've got several candidates on here that seem favorable, but we've also got some favorable candidates here that could not start for three weeks, six weeks, nine to 12 weeks. So where do we weigh that? Where do we rank that? We've talked about our main things are money. How much are they willing to take on salary? I think we're going to have to negotiate that no matter what. So we're going to have to have attorney Hartman negotiate that on our behalf and figure out what is coming back. So we would have the ability to call another special meeting on this. I don't think we should call an emergency meeting on it to try to do something before the next commission meeting, but I do think a separate special meeting should be scheduled outside of the regular commission meeting on Tuesday, perhaps before that meeting, or if we can do it the day before on Monday. I think it's clearly going to take a few weeks to get this set up. And I think maybe we need to consider appointing an interim manager, somebody who's already on staff. That would buy us the time we need. There's going to be. In constitutionally, if we are without an acting city manager, then I mean, we must appoint the city manager or if we do not appoint an interim that constitutionally makes us functioning under a different form of government which is confusing. I think we need to consider and I'd like to entertain a motion from the floor to appoint some of the presently on staff to be the. May we informally discuss that matter as this is the first time this has ever been brought up. Can we put emotion on the floor first? Precisely. This has never been brought up. I would informally discuss it. I know that's a little unusual kind of contrary to what I just said before. But we got to, we need to move through this and we don't, we don't want to miss steps. And a small procedural irregularity does bother me. I mean, I don't, that's not a misstep. So certainly discuss amongst yourselves, and then someone make a motion. And then there'll be more discussion if there's issues. Commissioner Grove, have you discussed the potential of an interim staff appointment? Have you discussed that with any members of staff, current manager, attorney, anybody at all? No, this is... I have just as much knowledge as all of you do about this meeting and everything that followed before and after. So there's no chance to do that. I know that Lee, I would hate to put anything else on Lee, but she did serve as city manager for a while. I like it but she might be able to manage that for. I know for you would be capable to but. Put on somebody but it is just a couple of weeks it is. Well without any prior notification and. choices and if one turned it down. Well, I don't think that's going to be functional because at this point, if I was an employee and my boss looked at me and said, hey, by the way, I'm going to be gone for like maybe two to six weeks. I need you to do my job and your job by the way no extra compensation. I don't think that's fair and we can't make that decision as a board. Anybody want to propose a different solution? I think it probably would be because I mean whether this is public information or not at this point, he's starting another job. And I do not think, yeah, we cannot have somebody in the role as, yeah. What are you doing for the next couple? I'm joking. I'm joking. It might be too much. Yeah. What are you doing for the next couple of weeks? Oh, I'm joking. I'm joking. It might be too much. Y'all need to. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Holly. Thank you. Thank you. Too much at one time. Thank you. All right. Let's back up. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. gets to the microphone, the poster is back to being with us. Well, it would have been helpful if we had a... I guess it. There's two under the I put them right underneath there so All right with This is probably most important decision made and you No sense blaming anybody right now the timeline is the timeline The people that you've mentioned when I came in the office just to take a quick glance at the applications The two ladies you mentioned didn't want to have anything to do with the interim job. Then, mean they can't be convinced. And certainly if they did it, they would have to be compensated. And it would have to be for a short period of time. So, I mean, I can give you opinions on what I heard. You've got quite a collection of folks there as a former multiple manager positions. You know, I'm biased towards Florida people because Florida is unique and the skill sets you need in Florida are a little different. The one candidate you have from outside of Florida, I don't have the resume. So, sounded like he was kind of an elected person and got tapped to be the manager or something. But before that, I don't know what he was, but he's the wrong way away. And he's the one that said it would take two or three months to get here. So I don't. But he may be your top choice. So I'm better shut up about my opinions on these folks. but it should not be complicated for you to give your attorney or your clerk your one, two, and three. And what the low score is the selection. That's just I can't remember how we did it. We wrote in the commission chamber. So we eventually got to a ranking of who y'all think you want. And then you start from there. That's what we do with our last city and the professional safety. Don't be afraid. As it said, salaries always negotiable. I mean, you know, I never applied for a job that I thought that was the number and I had to live with that. I always thought we were going to talk about it. And they're, they all said they were willing to talk and don't be afraid of relocation expenses that standard and so don't throw the baby out you know over ten thousand dollars plus or minus to find the right person for you they've got different strengths and the gentleman we had to shut off just as real talkative and real boisterous, I guess. Those are the kind of things that I pick up. Not in the negative, but and seem technically in terms of infrastructure and things really had done a lot of good things. The gentleman from Crescent City don't have the resume, but evidently, he's, you know, like I've been in a room for four or five times. So he's evidently followed that sort of a pathway that would, and now doesn't want to be so that I don't know the pros and cons or the wise. We don't have to talk about the current mayor. We all know, Brenda said no need there. So you've got Gervlin, which I think is in North Florida, right, is that the last central. So I'm like people who currently have jobs, you know, because, you know, if they don't, then there's probably a reason. I think you need to do some background checking on whoever you pick. Just because you rank them, does it mean that's going to be the final? You could find some things, you know, once you start doing some more checking. I'm rambling a little bit here, but while it's fresh in your mind, if you take a week or two to come back to do this, you need to write now and then discuss how to go about it. The normal process is he would call your number one ranked person tomorrow, settle on a contract, send him a draft contract, and have it back on your agenda on Tuesday for you to prove. And then you know what you've got in a timeline. In that contract, it would be a start date. They would commit to. That's my push is to get at least that far. And then the interim part, I don't that's not. So that next week. Yeah. Across the bridge when we get to it. Because we might be able to circumvent it. Right. My advice is to go through the ranking process and get that step down. And then you kind of can go from there. Well, I'm ready to grab that bowl by the horns. I've got my rankings ready. I'm going to have to speak. Are we, are we, we are okay with sharing and talking about the candidates? Yeah, I'm just going to. Yeah. Okay, everybody else got to hold further general observation. I've been waiting to do that. Okay. And I would like to say that the agenda that's on the city website does not have agenda item five where we select an interim or. that's what I'm saying. You know, that was never made public. So I don't think that's a decision. We, as far as you, but when the agenda came out is the agenda sufficiently broad enough for us to be able to make different choices. So it looks like the only agenda we had said that we were going to interview them and have comments. So that's one question is what can we do tonight? That's an appointment of a city manager. But we have that. The public can't see that. The one that's on the website is the original agenda that just shows the items without that addition. If the commission is looking to move ahead in a ranking, we don't need to worry about it. So you could move ahead with, I mean, certainly have your comments on the candidate so that that can be considered if someone wants to make a motion to rank. But what I wanted to say was I didn't realize we were going to, I thought that from having a Zoom interview for 20, 30 minutes for someone that we might narrow it down to people we would like to have in person visits. I mean, this is a very important decision. I don't feel comfortable based on a Zoom conference to pick my number one and decide to hire them unless we can't negotiate with them. I mean, I would like these people to come to Apple, at Chacola and talk with us individually or as a group. Let me suggest this. And it goes along with what Mr. Holly mentioned and some of the public comment. The other thing I want to say is that the screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. The screen is not working. Everything else is, I know, even typically there will be, and we talked about this, some sort of committee or ranking or ranking by you all. We're talking about a ranking, but we're really talking about a slate. To me, the time it's going to take someone, if you get the job, when can you commit to being here, salary, even though I agree that we don't want to miss out on just a gem if it's purely over $10,000, but in some cases here we're talking $50,000, right? That is not necessarily within our power, with our budget and everything else. So what my job, if I said I was not going to be involved in this process, but it looks like I may be. So if my job was along with somebody else or just myself, I would contact these people, I would contact the references, I would make notes on each, I would find out on the salary, I would find out on the start date. I would just do the facts, so I'm not qualitatively. I would just so I could report them back to you all and someone can make a motion to hire one of the ranked candidates. You could do that at your next meeting, you could do that at a special meeting, but I would promise to get you that information later this week. Well, sorry, no, it's totally up to you all. If you say, um, yeah. That's just for other just general observation. I want to. I think that I mean, I believe that Lee Mathis would take on that responsibility. And if we're worried about her not doing it for Lee Mathis, but not doing it for pay. I mean, why could we not give her a bump in salary to do it? If no one on staff wants to do it, we may be able to find someone in the community rather quickly that might take something like this on on a short-term basis. Somebody like Alan Pierce or somebody like that wouldn't want to be in the office 40 hours a week that might come in, you know, to several days a week. I mean, there's a lot of options and I think we can do that in a separate special meeting. I mean, I just don't like the idea of being rushed to write my number one, two, and three, and to hire them based on just who will take the job at a salary without having an opportunity to speak with them. I just don't think that the world's going to end in the city if we go a couple of weeks without having a permanent city manager. Mayor Parton, may I? Yes. Thank you. I appreciate this intimate commissioner, George. I don't think the world's gonna fall apart either, but I think that the essential services that the city provides to the citizens may potentially do that. I think that time is of the essence here. We received these applications all sent to us. The city clerk sent those out to us on the 11th. As of last week, one week ago, we didn't have enough responses from the city commission to schedule the interviews. These interviews didn't get scheduled until last Tuesday. So this isn't an in process that's been moving very quickly at all. We have our responsibility to keep this process moving and not letting it fall off and losing the plot. The meeting was scheduled at the last City Commission. I mean it