City Council Vacancy Subcommittee Meeting Notes 06/03/22
You didn't think I would miss covering the selection process for our council vacancies did you? Of course not, because I am me, and also because I told you I would.
Today the Vacancy Subcommittee (comprised of Councilors Broadman, Kebler, and Perkins), will be doing an initial screening of the 30 something applications they received for the 2 open council positions. I have no idea how long this is going to take, what criteria they will be using to thin this list, or what this summary is going to look like, but I will do my best. Lets get started.
And we're live.
Criteria Discussion and Application Screening
Councilor Kebler wants to know if there are any people that do not meet qualifications. Mendoza, Aasen, and Mills are disqualified for not living in Bend, or not being a registered voter, or not living in Bend for 12 months.
Councillor Perkins would like people that are selected are willing to work within the system. They have a lot of work to do, and the people chosen, need to be able to work. She would like the candidates to reflect similar values as the candidates they replace to match the will of voters as close as possible.
Councilor Broadman would like to prioritize people who are not interested in running in November to avoid the perception that the council is putting their thumb on the election.
Councilor Kebler is also interested in prioritizing people who are not running in November. She wants someone who can hit the ground running, so people with prior experience in decision making or with experience working with the city. She's interested in candidates that are interested in working with the current council on their current work plan. They should also prioritize diversity.
Councilor Perkins doesn't necessarily agree that running in November should disqualify a candidate.
Broadman would start with considering Brittany Brown, Mo Mitchel, Stephan Sehgal, who are all are currently sitting on city committees. He would like to consider geography, so that we reflect all the quadrants of town.
Councilor Kebler thinks that they should narrow it down to 6-8 candidates because of time constraints. Broadman thinks 8 feels like a lot. Perkins thinks 8-10. Broadman doesn't think that we should be filling a position this close to an election, but that's the rules.
Each committee member came prepared with a short list. Each member made their list on their own without discussing it with each other.
Kebler short list:
Brittany Brown (there are two browns)
Capell
Daniels
Jorgensen
Lynch
Platt
Sehgal
Stiegler
Broadman short list:
Boozell
Brittany Brown
Capell
Elliott
Figurski
Jorgensen
Mitchell
Platt
Sehgal
Stiegler
Turek
Perkins short list:
Michelle
Brittany Brown
Capell
Daniels
Elliott
Jorgensen
Lynch
Mitchell
Sehgal
Stiegler
Vernon
The overlap for all three is the start of the short list:
Brown
Capell
Jorgensen
Lynch
Sehgal
Stiegler
Michelle
Candidate Evaluation
They are going through each candidate that showed up on at least two of the councilor's lists individually:
Perkins and Kebler both had Daniels: He is from kids inc. Perkins liked their application. His experience would be valuable. His diverse experience would be valuable. Kebler appreciated him mentioning the affordability crisis. Broadman didn't pick him because he said he would run in November.
Elliot was on Broadman's and Perkins's list. Broadman liked that he isn't interested in running in November and his ski experience. Perkins liked his application. Kebler was trying to keep her list short which is why Elliot wasn't on her list. Elliot is in the NE quadrant of town.
Broadman liked that there were military veterans that applied. There are none currently on council so that could be a good perspective to bring in.
Platt was picked by Kebler and Perkins. He's a veteran and a teacher from the west side of town. Commutes to Redmond for work. Has past experience with large budgets.
Kebler suggests that they add these three to the short list.
Determine Interview List
Kebler suggests that they bring these 10 to the next step for the interview. Broadman thinks 10 is too much to interview in one day, the list needs to be narrowed down. After discussion they decided interviews will be 20 minutes per candidate.
They want to narrow it down from 10 to 8-ish candidates with the full council. The city is going to pre-release the interview questions so nobody is unprepared. Manager King will work with council to select those questions before Tuesday.
Subcommittee Short List:
Brittany Brown
Mark Capell
David Daniels
Jordan Elliott
Steven Jorgensen
Jennifer Lynch
Mo Mitchell
Stephen Sehgal
Judith Sieigler
Stephen Platt
Interview Questions / Themes
There will be about 4 questions that will be constructed from these themes:
Matching the values of the past candidates.
Their intention to run in November.
Questions about Geography isn't really a question but that's something that they will look at.
Prior experience.
There will be questions about how their background and experience aligns with the council's work plan. Kebler suggests they link to the goals dashboard in the released questions. The questions will be something like "what parts of the work plan do you align with, what do you not align with?" Which goals would be your priority?
Lived experience.
How candidates expect to manage the time commitment of being on council
Being able to come in and quickly integrate into the group is going to be important, since this position is such a short term. How would you contribute to these 12 council meetings remaining in the term?
Conflict resolution or problem solving skills.
How would you deal with a breakdown in civic discourse from the public? This is important since we just lost two councilors to that...
Follow up questions about your resume.
Tuesday at 5 all of Council will narrow down the list. The rest of council will have the opportunity to add anyone to the short list they want before narrowing it down. The final short list will be interviewed on Thursday.
The subcommittee asks applicants to not reach out to the subcommittee directly. They do not want the perception of impropriety. They want all the communication to happen in the public record to avoid the mess that happened last time. Please contact Staff if you need information.
Meeting Adjourned.
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