Agenda - Council - 03/22/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

the process two weeks in hiring a City Administrator instead of listening to the Council. She questioned the decision to cancel ads for the appointment. Charter Commission Member Jim Benson stated that the appointment of Councilmember Woestehoff to the Charter Commission should never have been considered because allowing a Councilmember to sit on the Charter Commission is the only City entity that can limit the City Council is a gross conflict of interest. He stated there are so many anomalies involved in this process that to any objective observer, the actions of the City Clerk in relation to the recruitment of potential Charter members and their presentation for consideration to the judge would appear to represent not incompetence but direct action to manipulate the Charter Commission appointment process. He stated this has never happened before because no Councilmember has ever applied to get appointment to the Commission. He formally requested Councilmember Woestehoff resign from the Charter Commission in an attempt to reduce the embarrassment to the City due to this episode. Councilmember Woestehoff responded that he will resign once the Charter is updated to not allow Councilmembers to be on it. Councilmember Riley commented that this case is about the Charter Commission or information that the Staff provides or the manufacturing cohort. He stated last week there was a list of questions but the answers show there were mistakes made and improvements made. He stated the answers took away the malice and intent to clearly do things wrong, there were errors made. He stated the suggestion of this case is to do an investigation or inquiry. Councilmember Riley suggested that City Attorney Knaak start with the questions that have been provided and get to the bottom of the question of whether it was a mistake or if it was malicious. He thought that additional inquiry could be done and asked if City Attorney Knaak could do it within his current retainer. City Attorney Knaak replied it is a part of his job. Councilmember Riley stated that the validity of the answers could be determined and it isn't a smoking gun, but a match that has been extinguished. Councilmember Howell commented that if questions aren't asked they can't get answers. She stated the questions weren't an investigation, they are to find out facts and a broken process can't be repaired if there is no process. She stated one of the big take-aways from this is that there is no process in place for the Charter Commission. Administrative Services Director Lasher replied that is correct and there has never been. She repeated that this is her first year processing the Charter Commission and she will do better now that she knows better. Councilmember Howell commented that policies have not been attached, following the process that is already in place when it comes to other Boards and Commissions. She stated there shouldn't have been time lost because of Staff stonewalling when they were trying to sit down and pick a City Administrator. City Council/March 8, 2022 Page 33 of 38