SUMMARY MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING

Monday, June 6, 2022 Conference Room 440 - Shoreline City Hall

5:30 p.m. 17500 Midvale Avenue North

PRESENT: Mayor Scully, Deputy Mayor Robertson, Councilmembers McConnell, Mork, Roberts, Pobee, and Ramsdell

ABSENT: None

STAFF: Melissa Muir, HR and Organizational Development Director;
Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk

GUESTS: Catherine Tuck Parish, Vice President, Raftelis (joined Remotely)

1. CALL TO ORDER

At 5:34 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Scully and introductions were made around the room. Human Resources and Organizational Development Director, Melissa Muir stated the City is contracted with Raftelis to work with Council on recruiting the next City Manager, and she introduced Raftelis Vice President, Catherine Tuck Parish. Ms. Tuck Parish stated she is looking forward to this process and shared a memo on a proposed plan for the job posting and outreach. She reviewed a list of websites where she recommends the job be posted and the reasons why, and she noted strategies for reaching out to BIPOC candidates. She said there will also be targeted outreach to passive candidates, primarily focused on recruiting current City Managers and Deputy or Assistant City Managers in the Washington, Oregon, California, and Denver, Colorado areas.

There was a question on the outcome of recent recruitments in hiring City Managers from smaller cities or Department Directors looking for a City Manager role. Ms. Tuck Parish said she expects to see applicants from smaller and larger cities and that Raftelis would target both current and Deputy or Assistant City Managers, but she admitted Department heads are challenging to target.

Councilmembers stated that instead of focusing on attracting a large pool of candidates, the goal should be attracting quality ones. They discussed the appropriate minimum qualifications for the job so that good candidates are not immediately filtered out during the screening process. Concern was expressed that someone would automatically be eliminated if they were just shy of a minimum qualification, and Ms. Tuck Parish replied that her staff reviews and sorts the applicants in a number of different ways and Council would receive a list of all the applicants, noting whether or not they met the minimum. And any Councilmember could request to take a closer look at any candidate.

When asked what the typical number of applicants for a City Manager position is nowadays, Ms. Tuck Parish said metro areas have more than rural areas but the number of applicants is lower than it was 5 years ago. She estimated around 30 would apply.

Ms. Tuck Parish then provided an overview of the proposed schedule, highlighting that she will be incorporating Council’s feedback in the recruitment plan and brochure and the position will be posted on June 23. She said the “soft deadline” for applications is August 1; a Candidate Review Meeting for Council to determine semi-finalists is scheduled on August 18; virtual semi-finalist interviews would take place on August 31; and in-person finalist interviews would be on held on September 22, 2022.

Several Councilmembers expressed concern over the amount of time in-between the semi-finalist and finalist interviews and Ms. Tuck Parish said there is a ICMA conference that they are planning around but she would take another look and propose a new timeline.

There was discussion over the format and scheduling of the semi-finalists and finalist interviews, the value of a reverse interview (where the candidates meet and ask questions of Department heads), and the best way to involve the public in the interview process. Ms. Tuck Parish recommended that interviews be held as close together as possible and Councilmembers agreed on 2-7 p.m. time window. There was discussion over the value of interviews being conducted in open session versus in closed session and what would be gained or learned under each option. A majority of Council agreed that a public reception should be held the night before finalist interviews. Ms. Tuck Parish reminded Council that qualifications of candidates are discussed in Executive Session and noted it is important for all Councilmembers to be at every interview.

Council then reviewed the Recruitment Brochure draft text. There was debate over what the minimum number of years in local government a candidate should have; a request to add capital project management as a preferred qualification, and to change references of “light rail” to “transit” to acknowledge transit-oriented development is not only around light rail; and discussion around the residency requirement and comfort over salary.

Council agreed to reducing the local government experience from ten years to five years. There was no consensus on residency requirement or salary range, so Ms. Tuck Parish said the language would be left as is. She will ask candidates about their comfort with the salary range, share that the job is an in-person position and will ask their thoughts on living in the area. Ms. Tuck Parish concluded that she will wordsmith all of the other suggestions and send back an updated version for Council review.

At 6:47 p.m., Mayor Scully declared the meeting adjourned.

/s/ Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk