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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/7/2015 - Regular MINUTES OF A SPECIAL CALLED MEETING OF VINTON TOWN COUNCIL HELD AT 7:00 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE VINTON MUNICIPAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 311 SOUTH POLLARD STREET, VINTON, VIRGINIA MEMBERS PRESENT: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor Matthew S. Hare, Vice Mayor 1. Douglas Adams, Jr. Sabana McCarty Janet Scheid STAFF PRESENT: Christopher S. Lawrence, Town Manager Susan N. ,Johnson, Town Clerk Ben Cook, Police Chief Donna Collins, Human Resources Director The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The Town Clerk called the roll with Council Member Adams, Council Member McCarty, Council Member Scheid, Vice Mayor Hare and Mayor Grease present. After a Moment of Silence, Council Member McCarty led the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag, Council Member Scheid made a motion that Council go into a Closed Meeting pursuant to § 2.2-3 11 A (1) of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, for assignment, appointment promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of a specific public appointee, namely the Chief of Police. The motion was seconded by Council Member Adams and carried by the following vote, with all members voting. Vote 5-0, Yeas (5) — Adams, McCarty, Scheid, Hare, Grose, Nays(0)--None; Council went into Closed Meeting at 7; 2 p.m. Council Member Adams left the Closed Meeting in at 8:31 p.m. At 8:32 p.m., the regular meeting reconvened and the Certification that the Closed Meeting was held in accordance with State Code requirements was approved on motion by Vice Mayor Hare, seconded by Council Member McCarty and carried by the following roll call vote, with all members voting:: Vote -{J; Yeas 4)- McCarty, Scheid, Hare,Grose, Nays ( ) None; Absent (1) Adams. Chief Cook read a Memo dated September 28, 2015 addressed to the Mayor and Council Members announcing his retirement from the Town of Vinton effective October 25 2015. The Mayor made brief comments regarding Chief Cook's service to the Town. With regard to the procedure to follow for Chief Cook's replacement, the Town Manager began b commenting that there a short-term decision and a long-terra, permanent decision would need to be matte. Council will need to select an Interim Chief and staff recommends soliciting interested individuals in our region that are possibly retired to serve for several months. We would invite those interested candidates to a Special Called dosed Meeting next Wednesday, October 1 th to meet with Council. At the regular October 20th Council meeting, Council could announce and take action on the Interim Chief to serge until the final one is selected. For the permanent Chiefs position, a draft of a job description was provided to Council and the Town,Manager asked that Council provide hire with any comments or suggestions. After the job description is posted, a review of the:applications could be done at the end of the month to select the actual candidates to bring in for interviews: Interviews could be done the second week in November to narrow down to the top two or three and then schedule second interviews. We are I trying to get everything in between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. If all of the interviews are completed before Thanksgiving that would give Council time to consider their final candidate. Second interviews could be done the third week in November in the evening, most likely. That would give three weeks in December if Council is ready to proceed or if they need to do more interviewing or background work on the selected candidate. Ideally, an announcement could be made before Christmas. Typically, a bare minimum for someone at this level to give notice would be a month. We would like for them to be in place in ,January because we start getting into the budget process and a lot of other things start going on. This would be the process from a calendar prospective, but he wanted to Dear from Council what they wanted in terms of interview panels and other areas of the process. The Mayor asked if the process could be adjusted if Council had a particular candidate they wanted to talk with, The Town Manager responded if there is an individual or two that Council has in mind, he would recommend that they still work through the same process that everyone does. That will give Council the credibility and staff the confidence that everyone was handled the right way. Vice Mayor Hare asked how far out would they want to solicit candidates. The Town Manager commented that if they wanted to stay local, the advertisement would run in the newspaper, but he recommended at least posting with the Virginia Polio Chiefs Association. Council gave their consensus to just stay in Virginia. The Mayor asked when the job would be posted and the Town Manager responded he would like to past it this Friday to run for two weeks, but indicate that a review of applications would begin on a certain date. The process would still be open and we can look at any applications that would come in after that date. Staff reviewed and narrowed the applications clown to five qualified candidates for interviews during the last process. Two Council members could assist with this review process and we need to look at everyone's calendar and schedule a time. The Town Manager next asked how Council would want to structure the interview panel. The Mayor responded that they would want some staff along with police officers. He then asked about having at least one citizen on the panel and Council agreed. Council Member Scheid asked if they should have a Police {chief from another locality. The Town Manager said he would recommend using the Interim Chief since a relationship would already be established with that individual. He then asked that Council send any suggestions for panel members to the Mayor. Vice Mayor Hare asked about staff to serve on the interview panel. The Town Manager said he would recommend a panel of six, three uniformed officers, one civilian in the Police department, one from the 'Fire Department and one from Public Works. Gonna Collins, the Human Resources Director, would serve as the moderator of the panel. The other suggestion was to do a tour of the Town and have an employee along with possibly a citizen do the tour. A citizen could be a part of the employee panel or Council's panel. The employee panel would conduct the first interviews to give feedback., but not eliminate applicants. The second interviews would be solely with Council. The Town Clerk asked about the Special Called Meeting to be advertised for Wednesday, October 10. The Town Manager commented that he would contact candidates for the Interim position and if interested, would schedule them to meet with Council on than date in Closed Session. He recommended starting the meeting at :3 t p.m. with one interview at -30 p.m. and one at 7:3 p.m. 2 In closing the Town Manager commented that a formal Press Release would be sent out tomorrow morning. Vice Mayor Hare made a motion to adjourn the meeting-, the motion was seconded by Council Member McCarty and carried by the following vote, with all members voting: Vote 4-0, Yeas (4)— McCarty, Scheid, Hare, Grose; Nays, (0)— None; Absent(1) -Adams. The meeting was adjourned at 9:08 p.m. APPROVED: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor EST; Susan usan N. Johnson, own Clerk 3