[Music] all right we are a little bit past 6 o'clock um we do have um so on our planned agenda this evening is to consider deliberations for our candidate for our new city administrator position um we do not have open Forum on the agenda this evening however I'm happy to open the mic to anybody that would like to speak in an open Forum session um will provide that opportunity if there is anyone like that would like to speak in open Forum um before we bring discussion back to council and not seeing anyone step forward Jolene are we online we are online and I don't any participants partipants raise their hands to speak at this very good with that we're going to I'm going to toss it over to Bart and Bart the floor is yours sure um you're GNA TOS it to me real quick yes Amanda telling up the scores yeah so um just to recap where we have been um obviously we had the interviews all day long and then uh Bart asked Council to provide him with their top one and top two choices if they had a top two Choice um and so we're just going to go through those I think we're going to try to put them up on the screen so you can just sort of see what the T you know I think I'm visual maybe if you're visual it's helpful to just see what it is so you'll see we'll go through top choices first and then we'll go through second choice unless Council wants to do it differently does that work I think that's great Okay so we have um one vote for Joe G you want this plugged in yeah sure um mayor sorry not to interrupt really quick I just wanted to make one point of one point um one one of you only chose one person they had just a top one just so you know so that's why the votes will come out uneven oh technical issues right now we kind of at up that's fine so if you have a piece of paper in front of you if you if you want to you can write GAA and he is one so um joa has one vote for the Top Choice um then we have joa has a second for um Top Choice joea has a third vote for Top Choice joea joea excuse me has a fourth vote for the Top Choice and then we have one vote um for Christina H for um the First Choice sorry I'm just writing this down so I we'll pause here for one second um obviously Christina is not a part of the process um so the the first question is um you know does council want to look at her along with these additional candidates or do do they want to consider her separately or what how would they like Christina to be considered with the candidate pool that you have right now Council I'm open to feedback thoughts she actually pulled out of the race and even put it in the paper that she was going to run it wasn't a good fit for her that was that was in the paper also there was some paperwork that uh she didn't fill out like everybody else did and so I wasn't ever going to consider her for that that's just my vote one vote for that reason any other perspectives yeah I can appreciate uh council member husk um points on that I think he's accurate um in terms of the process at the same time Counterpoint would be that she's been on the job um doing doing the work and so I think from that standpoint I would Advocate that we at least let her you know be a part of the conversation other points of perspective I so I I would agree I I think um you know we were a little concerned from the beginning about this candidate pool we we were all I think in agreement of that um we did find I think it does in uh department heads came forward with one person which I think we seem like we might be in agreement with that uh but to rule out someone that's been working here for 6 months hit the ground running has not just kept the lights on for the city but has continued to move things forward working out and having hard conversations on difficult situations uh I think we would be foolish not to at least consider her as as as the top two council member valento anything to add um I guess I'm not turn one way or the other only because Joe has four out of the five votes so um I think we should consider all options on the table and all options on the table is always what is our current candidate pool as well as what might not be our current candidate pool um and so I'm I'm open to having her part of this conversation however I do feel that just based on the results I've seen so far I think it's a little bit of a mute point um but I think as I think we should all be working towards making the best decision and I have respect for everyone's opinions up here so if there is some discussion points that we should have on Christina as a candidate I think we should certainly entertain the discussion but again based on what I've Just Seen um it might not be a significant point I will also just be fully transparent I hope we're also going to look at the number two yep votes um and Christina was my number two so um I very much am in favor of that consideration but let's see number two okay so seguing to the second um second choice one person did not provide a second choice so just there'll be four for this one um there uh this person had Joe for number one and Christina for number two this person had Joe for number one and uh Tariq for number two uh this person had Joe for number one and Christina for number two uh this person had Christina for number one and Joe for number two so just from a numbers perspective uh Joe has four First Choice V votes and one second choice vote uh Christina has one First Choice vote and two second choice votes and Tariq has one second choice vote so those are the um choices that you've made one one thing I do want to just make clear is as of right now I do not know if Christina is interested in this position um because as council member husnik did mention she did pull her name from consideration so if if if there is an interest in pursuing her as a candidate obviously she would need she would need to weigh in on that um and be allowed to to either say yes she'd be willing to reconsider or no she is maintaining her position of not being interested bark go ahead um mayor council members just one other point of um I guess order here um as