9-25-89 council minutes
September 25 1989
A special called meeting of Mayor and Council was held September 25, 1989
at 6:30 p.m. to consider the appointment to the Civil Service Board now
held by John Davis. All council members were present. Also
present was City Administrator John Patterson and City Attorney Charles E.
Camp.
Mayor Bacon said that Mr. Davis had missed and failed to attend thirteen (13)
consecutive meetings of the Civil Service Board from June to August of
this year. Section 77(3) of the City Charter calls for the removal of
any Board member who fails to attend two consecutive meetings.
Mr. Davis said he felt it was a privilege and honor to be able to
serve on the Civil Service and had always participated in the
meetings 100% until recently. In May of this year his company
informed him that he was being transferred to Canada for a short period of
time; no more than 3 or 4 months. At that time he met with other members
of the Board and explained the situation to them, since he was
appointed by the other two members. Mr. Davis said he has served
approximately 4 years and was appointed by Ted Farland and Roland
Williams. When he met with the Board to discuss his transfer it was
agreed that it would not be necessary to bring this matter before
council, that it would be worked out and business could be
conducted without interruption. Mr. Davis said he has stayed in
constant touch with the Board and is at home every 2 weeks at which time
he goes to the Board room to read minutes, mail, etc. to bring
himself up to date on what has taken place during his absence. Mr.
Davis said he had been present at all the activities going on with
regard to hiring the new Police Chief. He did not want anyone to feel
that his absence from these meetings indicated he did not care, but his
job had left him no choice.
Mayor Bacon asked Mr. Davis if he was aware of the ordinance calling for
the termination of the position for failing to attend two consecutive
meetings and Mr. Davis said he was but felt he had done the right
thing by talking with the other two board members. To the best of
his knowledge, the job should end in approximately 6 weeks and there
was no reason to believe that he would be called out of town again.
Ted Farland said when Mr. Davis talked with them about his transfer, they
did not anticipate the unusually high number of meetings that have been
held and did not think it would create any problems. While quite a number
of meetings were held from the first of June to mid-July, most of those
meetings were to review resumes and applications for the Chief's position
and did not involve testing or interviewing for promotions or hiring
in the Police or Fire Departments.
Jack Shinall asked why the Civil Service Board had met so many times
this summer. Ted Farland said that initially the Board was asked to
submit the top 20 names of applicants for Police Chief, which they did.
Later, however, the other applications were reviewed by members of
council and they were asked to test and interview all applicants. Mr.
Farland said the criteria for hiring the new Police Chief had been
completely changed during the process and had taken them much longer
than anticipated. The next few weeks will involve rating the applicants
and aligning the names for presentation to council.
During discussion, the other members of the Civil
unanimous in their feeling that the hiring process for a
not been hindered or delayed by Mr. Davis' absence at any of the
Service were
new Chief had
meetings.
Mayor Bacon concluded the meeting and
of council's decision at a later
meeting adjourned.
told Mr. Davis he would be notified
date. with no further business,