wasn't. I understand that. And on February 11th is when we all received communication with all of the applications and the city clerk gave that to us and asked us to provide responses. Last Monday on 217, the city clerk had not received responses from the majority of the commission that would be at this meeting to decide to be able to move forward to let all of candidates know on who wanted to be scheduled to make sure people weren't excluded. If we would have potentially had that information to her sooner, we could have had it more candidates. We don't know. We could have already had time to schedule follow-up meetings that were lined up back-to-back with this, but we are in the boat that we are in and we have to continue sailing. We can't try to negotiate with the sea to calm down for us. We've in the boat we got to go and we've got to make a decision. I don't know if you have anything to add to this comments. I don't want to, I know it's very important, but most things in life, I mean every job I've ever interviewed for was an application process and an interview and somebody had to make a hard decision. I don't take this decision lightly at all, but I also don't want this to turn into a several month thing where we're just stringing it out. I think that I'm more concerned now at this point about the fact that we have an agenda I'm more concerned now at this point about the fact that we have an agenda item that was amended but it wasn't published on the website so now I'm more concerned about whatever we do tonight be improper. You know, because if we didn't provide notice then we can't take action. If we didn't provide proper notice we can't take action. Attorney Hartman, how much notice must we give the public to notify for a special meeting? Is it 72 hours or is it emergency meeting? I believe it's 48 hours for a special. All right. So we could all plan to have a special meeting on Thursday evening. If you want to make the decision then, but if we're going to make the decision on Thursday at a special meeting, we need to understand we need to give our rankings tonight. We need to provide them tonight. Not let's wait until Thursday morning and email them or provide them Thursday. We need to talk about this now. We need to get this done now because we need to have our attorney inter negotiations to figure out if our top pick is somebody that doesn't like the salary then okay what can we negotiate with you on that? Get attorney hardman to get those options and bring them back to us at the Tuesday meeting. Personally I would prefer for us to make a selection and pick who Who was our number one, who is our number two, who is our number three, a sign attorney Hartman to negotiate with candidate number one who is our collective top choice. And then he will negotiate with them, communicate with all of us. And then when we come to the Tuesday meeting, we can either have a special meeting beforehand to consider that, or we can consider it as usual item on that agenda. I would consider this an emergency, very important item and we could add it to the agenda after the deadline for it. And then depending on what attorney Hartman gains during those negotiations, if it's, do they want more salary, do we need to make a decision on fiscally where could we possibly find that money at? What are we going to do about it and at that meeting we need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision on fiscal year. We need to make a decision need to do yes or no or move on to candidate number three? I think if we get to candidate, if we go through that process, I think that is the clearest way for us to get there. If candidate one isn't going to negotiate and come to the table, okay, by candidate number or top pick number two. Same thing. All right. Thank you for your comments. I did have a couple of orders. I was under the impression that we were gonna make a decision the night. We got 17 applications. It was advertised for six weeks. I do a lot of hiring in my day job, and I know a lot of things can fall through after an interview. So I do believe we need to have a ranking. I would like to see us move forward. We have some good candidates. There are some issues. Salary might be one of those. I'm willing to entertain emotion, that entertain a motion if somebody wants to propose the motion. Without at least like to discuss some candidate. Chair, may we please informally discuss this matter. Thank you. Okay. I'll just pick someone and start. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Like Mr. Matthew Spupp, he's the Airbnb guy just to everybody to understand. I liked him a lot, but he requested 135 salary. And I know that's not, but that's 50,000 more than where we even start. And my other concern is he said very clearly which I admire. One of the first things that he intends to do is cut staff. So where are we at on that? Because he made it clear. Am I the only one that heard that? 34 employees and because I wrote it down when he said it, will cut staff? Yeah, he's a much smaller staff. but I don't think he has the utility. You didn't hear it. And my no, that doesn't mean you didn't say it. I was. Yeah, he said, did we record this by any chance? Okay, good. Because I wrote it down when he said it. So that's a concern. That's important. I mean, where are we at? Or are we at it? I mean, we may or may not agree that compared to other cities, 34 employees is a lot, but I don't know. I don't run the city. So I, I mean, you know what I'm saying? I'm not there every day. But I have a, I have a real concern about him because I don't, I mean, I agree. He's got good background. about him because I don't. I mean, I agree. He's got good background. You can see, you know, he cares. He got involved. He's motivated. He's familiar with one of the main industries here, which is the hospitality tourism industry. But again, the red flags there are one. The salary, you know, he wants to have We have asked for a commitment to have, what was this, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a salary, you know, he wants to have asked for a commitment to have, what was this, I would say, an escalation clause in the salary. I mean, I could see as negotiating something like akin to like cost of living adjustment, like, hey, based upon your performance, show us what deliverables you've brought in and