far as as um DDA and we are concerned um there is a 2-year guarantee as part of our process um that would be in place um with any candidate that has gone through our process um that would not be in place with any candidate that has not gone through our process just as a point of clarification there so at this point um I think it makes sense for there to be discussion Andor it doesn't look like we have anybody else from the public here in terms of open mic night um and just discussing there's really three candidates that you have on the board right now you have joea you have Christina H and then you do have tarq with one a second choice vote Council what are what do we thought any thoughts that maybe haven't already been said or comments so I you know what I'd like to see at this point is that um we table this until Monday evening we have the conversation with Christina H to see if she is interested in the position uh and then Circle back on Monday and make a final decision it allow us some extra time to what I'd like to do is a little bit more of a deep dive on Mr G I think he could be a viable uh candidate obviously he was my number two um and so uh I just think that more time would allow us more time to explore a little bit more and do a deeper dive this is a big decision you know we we just met these individuals for the first time a number of hours ago in the in the private sector you have second interviews you have time so the idea of of making this decision I'm just not comfortable making that this evening I um as I hear as I hear that um I'm fully respectful let's take the time that's needed to make the right decision I have a little bit of a hesitancy of opening up the pool of having that conversation I mean here we are in a public meeting having the conversation but extending extending the invitation to Christina at this point um given just where we are just it seems that we're sitting with the majority of the votes already sitting with Joe it seems um it seems like Christina's not the primary choice and so I'm not sure I guess maybe maybe my question would be what happens next so we have the conversation Christina are you interested then what do we what would we do next with that is it what does that look like well I mean if she's is interested then you try to do the vote do a vote on Monday and and so would you would you be looking for then um so would the instruction be that um either our City attorney or Bart Reach Out confirm a level of interest just bring that information back to council for our consideration on Monday is that I think so I mean the fact that there you know she has a number of votes here we've seen her in action correct not perfect no one is perfect um uh I just Eda member made a made a comment this evening about you know looking strongly at her so I know other public people have reached out to me and said you know you might have the right person to seat right now so I guess um do you feel that the only missing piece of information is knowing whether she's interested in the role and if she is interested in the role I guess I just want to make sure that we're walking into Monday with enough information to be able to make a decision or if there's something else that's needed I'd like to identify that um just so we're kind of clear on what that next step is from her or just in general yeah if we're going to consider that because there is sounds like there's a suggestion for a followup um and so if we're going to have that followup if the confirmation is yes I'm open to being considered is that enough um you know there hasn't been a community interview um Council I you we haven't interviewed but I I personally don't feel like I need to um I just want to make sure that there's kind of a clear sequence and what that looks like I guess I got to ask what's the point of this whole process we just went through this whole process after she declared she' pulled out and now we're going to go back I don't get it well you know this thinking through speaking of the process I mean we um she's been in the seat for six months so from a community interview standpoint I mean she's had I think we probably all gotten a lot of communication that you know there's a high level of appreciation um you know we all step back from The Fast Track because we recognize that it's you know this next decision is a big one right and we wanted to have a comparative pool in my to my recollection um which I feel like that's what this process has given us is that comparative pool um in my mind I guess it didn't necessarily rule her out because she's been doing the job um and that's why she's was on my slip as well um and so I don't think it hurts us to take the time just to just to confirm one way or the other I mean if she you know if we ask Amanda to follow up with her and she's just an absolute hard no well that makes it really really simple um but if that's not the case then it you know then it merits discussion one um thank you for all of this discussion I think it is important to kind of put on the public record um we did hear we did hear feedback back from both um our department heads as well as the community panel um the department head panel recognized um joa as their primary candidate and and felt strongly enough that the second candidate wasn't necessarily identified um and then the community panel had identified um t as a top candidate um with both Devin Swanberg and Joe Joe as their as their second candidates um as I walked as I walked into before hearing and then we did also hear from um um a member of our our Eda and who led the community panel personally he had also represented and indicated um some support for Christina um in that role um as I walked into this discussion and into this consideration um that overwhelming feedback for Joe and that you not unanimous but virtually we've got all of our identified people in the room identifying the same person maybe in different ranks but that one person has risen up across the board um to me that speaks volumes and um I'm open to considering Christina should