Approval of Agenda

Council Member Scheid made a motion to approve the agenda as presented, supported by Council Member Feehan.

The question on the motion was called and the result of the voting is as follows:

            Ayes:               Council Members Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

Interim City Manager Interviews

Phillip J. Moore

1. Please tell us more about yourself from a personal perspective.

Mr. Moore stated he loves local government.  After college, his goal was to be a city manager.  He had a hard time finding a city position in management.  He applied to every local government. In Grand Haven, the manager was tired with dealing with accountants.  He was hired as an accountant and had four successful years there.  He got married.  His wife was unsure, but agreed to leave Grand Haven.  He worked for Olivet College a few years.  In Alma, he was the finance director, assistant manager/treasurer and manager for thirteen years.  There was a very controversial budget this year, which he tried to implement.  He is currently unemployed.   

2. Describe your human interaction skills and how you will establish your credibility with the mayor and council, staff and citizens?

The mayor said his management style was Quaker management.  Most votes were 7-0 as they had worked out the differences before taking a vote.  He sent a newsletter with each agenda regarding current issues and things coming up.  Everyone talked informally before a vote and they could work out the kinks or issues.  All elected officials should get the same information.  He would include it in the next newsletter if there were questions answered for any council member.  The employees would prepare their agenda items and they had an agenda staff meeting. Each department would talk about their items for the agenda.  It would be determined if it was ready to go to the board.  Each department talked about what they were working on.  It would keep them all involved so they would know what others are doing.  They need to know what the department priorities were as they may have needed assistance from the other departments.  He developed an e-newsletter once a month to keep the citizens informed.  During the summer, he sent out a newsletter to CEO’s if there was construction going on and indicated if it would impact their business.  If they are involved, they will become your advocates. 

3. Describe your ideal working relationship with the elected officials, especially in terms of the roles each play and in communication.

It is very important to have frank and open discussion, in a formal setting or one on one.  Different people bring different things to the table.  All have different circles of people, backgrounds and different perspectives.  The manager should get all perspectives.  He needs feedback from everyone.  The manager’s job is to find the majority and take that route.  He would implement the policy of the governing board and do the best he could to faithfully implement it.  He continues to have regular contact with the elected officials there and that has been successful, even though he was terminated.  They have to be frank with each other and open.

4. Tell us about your skills and experience in developing and administering a budget and capital improvements.

His background is in finance.  He took a lot more accounting classes beyond his degrees.  He prepared budgets, and received an award for the annual report and budget.  He had to forecast out five years.  The CIP was for six years.  Some departments had a twenty year schedule.  He had to make sure they had a sustainable budget, so he had to look out long term.  It required tough decisions.

5. Describe your management philosophy?

He is a coach, because the team will beat an individual every time.  The department heads are expected to manage their departments and make sure they stay on task with the goals and policies, and set priorities.  They come up with ideas and suggestions.  Get as many employees involved with the budget as possible.  Develop your employees, and have an heir apparent.  Value and train the employees.  The clerk should be able to take a vacation and not worry that the job will be done.  Have an educated work force to do what needs to be done

6. What would be your top three priorities upon assuming the position?

 Talk to the city council and find out why they were elected, what their goals are and where they would like to see the city in five years.  Meet with the department heads, find out what their goals are and what needs to be done in their departments.  Meet with the employees in the ranks.  Meet with community leaders.  He would ask who he should talk to in the community.

7. Describe your experience in human resource management.

In Alma, the city manager is the personnel officer.  It presents conflicts, but it works.  There were two police unions in Alma and the rest were non-unionized.  He believes employees are the most valuable asset.  He was very slow in discharging, as it is important to try to keep them if you can. He would update the personnel manual and keep current on personnel law.  

8. Describe your experience in preparing staff reports for planning commissions and zoning board of appeals.

In Alma, he served on the Planning Commission.  He thought it would be a conflict to prepare reports so he had his assistant do that.  They talked about what was on the agenda and the issues. 

9. Do you feel that the day-to-day dynamics of the city and the residents are of importance to you or do you feel that focusing on projects and grant applications should be the priority?

It is a balancing act.  The citizens are very important.  They sometimes have valid points.  He takes the time to spend with them.  It was a team effort working with grants.  As manager, he delegated and oversaw the grants.  He developed staff.  Department heads should manage their projects.  He took an active interest.  They had a Water Authority with St. Louis.  They located new wells and had two connections with St. Louis.  He was on site twice a week.  Citizens come out with their take on it.  You have to balance it out, as both things go together. 