enhanced with the city, what's your net positive here? We can reflect on how to correlate that with arrays. Also, you know, if a truly effective city manager is going to come in here when we're on the press bus with we are of all of our finances, all of the federal state money that we could be having coming in chances are there are going to be operating grants that can cover things like extra staff costs, so we are able to offset other employees' salaries within the city, so then we can take those extra savings from General Fund and move that money around a bit more to compensate more. So I think also somebody that wants to be challenged, wants to be motivated to say, hey, see where you can not cut corners, but see where you can tighten up this budget, find your raise. You think we can do it, do it, prove it, show us you can do it. I think that's a motivator there. But I'm going to avoid trying to be too personal with the things that I say, but I do appreciate Mr. Spock and his experience. I don't get the vibe from him that he could be an effective manager in the sense of having to put thumb on somebody that needs to have something a little stern. I think that you're going to have to step on some toes and you're going to have to do it firmly, not softly sometimes. So I don't know if that's something that he would necessarily excel at with his personality type, what I've cleaned. Those are my comments on Sput. Commissioner George. I think the biggest negative with Matthew Sput gets his time frame. Only I don't think that we have a immediate urgency, but I think if he couldn't come on until May or June, that would be, I think that would be, that would not work. He's in my top three though. I mean, I really liked him and he liked his experience. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. I mean, I liked his experience. I like what he had to say. Actually, he would be my third pick of applicants. I have concerns about his incumver a business like that is maybe difficult to walk away from. Salary also and the fact that he sort of found his way into the job rather than having the the background and he's not familiar with Florida law, which Florida law is a very strange thing. So I think it helps to have experience with the sunshine law. So can I add to that one? I was just going to say, I did wonder. And I almost asked him, well, what happens if you don't sell your business? But I didn't want to say it because I didn't want to say on negative or say anything they can make. I mean, that's what I thought was is what if you can't sell? What if you can't sell back? You know, so I wasn't sure. But I had a feeling also that he may not be that he may just be. And good luck finding a salary that will make it commiserate to be able to live here. I will say, yeah, I have April, May written down. That's still not February, March, not feasible. Because of that, factoring in everything with salary and start date, all that jazz, I rank Spunk Spuck as number four on my list. My top ranking at this point is Mr. TJ Fish in terms of experience. We've got a lot of infrastructure experience. We need, as that is our biggest weakness as our water and sewer department. I mean, we're literally talking about the odor scrubber at the beginning of this meeting. So that is something that we need to be on top of. I think he's got a lot of good connections for us there. And his education is, amazingly, he's got a master of public administration. So he's an example of somebody that got the education with the intention of going a city manager route and got routed elsewhere functionally in their career, which happens to people. So we know he's got the base knowledge and training to functionally be a city manager. And we know he's got the career experience to direct and have knowledge with our public works, our infrastructure. And we know that he's not just only, I guess you'd say, physically or mechanically minded to those aspects of that job. He's got a great background with securing funding from state and federal agencies and managing a massive capital improvement plan and budget. I think that's something we need to heavily look at as well because right now we have a grants department staff of one who you could technically count that as a point five because it's one employee covering that one employee in a dual role. Our city planner is our grants coordinator and this candidate has all of the necessary qualifications and the experience to be able to assist our city planner in the crucial work that she's doing which which is making sure that our land development code is being adhered to with new development going on in town and also making sure that the millions of dollars of grants that we have that are critical, that are key to our critical infrastructure updates are carrying on and being updated properly like they need to be. So those are the things we need the most attention on. He again had talked about salary, but he mentioned that he's motivated specifically by the Florida retirement system. So I view that as he said, he had 13 years, and you need 20 to start drawing. So I'm looking at somebody that notices that they may not be able to attain this salary that they currently have and may have to think about scaling back their own life, but that somebody doing it, looking forward to, okay, this is maybe a seven year investment into my future to do that. So I think that motivates a person as well. He's either my one at this point. I mean, he has some gaps in his experience, but he has the education. He's got great experience in his, you know, in the field that he has an in-depth knowledge. He seems to be a highly motivated person. I mean, I think he's somebody that would be able to fill in his gaps. He seems to have good interpersonal skills. I think we have a, with the Florida retirement, what he also may not know is that as city manager, he would have the senior manager designation, which would not only be building on his state retirement, but he would turbocharge his eventual payout in the state retirement system. I mean, just from just the feel of it, it sounds like he'd be a good fit for the community. I mean, he just kind of comes across that way. That's why I really would like to meet these people again to kind of verify my first impressions about them. I mean, press by his education, his experience, and