she's if she's interested on Monday um as a point of reference but I'm I just want to be transparent I'm not sure it changes my mind given the level of consensus that we've seen um and I guess I'm just compelled to say that say those words out loud that um we've had that you know we we have a candidate who has risen to the top um I want to give this decision time and certainly people can you know make some additional conversations and have some additional time to consider but um we are at a much tighter consensus than what I was expecting walking into this decision and although Christina I put Christina as a number two to me there's a greater distance between my number one and my number two just because of what I've heard tonight and so um I just want to be transparent of my thought process and also kind of um just kind of indicate how I'm seeing that seems like we do have some consensus so points of feedback just uh on on Mr guy I again I think he he's a qualified candidate uh you know four months at a previous job and wasn't the right fit that's concerning um I confirmed with the mayor down there that was his term it wasn't the right fit this needs to be the right fit I agree so to take the time to make sure this is the right fit is is important uh the department heads had concerns about uh Mr Swanberg who was trying would have to relearn some of the state codes and different statutes from when he used to work in Minnesota then he was Wisconsin just for 18 months in that concern but didn't seem there's any concern about Mr G coming from Iowa who's never been in innesa so that you know that seems a little odd I mean so if if we're worried about one candidate about that who who actually worked in Minnesota and now we're not worried about Mr G that doesn't it just doesn't make sense so does anyone see a need to meet tomorrow we do have a meeting on the calendar for 9 o' in the morning I'm happy to keep that if there's if there's time if there's a need for it um sounds like there is some desire to extend until Monday and I'm happy to support that as well yeah given that we're scheduled to meet on Monday I guess I'd prefer to just wrap it up into that if that's good with any me I don't care okay um we had an opportunity we had an opportunity for some discussion today and um I said the words then and I'll say them again out loud today that I would ask that um if we are gathering information and I suspect we will all spend some time the Googles and doing some doing some things over the weekend that information let's share that as a full Council in our meeting on Monday um I think that it's important that whatever information is learned is known by everybody especially if we're at this point of making a decision so I would just ask for that kind of professional respect to the process can I ask a point of clarification please so um I work with Christina almost every every day I'm talking with Christina and certainly it you know she and I have had um personal conversations around whether or not she would consider um being here permanently I have I have enjoyed working with her um what I'm I guess what I'm looking for from councel is do you want a definitive yes she is interest interested in the position right now or a she may consider the position in the future and the reason that I'm asking that question and I have asked her if it would be okay you know if I shared this information so I'm not um I'm not sharing something that I shouldn't be sharing but um it has sounded like in the past when we've talked about it she's kind of said it you know maybe later on but she wouldn't be interested in entertaining permanent employment with Forest Lake right now when I speak with her which I'm assuming is what you want me to do between now and Monday what EX exactly do you want you know I will try to pin her down on an answer but what do you want what information do you want and frankly she'll be here Monday night you can ask her yourself and maybe that's easier um but I'd like to be able to you know G get you the information as soon as I I can so you have that information but um what do you what specifically do you want me to ask her thank you for teasing that out um because she is currently serving in a in an interim role and conceivably there's a number of ways that she could continue to serve um at risk of just jumping ahead with my opinion I I'm going to just jump ahead with my opinion um and I invite disagreement um because we have a candidate that has a fair amount of consensus that is available literally to start as soon as we make a decision I think from my perspective I would be looking for a permanent position I'm I'm not interested in continuing into an interim role or a longer interim role um we have an opportunity now to with a qualified candidate that has consensus enter into a permanent position we absolutely need it this position to be filled permanently as soon as possible um if we would have walked in today with that door being a little fuzzy I would have been open to a longer term interim position with Christina just again because I think she's doing a good job in that role but to me based on what's transpired to day we have an opportunity for permanent literally almost on Monday if we were to make that decision and I think we should I I would agree she she needs to you know commit to that a permanent position okay so it would be within the next 15 right oh well she's she's ours so it's not like she has to give us notice to continue to work for us so it would be the same okay that is incredibly helpful are we giving Amanda direction to have this conversation um and to bring back information to council for Monday is I feel like we are just want us to have consensus and certainly amand I want you to feel like you have clear direction from us yeah I mean we we want to find out if she is you know should we get to that point if she is even willing to entertain the idea of immediate permanent employment right that's we just decided but I mean you think it's going to be possible to what's your timeline to talk with