10. Describe how you would deal with an angry or confrontational citizen?

He would take them in the conference room away from the phones and give them his undivided attention.  He would listen to the citizen, take notes and try to restate the problem.  Some things the city cannot solve, as it is contrary to the ordinance or state law.  The city may not be the party responsible.  Advise them with contact information.  If the issue is the city’s responsibility, go tour and see what could be done.  Sometimes he couldn’t answer on the spot and sometimes he had to see what the other sides were.  He would get back to them with a resolution or what they could or couldn’t do.

11. Do you feel you can discern and understand the bottom line of a situation versus the political climate of the community?

That is pretty much the definition of city manager.  You have to understand political realities and figure out how to make the two work together.

12. Why do you think you will be successful at this job?

He is very passionate about local government and believes in it.  Citizens depend on them.  He has had a lot of experience in the career.  He understands finances and the operations of the city manager.  He knows how to do the job.  In Alma, he suggested to staff that it would be his last budget.  He knew the end game, but did what he had to do. 

13. How would you want to be measured on your job performance?

He would like to be measured on whether he was meeting the city commission goals.  It is a big burden on council.  It is important to have a set of goals to achieve.  It is staff’s job to try to articulate when the council decides on the way to go. 

14. Do you feel that upholding zoning and other ordinances are important?  How have you dealt with this issue in the past?

It is always a thorny issue.  He believes in zoning.  If they have consistent problems with zoning, examine those issues, and reexamine what they are doing.  Meet with the realities.  Zoning and code enforcement are important.  It is how you maintain the proper values for the community and how you make sure you have compatible uses next to each other.  Part of the challenge with code enforcement is that both sides are upset.  You work with people to bring things to the minimum standards but neighbors may still not be satisfied with just meeting the standard.  They have to meet and talk with people and try to resolve the issue without going to court if you can.

15. What do you consider to be your most significant professional accomplishment?

The State of Michigan is a tough state to operate in.  Revenues have been pretty much flat the last decade.  You have to figure out how you will do things better.  He met with the city manager of St. Louse and the three townships.  They went in together to cost share.  They wanted to participate.  There is a certified master plan for each community in Gratiot County.  They talked about a lot of things.  They have a GIS Authority, Central Dispatch Authority, Solid Waste Authority, Water Authority and wind turbines out of the Master Plan.  They had a common wind turbine ordinance for all of Gratiot County, except for one township.  They have the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi.  They work together, have identified a goal, and have accomplished it.  Wind turbines are the largest taxpayer in Gratiot County.  The county no longer asks for money from the units. 

16. Is there anything that you would like to add to our discussion or do you have any questions for us?

He is active in the job market, and has had three interviews today.  He is very passionate about local government. He is good at it.  If you talk to his employees, they would agree.  They told him if he finds a permanent job, they would come.  He can do the job. He realizes it is an interim position.  He asked what the timeframe was for finding a full time manager? 

Mayor Gunderson stated it was 120 days from Bruce’s resignation. 

John Niemela

1. Please tell us more about yourself from a personal perspective.

He was born and raised in Lorian, Michigan.  He attended Michigan Tech and his original objective was to go to the FBI.  One of the requirements was he needed work experience for a year.  He took an opportunity with Laurium as village manager.  He became their first village manager at the age of 22.  It was a little bit of a challenge as it was a new position that was created and he worked with people that had been there forever.  It went very well for six years.  He tried the private sector as a screw machine shop manager.  He decided he really liked the public sector.  He took a position with City of Hancock and they were in the process of changing the charter from a manager/council to strong mayor form of government.  The manager left and he went there as an interim.  The charter was approved by the voters and it went to the strong mayor form.  He was asked to run for mayor.  He was a write in, got elected and took the job.  He served one term as mayor.  He thought it should be in the manager/council form.  He did not run for reelection.  He went to Belding.  He talked to a recruiter and they had an opening.  He was the city manager in 1985 and was here six years.  The council was new and they wanted to go a different direction and he moved on.  He worked for MML in the Lansing office as a legislative associate.  He worked with local issues and with city governments for five years. He moved up to manager of state and federal affairs and ran the Lansing office.  He was the executive director of the county road association.  He was there 17 years.  It was a very educational experience.  His main focus was transportation, but they had labor and environmental issues.  He got involved to encourage legislation to keep things moving in funding road projects.  You get burned out on that process.  He had an opportunity to retire and wanted to take a little breather.  He wanted to get back into local government again.  He applied for a few jobs.  He hopes to get into it.