you know, and what he had to say. And you know, he's from Tennessee, but he's been in Florida a long time. Into this area really likes it. That's people have to make it work for him here. They have to really want to come to come to Apple Watch co one make a life here. So that's like a qualitative factor that I think is very important and then somebody comes here and thinks well maybe maybe I'll like it here you know but if they come I really love it here. You know that does make a difference. Mr. Fish. I do. I have him raped at the top as well. Not my only, but like I said, the fact that he mentioned a state retirement that he is, I can understand the can understand the motivation of him coming from $126,000 job to Little Loa, Appletch, Cola, because retirement is a huge incentive, even if it's $300 a month. I mean, that's something. You can pay for something. I liked talking to him. I thought that it was a great interview. I have him ranked at the top as well. I had him ranked second. I feel like he's not had the sitting manager job. He's had a lot of resources. I'm concerned that you might be frustrated at our budget resources. But you know, right number two on my list. Like the fact that he has experience in capital developing capital improvement plans and keeping. You know, the expenses spread over a long period of time. And he's had some staff management. So when I had looked at Braille Hart's resume, that's why my question for him right off the bat was, why did you job hop so much? Because he's got the right education, and he started out, you know, his actual county business manager, county administrator roles that he had early on. You know, that was the first job on there. It's like a nine year tenure, then you got a three year, and then you're jumping to one year, three year, three year, and then one year. So that was initially a red flag for me because anybody that job opts through government jobs, you know, does that say what you, do you hinder bureaucracy? Are you so good at it that you leave? I don't know how that works. So his explanation there, just following opportunities, sounds like he might have been his own brand of Chris Olly over there, kind of fill gaps where needed to do that professionally. Well, he mentioned that. Yeah, exactly. So wanting to come to this area, retire here, or you know, would see as somebody potentially retiring around this area after this job. My concern with him is that, well obviously, you know, budget constraints there with salary. I am afraid based on his resume experience, vibes in the interview. I don't know if he would be willing to permanently come down, step down on salary in the sense of, you know, step it out at 80 and then maybe step it out, you know, a little further later on. I don't think we could afford him long term in a sense. But if he is willing to compromise, can see it on that for the, you know, other great things in life he'd get by living here and being a paragon of the community. His experience is there working with different government entities, doing a lot of work with grants. I believe there was, I think, no, I'm sorry, I think that was another application that had a new city hall, but specifically with him, when he was in North Carolina, dealing with FEMA and coordinating assistance for like hurricane relief and all of that. I think it's important for people to be familiar with the kind of natural disasters we have here. That's my feelings. I'm real heart. I'm sorry. Nobody else, right? I ranked 10 as my top choice. I thought he had the citizens. Peace. Search the area well. He knew that we are critical state concern. Site, he looked at a number of things more deeply. I thought than others did. Obviously looked beyond the website to other trying to get a better sense. So he was my number two. I'm kind of going back and forth. I mean, he was like fish. He was my one or my number two. I mean, I'm very excited about his resume to see somebody who has such vast experience and also has the requisite education. I mean, competence excites me. So I think for me, fish was almost a part of the up where I think some of our population from I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I'm wrong. the part. the committee. Thank you. Good Commissioner Duncan weigh in on this one. I'm pretty much finding myself in agreement with everyone else. It depends on how we look at them. Yeah, real hard and fish definitely have the education and the experience. I'm just not convinced that they're going to leave jobs that they're making the kind of money they're making to come here. I just don't believe it. So it's hard for me to really wrap my head around that and think I'm making a true decision. But we can't answer that form. I understand that. We just have to ask them. And if they all fall out, we start all over's like in terms of salary, I think we'd have a higher probability with real heart because he told us, I mean, he's the interim city manager. He's got someone he's training right now. So he already knows that his- Where'd it go? Yeah, he's ready to go. He knows his days there are limited. So I think we'd have less, we wouldn't have to preen as much on that one. With Fish, you know, he opened with, and I don't say I kind of respected the way they opened it with, I'm not looking for a job, you know. He made it clear like he has skills he had to bring to offer us, and I appreciate somebody that brings that sort of confidence to the table that also doesn't seem like they're frequently a victim of their own hubris. So, let's come up with a slate of three. Sounds, does anybody want to propose? So, my top three ranking, number one was fish, number two was barrel heart, number three was ash. I don't. Well, I'm quite gotten to that. Yes, we I guess we're wrapping up our informal consideration. Well, I'm quite gotten to that. Yes. I guess we're wrapping up our informal consideration. Well, that is just me sharing what my ranking of top three is. So we're not, we hear what everybody else is top three are. And then depending on how our one, two, three stack out. Do it almost like ranked choice style. And fish is top. Yes, fish was my number one. Real heart and then ash. We're Duncan. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Mr. Duncan. All right, it's a fuck. I mean, Commissioner know, what did we advertise, What did we say our experience was? My top three or or money because I haven't, I've got my top three. But for me, I've got, I mean, I've got one, two, three all the way around and I'll explain why. I have real heart, fish and ash and right now I'm not committed to any specific number. That's why I've been saying top of the list in reality because it's different things for me. She might not have the, I mean, she has education for sure, but she might not have the actual, the city administrator, government administration education specifically, but she certainly has the experience and finance, and she certainly has the experience by the work she's done here on this commission. Then we have Brill Hart who has looks like, you know, he's, looks like he's, you know, like he's spent his career filling in spots and being requested basically from what, how he put, and he has the education. I just, I guess even if, even if real heart or fish, either one except at this position, I think they're leaving. I just don't know why. I just don't think that I think that we're a very unique community and I just don't think they're gonna take the money and I don't think they're gonna, but. Well, we have to ask them. That's something I've learned. I know. We can't feel it. Listen, we said we were discussing informally. So y'all just hold your, hold your little horses. Jeez. Cause here's the thing too. Not many people wanna sit up here and have people get demonstrative and get started responding when all you're trying to do is your job. So not many people anyway. So my number one would be real heart. And then I would say ash number two and fish number three. Because I... Well, we all have the same three. That's a good sign. I mean, I think we all have the same three. We don't. Questioner George did your test book. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. But generally, we're close. We're close. Two for three. Yeah. Not bad. So, did I get that recorded right? Yes, you wanted to book. All right, Mayrich Rotten. You need you to be quiet. Because this is, probably, but common is over. I don't look so shocked we we have to do that or we'll never get done. Okay It won't move any further I Said we all have similar picks so it it's we're getting close. I think we... How are you feeling, Mayor Prattam? Well, my rankings, I felt like Burhart was, he had the depth of experience that wasn't there for the others. I'm a realist and I felt like he would be a better fit and he had more of the depth of experience that we're looking for. I did like fish. He would be my number two. However, I think he was a baby, you know, and I'm second guessing. I think he might change his mind and then ash. So I think that Spock is probably not going to follow all the way to the end. I think we'll lose him and he was honest about what he wanted in terms of relocation and with a salary. I also feel like he kind of, as I mentioned, I feel like he fell into the position more than pursued it. So I don't have any of the others didn't rank for me with summers or any of the other applications. I rank them all and none of them rose to the top., that for Spuck and then after talking to him, I just don't have confidence that he's going to follow through. I will say going into it, Spuck, like based off like resume, experience and everything, when I like researched the town there from history, waterfront, and community. I was like, oh wow, like this guy seems like he'd be a great fit. But yeah, I got really excited. But then I looked at the job application that saw his request. So, it was kind of my dark horse. I was like, wow, this guy's got all the experience, but I'm wary of the job hop here. So, yeah. Wow, the job hop, but I'm glad you asked that. Well, I think the job hop was exclaimed. Yes, I'm so pleased. for sure. Yeah, I was like that was my main thing with him is I was like, wow, this guy's got the experience he's there, but if you job hop that much, it usually means you might be the brown moon, but obviously not the case here, which is great. So three of us have picked Pearlheart as the number one, and then we all picked fish. Some is number one, some is number three, some is number two. And then two, three of us picked ash and one picked buck. I think we need to, I'll entertain emotion. And then I think we need to charge the attorney with negotiating with them and they may all drop out. Now do we want to form a motion? Do we want to form one or two motions? Do we want to form one motion to recognize what we agree are our top three picks? and then make a motion to direct the city attorney to begin negotiation with the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of negotiation that is significant enough to be brought to the table. So I think we should kind of come to an agreement on what we are and are not willing to negotiate on. I know he did not make, he did not from what I would call make any direct statements on what his exact salary, what he would want. Yeah. he said he would go with the 80. Yeah, he said he would go with it. So I think that's good. With fish, something you know, concerned about there would be, you know, he's at 126 already. So if he says, well, OK, I want the 126. Personally speaking, if, let's say, he was our number one and he comes back with not 126, I would say well respectfully, sir, if after that meeting you aren't really to budget the slightest on that, then we're not perhaps negotiating a good faith. You know what I mean? So, you know, I trust Attorney Harmon's judgment to begin that negotiation process and if there are negotiations that are presented in terms of a significant variation in salary a significant lead time in start date. So, real heart was chosen by three of us. Correct. And... Well, if you do it by... Number one. And your number one. So that's who would negotiate with first. Number two would be... Ish, Ish. And number three would be Ash. You have us picked Ash. You want only because you're a resident expert. Come up to them. You got to do it so we don't know that we were told 80 so I don't know where the one 20 came from and we were all not prepared at all for this. So we kind of got here do this. In the meeting that I had with your HR slash finance person that's the information that I got. But if you all didn't see the pay plan this is two years ago right and I left it in process. So there