07-30-02MINUTES
Board of Directors Room
City Hall — 500 W. Markham
Little Rock, Arkansas
July 30, 2002
4:00 PM
The Board of Directors of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas met in reconvened session
with Mayor Dailey presiding. The roll was called by City Clerk, Nancy Wood, with the
following Directors present: Hinton, Pugh, Stewart, Kumpuris, Keck, Adcock, Wyrick,
and Vice Mayor Cazort. Directors Lichty and Graves were absent.
The meeting was reconvened from July 16, 2002, for the purpose of discussion of the
Commission for Children, Youth and Families and the City Manager search process.
1. DISCUSSION - Commission for Children, Youth and Families
2. DISCUSSION - City Manager Search. Mr. Don Flegal, City of Little Rock Human
Resource Director, stated there are two ways to conduct the search; one being to do it
inside utilizing the Human Resources Department, and the other to contract with a
consulting firm that conducts these types of searches. He said the search firm's fees
could range from $15,000 plus expenses to $95,000. He said the average cost is about
$30,000 (fees and expenses). Mr. Flegal outlined the process for the city's Human
Resource Department to perform the search, and how it would be done. They would
solicit from the Board additional input regarding the minimum qualifications,
requirements, skills, knowledge and abilities, and revise and finalize the job descriptions.
They would finalize the salary range and benefits, and relocation package. They have
begun a survey for city manager's salaries for cities of comparable population around the
United States. He stated one of the things the survey did reveal was that it is unlikely
that a City Manager could be recruited from a city the size of Little Rock with the salary
that is currently paid to the City Manager of Little Rock. Mr. Flegal stated that job
announcements would be posted on the internet, direct mailing, and publication mailings
would be done by Human Resources. He said they would also do advertisements in the
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the ICMA Job Opportunities Bulletin, Nation Cities
Weekly, etc. He said a recruiting brochure would be included in the direct mailings
having insert information about the City Manager's position. He said that they would
begin immediately if the Board wished for the search to be done in- house. He said they
would set a deadline for applications and resumes at mid- September. That would be a
six -week period of time to get the information out and the resumes to come back. He
said he would screen those down based on the criteria in the job description, and bring to
the Board the best pool of applicants for this job. He said the Board could come to the
office to look at the applications, or copies could be provided to the Board. He said they
have been using teleconferences that are more cost and time effective than bringing in ten
or twelve candidates to be interviewed. He said the Chamber of Commerce has a facility
in their conference room, and there are other facilities such as this. Mr. Flegal suggested
that an option maybe to set up a sub - committee of Board members who would do some
of the initial interviewing. His suggestion was conduct the interviewing in late October
to narrow the applicants down to about four people. Then bring these applicants in to
Little Rock for interviews, tours and the other kinds of activities that the Board would
want for the candidates for the position. Once it is narrowed to one or two people then
have two or more Board members at different times to go to those locations or to where
these people have worked before and look at the community, or possibly he could be
asked to go and do this part of the process. The purpose of this would be to talk to people
in the neighborhoods, community leaders, elected officials, and /or other employees with
whom they have worked. He said this is part of the reference and background check, and
would be done on the final two people. Human Resources would finish up some
reference checks and background checks to be provided to the Board. Mr. Flegal said the
budget for the process would be approximately $20,000. Director Keck made a motion to
use the city's Human Resource Department for the job search. There was brief
discussion on advantages and disadvantages of using in -house versus a search firm. Mr.
Flegal stated that Human Resources would come back to the Board and ask the Board to
prioritize the primary things and the importance of those things the Board is looking for
in a City Manager. Then they would then use those criteria to screen the group, looking
at the primary skills, knowledge and abilities that the candidates have, and then come
back to the Board based on the criteria the Board provides, the candidates would be
weighed and scored. Director Keck's motion to charge the City of Little Rock Human
Resource Department with the task of the job search for the City Manager position was
seconded by Director Kumpuris, and by unanimous voice vote of the Board Members
present, the motion was approved. Director Kumpuris asked that Mr. Flegal come back
to the Board at the next regular meeting, with more information on the survey and a
timeline for the process, adding a week to the proposed timeline outlined for the Board as
presented at tonight's meeting.
Director Keck made a motion to defer the discussion on Item 1 to the August 5, 2002
regular Board of Directors Meeting. Director Kumpuris seconded the motion, and by
unanimous voice vote the item was deferred. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Cazort
to adjourn; seconded by Director Keck, by unanimous voice vote of the Board members
present the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM.
ADJOURN
ATTEST:
APPROVE:
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