2. Describe your human interaction skills and how you will establish your credibility with the mayor and council, staff and citizens?

He has an open door policy.  He encourages staff and the public to know that door is open, and he is receptive to the issues of the people.  He has never made himself unavailable. He wants to be able to help.  He is very involved with councils or boards.  He likes a lot of communication back and forth.  He did electronic communication with the twelve board members he had, or in person.  He is open to anyone, at any time, for any issue. 

3. Describe your ideal working relationship with the elected officials, especially in terms of the roles each play and in communication.

There is the opportunity for open dialogue.  There are limitations on topics due to the Open Meetings Act.  The public has a right to know.  He is comfortable in talking individually.  He deals with the issues as council and manager on the day to day operation.

4. Tell us about your skills and experience in developing and administering a budget and capital improvements.

In all his positions, that was his primary responsibility and capital improvements in both associations.  It was a little less with MML on the division level.  As a manager, he was responsible for the entire budget.  He likes to have active involvement with the department heads, hear their feedback and know what they are looking at to manage their offices.  It has to be a mix of what you want and what you can afford. 

5. Describe your management philosophy?

He likes to be able to oversee, but he doesn’t like to micromanage, but sometimes you have to.  He would expect that each department has duties and responsibilities and they would take care of that.  He would have the necessary oversight to make sure they do their job to the best of their abilities and report to council on what they are doing.

6. What would be your top three priorities upon assuming the position?

Based on being interim, you don’t change everything.  He would like to look at everything that has been laid out and worked on.  Bruce had a lot of things going and he would look at where everything is on that.  He would move on those issues.  There will be opportunities for other things that come along.  There will still be issues to look at and he is extremely interested in roads.  He has been working with that most of his career.  Finance is always a challenge, but he will make sure they have every resource to be as financially sound as they can be.

7. Describe your experience in human resource management.

In all the positions, he was the responsible party for staff.  He was responsible for all labor relations, hiring, firing and job evaluations.

8. Describe your experience in preparing staff reports for planning commissions and zoning board of appeals.

He knows he has done that in Hancock and here.  He finds as much information as possible.  He gives background and the help they need.  He hopes to be a resource for them, as well.

9. Do you feel that the day-to-day dynamics of the city and the residents are of importance to you or do you feel that focusing on projects and grant applications should be the priority?

He would be willing to chew gum and tie shoe laces.  None is less important to the other.  Local government is serving the people of the community, and that is a bottom line focus.  You can’t separate them, as you have to do both.  Community outreach is one, and grants gets resources in to keep the city in shape.  There are programs available to help the cities. 

10. Describe how you would deal with an angry or confrontational citizen?

He would try to find out what was making them angry.  He had a lot of calls with the road commission.  He would see if a solution was available and resolve it the best he could.

11. Do you feel you can discern and understand the bottom line of a situation versus the political climate of the community?

Yes, that is part of why you would be in the position of city manager.  In some cases you have to understand how the wind is blowing.  You still have the legal responsibility to do things as statutorily required.  Sometimes there is conflict with the expectations over that.  He would always defer to the law, as you can’t pick and choose when you feel comfortable with the charter and laws.  He would treat everyone equal, with no more special attention to one than anyone else. Everyone is of equal value.

12. Why do you think you will be successful at this job?

His years of experience.  He started in a small town, created that position, built it and built trust with people.  It carried over in his entire career to do that.

13. How would you want to be measured on your job performance?

He would hope it would be based purely on the performance of the position.  Measure the goals that were established and his success in meeting them.  Evaluations should never be a method to discourage or punish, but to learn from it.  It should make them better, not punish them.

14. Do you feel that upholding zoning and other ordinances are important?  How have you dealt with this issue in the past?

They are.  Ordinances are created to give guidance in the community.  Not everyone likes them.  There is an appeals process.  They are a set of guidelines.  They have to have a compelling reason not to follow the guidelines.  Maybe there is an opportunity to allow for activities in the ordinance or seek a change if necessary.  Follow the procedures to change if they are not working properly.  Take the opportunity to look at it and make changes to make it better.

15. What do you consider to be your most significant professional accomplishment?

He doesn’t do it for himself, but for the benefit of who he serves.  In Belding, he expanded an industrial park, the silk mill was converted to apartments, a subdivision was developed off of Water Street.  Look at all those steps you have.  Don’t sit back and live on one.  All are individual items that make up one large success.  He created policies for the guidance of the legislative position and did strategic planning which they didn’t have.  It is bits and pieces of the whole process.  He never looks to one thing.  It is all part of a big puzzle.  