is a pay plan someplace you've adopted I assume. Well, yeah, I never green study. We partially got there some of that. Partially didn't. It's ongoing. The materials from it were not necessarily as concise or specific as they needed to be in terms of being realistic to what employees we actually have and are going to continue to have. So there is leg work to be done on taking that document and making it an appletch call document, not just a... The other thing is we had no oversight of financial person and got left with a shortage on our budget this year. Let's stay focused on the salary that you want to negotiate because that's the biggest challenge your attorney's gonna have is what are you comfortable doing? And I was using what I hoped was good information that you actually do have a plan. There is a minimum and a maximum. And under normal circumstances, depends on qualifications and experience, you're willing to go to a certain point within the range. I'm just giving you some groundwork to make a decision. Midpoint would probably be based on the candidates you're looking at, your top, but I don't want to give you, I don't know how, if you're saying 80 is the number, then he has clear direction, that's as far as he goes. If you're willing to go to midpoint, I'm just throwing that out there, which is would be 100 based on the information I have, and that's the ceiling, that's as far as you're willing to go and he would benefit from that kind of direction so that he knew. Yeah we would have to but we were left with not a complete. Well I mean we're the ones that make these decisions that plan how to do it we're the top of the totem pole. I mean, the outgoing city managers not going to plan it himself. The city clerk is under the manager's direction. We're not supposed to direct the clerk. I mean, this is a budgeted for it. And we're in the middle of the budget year. Plus, we approved the old city manager taking out a payout on his leave. So I'm hesitant to go over what we initially decided and advertised because of those two facts. And sure, it might change tomorrow, but it might not change for eight months. So. So given what Mr. Holly has said, do we want to set a cap on financial negotiation? Say are we just going to say 80 or nothing or mid-range? We'll entertain up to 100 and we will have discussion, serious discussion at the Tuesday meeting. We need to all get with Lee and discuss with Lee. Hey, what does our budget look like? Where do you think if we really had to make sacrifices, where can we do it, where can we pull this through? Because with the timeline we're all on and Sunshine Law, each of us needs to be in city hall or in somebody's inbox or on the phone with staff touching on this issue every day. We are also employees of this city and we gotta be there with staff and we gotta do stuff. the city. We are also employees of the city and we got to be there with staff and we got to do stuff. Yeah, I think you're right. Once it gets in there. And let me ask this. If what I would anticipate is you're going to give me a slate. If you're ranking them, and it's a call it a waterfall, where I negotiate with one, bring him back to you as these are the terms, the terms, salary, relocation, expense, start date. Those are kind of my top three things that I would be discussing with them. If you all are talking about having a subsequent meeting at which you will pick one of the three, right, then what I would like to do is talk to each of them and get their salary expectation, what will they come to work for for us on the start date that they can early start date. We know it's the earliest. We'll decide, obviously, make accommodation for people, but we want their earliest possible start date when they can commit to, I could leave off relocation expenses, Mr. Puck was going to mention that. But, and bring that back to you all to make a decision on the candidates based on that. I mean, is that that way you have all the information you pick, then a motion is made on one of the candidates? In considering that as well, since we is going to be like a staged step process, Isn't there also the possibility of bringing those three back to have the discussion to have a second, a follow-up discussion or interview with them? Yeah, if I would say, I mean, this is me making this up, but if I bring you back information, you think, oh, Mr. I mean, real heart is consistently at the top, right? And he says, you know what? I know he said, I can come for the 90. I'm going to ask him, what is your three horizon look like? You know, you're expecting to go 80, 90, 100. I mean, what is your expectation? I'll make a note of that. And I'll tell him, be realistic because you'll be held to this. And he will. He'll tell me, I'll let you all know that. And so you can factor that in. And if he says, and I, and you know, I'll let you all know that. And so you can factor that in. And if he says, and I, and you know, I'll, I'm gonna, I don't wanna give away my negotiation strategy, but I will, you know, if he tells me, you know, I hope to be at 120 within three years, I'll say, ah, that would be unheard of at the city of Abutsch Kola, you know, because it is. I mean, that wouldn't be, I wouldn't be even negotiating. That's just the truth. And so I would be having that of at the City of Apache Cola. Because it is. That wouldn't be even negotiating. That's just the truth. And so I would be having that back and forth with him. He would give me a realistic. And but then you all obviously would be making the final decision. And it could come to just what you're talking about. You're like, if he expects to be at 95 in three years, can we talk to him, interview him again, talk to him, and get it to 90? Because I think we can do that if he's really performing. And now I'm just using him as an example. But that's Ural's decision on mine. But I can get you that information so you can make that decision. And I can do it on all three because I do, we need to make it. We need to move this. And we got to. And we might have some drop out. You know, that's the reality of it is when they really start to get serious and commit. Can you come up? I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'm just. We're kind of we're in the middle of the question so He was a former consultant Yeah, he was our former in-term city manager So Jimmy