her oh I'm going to be calling her in 10 minutes let's be real um so I I don't know if she's going to pick up her phone but you know I mean I'll be texting her shortly uh in terms of additional information that you would want from Christina do you want her um compensation and all of those sorts of that that information because that was initially part of the um conversation with her when it was when when Council moved to the sort of shortened version there was a couple different factors that were going on one of them was her discomfort with the release form that DDA was requiring her to sign the second was that it appeared Council and Christina were not together on compensation so I'm wondering if it's more than just a she would need to say yes she could start permanently now do you also want to know what her asks are I I don't need that now because we're not asking Mr G for that at this point well but Mr G knows what our stated range is Mr God knows the range for the role that he's interviewed for um we need it we need it sooner rather than later I would I mean personally yes I this is a negoti number I don't want to sit in a public meeting and start to negotiate that number but I I feel like we at least need a baseline um because again other candidates already have the Baseline given the advertised range level of certainty right and conversely it can be simply that you know I can relate to her the compensation is what we had talked about prior it is what is advertised there isn't some sort of different compensation for her I mean I can go either way right I can ask her for hers or I can say ju by the way if this changes your answer the compensation is what is advertised I I think both is true I think she knows she knows our advertised range and it would be good to know sooner rather than later um if that is if she's amendable to that and you know that information is going to come back again don't want this meeting to get into the negotiation of that um okay all mayor one other point of clarification and I guess Amanda were you are you I don't want to jump to this next thing if you need a little more information no if there well are you asking for more information than I should be gathering no oh okay um so it's clear to me I just want to make sure that I'm I'm doing the right thing tonight because I did say that I would contact the um the candidates tonight so it's clear to me that four at least for sure four of them I'm basically saying thank you very much for your time but not you know you were not a chosen person um and then we have tar who was kind of on the bubble you might say and then you have Joe so what should my message be to Tar um does he fall into the group that's the N or and then I mean Joe I can just say that you know they're you know there'll be a decision on Monday so so this is a broadcast meeting the information I I guess I would be hesitant to jump to a conclusion Beyond Where We Are Tonight and Where We Are Tonight is we know we have a candidate who a candidate that would participated today we have two candidates that participated today that ranked in the one and two and we have invited our current administrator to we're going to have a conversation if there is desire to be considered and then Council will reconvene on this topic on Monday I'm really uncomfortable with telling any candidate that they are not further considered because to me this isn't done until it's done um and I'm not trying to you know slip in another candidate you know but it's um we're not done until we're done so let's not conclude until we're concluded I I would agree I don't know why the direction would have been to to tell them tonight when we already had a meeting scheduled for for Friday and we've talked about maybe continuing this till Monday so I don't know why that expectation was set you can certainly give him an update on what has happened tonight but let's not go let's not conclude Beyond where we've concluded yeah I would like to keep all options until the last to your point to the decision actually and I can and I can communicate that I didn't know if if the four that did not get any votes if you wanted me to just take them off the table but clearly not I will just communicate to them that um a decision will be made on or it is likely a decision will be made on Monday I yes and and also and part of this is because I look at this can I look at this is we're not done with this process until not only we've made an offer but we also have an accepted offer and we we know that there are you know there's other positions and it it's not always a successful negotiation and so I don't want us to close any doors we we've had a we've had a we haven't said this a lot we've had a great day of interviews and so let's not kick any of those candidates loose until we're at the end of the process and we're just not there yet thank you any other okay is there any additional information you would like from Christina would you like me to just let her know that you want her to be available on Monday for the meeting is it awkward if she's in that meeting is there are you thinking you do you want this as a special meeting on Monday or do you want this to just be added to the regular agenda it sound sounds it's a light it's a light agenda so probably I don't think we have to do a special meeting but if I guess if we don't want her part of that maybe then it does have to be a special meeting well I'm just thinking if it's seven then you're going to have all the people here who would be here for the 7 o'clock meeting if it's something that you're thinking you would be doing I don't know at 6 o'clock or 5 o'clock or whatever that might look like hypothetically you may have less people in the room I don't know if that changes anything um but then yeah then secondarily do you I mean is it a conversation where you would like her to be here for it is it a conversation where you would not like her to be here for it I think she would do whatever you asked I personally I think this is part of the awkwardness that we have of just the