Minutes - Council Work Session - 03/15/2022 - Special

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Administrative Services Director Lasher confirmed this and added their packets included a letter of interest from all five incumbents stating that they would like to be considered for reappointment and all of the Chairs or Vice-Chairs recommended their reappointment. Councilmember Heineman asked Administrative Services Director Lasher if these all fall on the every-other-term category. Administrative Services Director Lasher confirmed this, that these all happen to be even numbered terms. Councilmember Musgrove stated that policy hasn’t been approved yet. Administrative Services Director Lasher confirmed this. Councilmember Musgrove asked if it was correct that the policy they are using right now says Council should have reviewed these prior to any advertisements being done so that they could potentially have more positions open. Administrative Services Director Lasher replied it is correct the policy states that incumbents should be reviewed in a separate process. She stated she is eager to discuss how that can be improved because they can’t implement other parts of the policy by not advertising all seats. She stated the policy is very cumbersome. She stated Councilmember Musgrove is correct but improvement needs to be made because if people want to serve again and the Chair supports reappointment, as does the Council, and it isn’t advertised, then she doesn’t have an applicant pool for the inevitable mid-year vacancies that happen on a regular basis. She continued there are some real challenges in administering the advertising in the Ramsey Resident, which is required by the Charter, because of the timing. If they wait to find out four months ahead of time from when someone’s term is about to expire, the Ramsey Resident has to be contracted in December for a term that ends the end of March. She stated it is hard to time that, it is two completely different processes for advertising in the Ramsey Resident, and it doesn’t work out well for the way the policy is written. She stated that Councilmember Musgrove was right that it does say two different processes but then she can’t administer the rest of the policy. Councilmember Specht commented the policy will be updated soon. Administrative Services Director Lasher replied that is correct, next week, a week from today. Councilmember Musgrove commented that if the policy doesn’t work it needs to come before the Council so a policy change could be made. She thought there needed to be a discussion if March 31 is a good time to do it, and asked if it works better with the Ramsey Resident, do they want the application process to start at a different time. She thought those were types of policy discussions Council could have that would help make the process easier. She didn’t know if there was anything that could be done because the policy hasn’t been followed and they have been doing it the way it has always been done but it wasn’t based on the policy. She asked if it is correct that is still the Council’s prerogative whether to approve these or not and if they don’t approve them, then there City Council Special Work Session / March 15, 2022 Page 5 of 19