yeah, okay, I'm not but just a constituent so Okay Jimmy and Ged. So. Okay. Jimmy and Gedley. I guess in Mr. Hartman's proposal, I only ask where would the reference checks and the background checks fit in that structure? I'll call the, I'll get on the references as well. Yep. And of anything jarring. I will. And I have another background check. I will do that. And Bobby does our background checks. He's always done that. So we'll give him the names as soon as possible. Yep, Bobby run those. Yep. And it'll be obvious. I don't expect anything. But I don't feel the need to re-interview. I feel like we have a slate of candidates. And if we're going to go back through re-interviewing, let's open it back up again. You know what's. I agree. So we've spent hours on this. I've spent many, many days going over these resumes. And I feel like they were comprehensive in what they submitted. We just need to now, you know, do the background check, make sure it's true. I don't know what, do you want to ask transcripts? See I'm not familiar with the HR process enough to ask for transcripts. I mean from their educational transcripts, I would not, meaning of the vintage of the people. Meaning if someone asked for my transcripts, I'd struggle to come up with them. I'm not saying, I mean, it's a good point. I just have good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. It's a good boy. friends and someone asked me, oh, did you have to have as kids? Did you ask? I was like, no, I didn't ask any of that. Like we just talked about this for that. So I'm going to salary start date. I'm going to call the references. I'm, yeah So I'm going to salary, start date, I'm going to call the references. I'm keeping it obviously on points that you all have interest in. So throw them at me if you want information on a specific point. And if you think of it after the meeting, call me and I'll address it during my discussion with them. Okay, so throughout discussion, I think we've kind of were on a consensus on what direction for attorney Hartman to take, so I don't think we need to tell him, make sure you do a background check and check references and I think we've told him all the things we care about him negotiating on and the other background work to be done there. So, do we, is there anything else we haven't covered before we start to get to a motion? That was all I had was background check, salary negotiation and then ranking. I think it's going to be a possibility that we lose some people. three candidates that we selected did not require relocation fees. And just to be crystal clear, I'm going to, where I'm going to start the conversation on salary, is that the starting salary is $80,000, but I will ask about what their expectation is, moving forward just so we know what that is. And I'll tell them, we'll hold them to it as far as their expectation to make sure we want someone in this position in long term. Well, if you're negotiating for us, you would need the power to spend more money. That's what we need to find out. I know you're calling me a negotiator. sort of quasi, right? I don't have any decision-making authority. I, you know, if they tell me, hey, 80's not enough, then I will be like, well, is 85 enough? Is 90 enough? Understanding that commission makes final decision on this. But that is information I would bring back to you, right? You know, we're not going to get this guy for less than $92,000. You know? I think Dan is kind of like an insurance guy. I'm here to negotiate this. I'm allowed to pay you this amount of money. Oh, you want more than that? All right. Got to go talk to the team. See if they're going to allow me to keep negotiating on this. I mean, it just goes. All right. We have a path forward. I want anybody like a mega motion? Motion that we direct attorney Hartman to gather information for applicants, real heart, fish and ash to determine salary requirements start date to do background checks. What was there anything else? Start references. Yeah. Oh, references. I'm sorry. And also to check the references. Well, there's two steps there. Background check and references. The background check Bobbid needs to do. Got it. Just want to say we also did. Director Attorney Hartman for salary start date and references and chief Lawrence for background check. Good luck. All right, we have a motion on the floor. What's the you? Second. Discussion. Second motion by Commissioner George. Second by Commissioner Elliott. The only discussion that I would like to have is just for it to be understood with the lengthy language of the motion, just understanding that everything is covered. There are no gaps. We are good to go and attorney-harp can start working on this and no one has any more questions about this process. No further discussion. Question? Have a motion to adjourn the meeting. I so move. I say that we make an appointment. We have got to discuss. These are all discussions. Those are discussions. We need to all go have personally, because we are in the sunshine. Go have those discussions personally with staff. If you think there's a staff member, that's amenable to it. Go talk to them personally, ask them about it, ask them what their requirements would be. Figure out financially if the gaps in when the actual person that gets hired starts versus now when then there's no men enter taking pay, can that salary possibly be allocated to them, cover the gaps, but we need to talk to them about that because functionally speaking, at the Tuesday meeting, we'll need to appoint an interim because not having a city manager for two business days, we can still function that way. It would be no different than if he was out sick. I think that would be longer than that. I just tired somebody and it's taken eight weeks to onboard them. Yeah. So we need to get that interim lock men as fast as we can on Tuesday. So let's all commit to. Well, I think we need to do the background. I mean, do some research like she said, call Bre, call E, see who's, who's meanable to it. Someone suggested Alan Pierce, and we talked to him, if he's amenable to. Talk to him already. Okay, cool. So he's in. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Okay. Are we? I make a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion by Commissioner Elliott. Second by Commissioner Duncan. Good night. Everybody stay warm. Thank you.