nature of inviting our current interim to be part of the process um we have a regular agenda meeting we have a regular meeting on Monday I don't see a reason to call a special meeting specific for this topic um it is a lighter agenda there's nothing that is conflicting or would cause some awkwardness of different audiences and again it's an open meeting so I my recommendations is we put it at the top of the agenda on Monday it is the first thing that we address Christina is open to be there just like any other candidate would be open to be here as part of an open meeting um and I have full confidence she is a professional she knows exactly the process she knows you know as much as anybody knows the process and we we'll make that decision and continue with the rest of our meeting and I have confidence in her ability to support that well now I guess I would say if that is uncomfortable for her I'm open to considering a special meeting I just can't imagine that's going to be the case I genuinely don't know that's maybe find that out and if she would prefer we do it as part of a special meeting or you know she's okay with it on the if that is her preference let's notice a 6:30 special meeting and then we'll have a 7 o'clock regular meeting okay and we are we're Thursday so we have a data yes we have time to still get that noticed it it'll just yeah for the special if it's a special meeting yes can I just confirm mayor we are canceling the special meeting tomorrow correct thank you okay so what I have that you would like back from Christina is um is she interested in the permanent position it would be starting now not in some future unknown date and then um the salary range that is posted is the salary range that is available uh and then confirm if she wants a special meeting or if she's comfortable with us being at the beginning of the regular agenda on Monday is there anything else that you want I don't have a magic ball to know what you guys should do so it can't be that one of my question is how is this information coming back to us how are we how are we getting that response um and and communication is a two-way street so we don't necessarily know her timeline but let's correct what are your thoughts right so um I can bring the information to you on Monday and have it at the Monday meeting I can also send you uh an email you cannot reply obviously because that's where we get into the Clos meeting lot issue but I can send you the one way communication so I can send you communication you know letting you know if she is interested or if she is not interested so once I know that answer again that could be tonight uh or tomorrow morning so you would have that information to know I guess what you want to sort of chew on over the weekend um so if if she's not do we do the special meeting to finalize this or do we finalize this at the 7 o'clock should we just plan to do a 6:30 I think we should just plan on doing a 6:30 okay Julene just had a really great um suggestion do we want do we want to recess for like five minutes and I can make a phone call and we can come back no no okay I prefer not got it I mean it's a terrible suggestion I don't know why she suggested that's awful it's good I just um I prefer Monday I just I have a so I have a question though um I'm okay I'm I'm okay supporting the the weekend consideration before a final vote but if we can know in 10 minutes this this response I want to also leave room this communication is two ways right I also want to leave room for the actually as I think about this it might be a fast answer for Christina it also may not be and so for professional respect this is her job put her on the spot let's not put her on a spot where council is in an open meeting waiting for your response I I do like the expedited option it may be a fast answer but let's see that it may not be let's give it at least an overnight it'd be love if if there is an answer that we could have tomorrow I would I would welcome hearing that from you Amanda as soon as you have it okay also recognizing that is a one-way communication to us it would be good to know just as soon as possible really what our path looks like um as soon as possible but let's not put her in the position of literally on YouTube waiting for a response Fair it does make for good TV but um any other logistics Bart your clar on next steps with communication I guess also we've had a great day of just a great day of interviews so thank you for coordination I staff this is I know it takes a lot of time is take a lot of coordination and effort so thank you for getting here we had um great candidates travel from you know hundreds of miles to come here today to spend the time in Forest Lake um just thank you to all of them for the great participation because we really have had a great day so um and look forward to our next discussion so we are canceling our special meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow um we will decide tomorrow whether that is a meeting at 6:30 or I'm sorry we did decide we are meeting at 6:30 in a special meeting to reconvene this decision tonight do we do we table or do we recess and not adjourn wait we did decide that we're we did decide that we're doing a special meeting on Monday I thought we were going to let Christina make that decision no we we decided we decided either way we're going to meet at 6:30 oh I'm so sorry I must have missed that I did too okay okay we were probably less than clear um different subject do we leave all this here then for you Bart yes yes if you you could either leave it there and I'll I'll just collect it if you leave it at your spots please thank you very much very good um and are we so do we recess or do we adjourn we can adjourn we can adjourn okay um there being no further um discussion topics for Council to consider this evening I will entertain a motion to adjourn is there a motion so Mo we have a motion is there a second I'll second we have a motion in a second all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and we're adjourned thank you everyone [Music]