16. Is there anything that you would like to add to our discussion or do you have any questions for us?

He really would hope they would consider him strongly for the position.  He worked many years in and for local government.  He has lots of experience.  He had overall management opportunities when working for the association.  He has worked in many sizes and structures of organizations which gives him more perspective.  From being here and in other directions, it really expanded that.  That experience has changed and helped him in the long run and in the future.  As interim, he would want to make sure the ongoing would keep going.  You look at what is here, learn from that and move forward.  He hopes everyone has a laundry list of things to do to keep moving.

Council Member Miller thanked both candidates, as he appreciates them applying.  They come with a lot of experience and that is a plus.  There is a lot of opportunity here.  Their experience is great.  He is a proponent of an open door policy and it is very important to be transparent. It is important to have discussion.  In working relationships, he likes open dialogue, compliance with the Open Meetings Act, and he likes meeting with people.  Phillip was more policy and procedure and an expert on finance.  John is more of a people person.  He appreciates the management philosophy of John.  He thinks the departments should run their own departments, but with oversight.  They both anchor confrontational citizens, which comes down to listening.  Phillip mentioned it could be a rock issue, but it was important to the public.  They listen to the public and a lot can be resolved during discussion.  The rest had good answers on both sides.  He could make a decision.

Council Member Meyers stated he felt kind of the same as Brad.  There was a lot to take in.  He is not sure he could be ready right now.  Both bring a lot of strong assets and in some ways answered the questions close.  Mr. Moore talked about consensus building.  Phillip has a background in finance.  John has an open door policy.  Mr. Moore talked about coaching, mentoring, employees, transitioning.  They make sure policies and procedures are up to date.  For the day to day dynamics and grants they said there is a balance between the two.  Both have a passion for local government.  They were pretty much the same on a lot of things.  Both are strong candidates.  He is thankful both applied for the positon.  He would like to go through the questions a little more, and is not quite ready tonight.

Council Member Scheid thanked the candidates.  He could make a decision tonight.  One thing is that John left his position 25 years ago, but did not leave town.  He knows what goes on around here.  He is very accessible. 

Council Member Feehan stated both candidates did very well.  One candidate had three interviews and may not have plans to stay here.  He has worked with John and knows what kind of person he is.  He knows what is going on.  It would be easy to make a decision.

Mayor Gunderson stated he would echo everything that was talked about.  Mr. Moore took his time with answers.  It was understood at the end, but getting there, it was hard to focus.  He liked the fact that Mr. Niemela was able to give them an answer, instead of searching.  He likes the idea of the open door policy, as that has worked with the previous managers and interim.  To develop what they need in this city, and as the interim to take the burden off staff, he would need an open door policy.  They need that to navigate with staff, council and business owners.  He likes the direction of a 5-year plan.  Mr. Niemela wanted to report to council and citizens, look at what is going on, and be able to talk about projects.  He would not overrule the department head. He liked that both candidates said not only day to day, but projects and grants were important.  He can make a decision tonight for the interim city manager position.  He feels there is one of the candidates he would be comfortable with and moving forward. 

Council Member Feehan made a motion to offer the interim city manager position to Mr. Niemela, and to enter contract negotiations as set up by the city attorney and their direction, and complete a background check, supported by Council Member Scheid.

Council Member Meyers stated he would like to wait on making the decision.

Council Member Scheid stated he could wait.

Council Members Feehan, Miller and Gunderson had no further comments.

The question on the motion was called and the results were as follows:

            Ayes:   Council Member Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:   None

Council Member Feehan made a motion to allow the mayor, clerk and finance director to be involved in the negotiations, supported by Council Member Miller.

The question on the motion was called and the results were as follows:

            Ayes:   Council Member Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:   None

Council Member Scheid had no comments.

Council Member Feehan welcomed Mr. Niemela aboard.

Council Member Miller extended congratulations on a good job.

Council Member Meyers extended congratulations and stated he looked forward to working with him. 

Mayor Gunderson thanked the candidates and audience for coming to the meeting.

Adjournment

Council Member Miller moved to adjourn the meeting, supported by Council Member Feehan.

Ayes:               Council Members Miller, Meyers, Scheid, Feehan and Gunderson

            Nays:               None

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:34 p.m.