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