10/15/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes 10/15/2002 minimal dollar level amounts so long as funds have been appropriated and so long as the ,, language of the contract is approved by the Director of Law. Councilman Gareau, in response to this, has already submitted a legislative request. He appreciates that request, and believes it will be good government legislation. Councilwoman Kasler noted that she had read with great interest the memos that have been going back and forth between the Law Director and Mayor with regard to the appointments of the Service and Safety Directors. Since the Mayor has stated that he will announce those appointments tomorrow, she wondered if there is a commitment to a deadline on the appointments of the Recreation Commissioner and the Fire Chief so that we don't have to go through this same process two months down the road. Mayor Musial answered that resumes for the position of Recreation Commissioner are being accepted until October 22. With regard to the Fire Chief, the former Safety Director wanted to conduct oral examinations. However, it was determined there must be a written test given. The city is now in the process of establishing the criteria to get a written test established. Law Director Dubelko said that a Safety Director must be on board first before we can look at the Recreation Commissioner and Fire Chief. So, it was very good news to hear that we are going to have a Safety Director tomorrow. He will sit down with the Safety Director and work to do everything to expedite getting both those positions filled. The Fire Chief position has to be filled through a promotional examination, and the Recreation Commissioner is anon-bargaining position. Mayor Musial said he felt that the elapsed time had been reasonable as the Law Director had indicated that a newly elected mayor would have approximately eight weeks to fill positions from the time of the election to the end of the year. We are only at the ninth week, and he feels that an additional week is not a substantive variation in the length of time with regard to appointing a Safety Director or a Service Director. Law Director Dubelko noted that the Mayor's office asked him how much time they had to make the appointments. Since our Charter does not indicate a time period, his advice was that the Mayor has an obligation to fill the position. As guidance, he indicated that a newly elected mayor who, with no experience in municipal government and with no directors on hand, is only given seven or eight weeks in order to fill all these positions. He looked at that as something that should guide the Mayor's judgment in conducting his search and insuring that the position was filled at the outermost of that. With his strong feelings regarding his duties to insure that positions are being filled, when that eight week mark was reached and he didn't have any assurances other than occasional general comments that interviews had been conducted, he thought it was incumbent upon him to at least send a memo to the Mayor to make sure that Charter obligations were being followed. Councilwoman Kasler said it is her concern that the positions be filled as quickly as possible and not with the idea of "How long do I have?" There are critical director positions that need to be filled, and it's very important that a thorough job be done and that the right person be selected. It needs to be a wise decision, but it needs to be an efficient and effective one because it's not something that you leave vacarrt for months on end. That makes no sense to her, and it certainly is a concern now that we have several open positions. Mayor Musial said this situation was like a new Mayor because Mr. Thomas resigned without any notice. He is not going to hire someone just because time