to order uh this is February the 28th 2024 at 5:15 uh let me just briefly what kind of the purpose we hope with this meeting is to kind of inform the council and anyone else that was interested in knowing kind of what our procedures are going to be from this point till we have a uh interim city manager or a permanent city manager whichever comes first and so um anyway there's been some questions about that we just want to kind of uh and basically everything's kind of been gone through our attorney as far as uh you know what's acceptable what's not type thing but um probably to save some time and I know there's some questions but uh you'll hear us out and then we may answer some of them but um clay would you mind kind of sharing what we did yesterday morning in regards to the procedures we're going to play between finance and all the Departments sure and then we can talk about any action we need of the council since we are in special meeting because some of the things we discussed were contemplated to be presented to the council at it's March 11th meeting so first and foremost it's important to understand that the mayor is part of the executive branch of our government he and the manager are co-executive so the mayor has the ability to sign documents and contracts otherwise approved on behalf of the city he's always done that almost interchangeably with the manager so the first step that I wanted everyone in staff to understand we discussed is to the extent that we have agreements that get approved by the council agreements that have been approved by the council that are now just making their way back out of the state or other locations the mayor already has the legal Authority standing on his own to sign those documents provided they were approved by the council so he has the ability to do that he can't buy in the council no more than the manager could buy in the council the other discussion we had were General Internal day-to-day policy controls that may not actually have a written part in our policy manual um but are more standing practice for instance approval of travel authorizations that have already been budgeted the money is in the budget has been approved previously somebody just has to sign off onto it before an employee is out somebody's got to sign that um with that being said provided that we can document through HR and finance that we have properly budgeted and otherwise approve this Advance that's something that I believe the mayor broadly has the authority to execute with in his own position it is not anything different than what has already occurred the next level of issues and probably the trickier one comes to those type of things that are reserved exclusively to the manager by ordinance the biggest one in play is the hiring and firing of employees discipline suspension and otherwise what we have requested of all of your department level directors and supervisors is to to prepare for us a list of the positions that are currently budgeted open and being advertised or for which they intend to advertise within the next 30 days to fill based on those what our position was was we would present the council not with a list of persons don't want to put the council position of having to hire and fire people but rather presenting for hiring purposes a list of those positions that our department heads wish to be filled and that upon complying with all HR policies for interviews applications in the recommendation of the department at or supervisor that would be over that employee that the mayor would be able to authorize that hire so it would be a standing approval requesting the council to grant that is something we would want you to do today um we could also do it on May on the March 11th meeting but this would give you the ability right now I know we have one firefighter mayor correct correct there is an open position Finance right now Morgan not a hire contemplated this moment day so the big one's probably the firefighter typically the way the firefighter and police work the Chiefs would say this is who I want and CER would sign off on it without any extra effort because of their Authority as the respective Chiefs so we felt in that scenario that could even be ratified if he did need to get somebody on duty immediately since we're meeting today granting that standing approval uh department head directors that's a different discussion it was our contemplation in that meeting that no department head um or executive level positions within the city would be filled without that being specifically brought to council for discussion of how that should work until an interim or permanent city manager was selected um the mayor indicated his intent and mayor don't speak for you but it was his intent that he didn't want to saddle whoever the next city manager is with any key personnel staff um without them having a chance to choose that person so that's why that was a declination of that and I think that is appropriate the biggest question comes around Financial approvals certainly to budgeted matters execution of purchase orders things that would require just the city manager signature what I've asked Miss Huen to do is to prepare those as she would otherwise normally prepare those make sure that if there's a for instance an emergency request we got to go buy some A fitting or pipe for something that that be documented in writing as well as it can be by our staff suppose just the phone call at 2 am in the morning to the manager get it documented and what you would there do after that is have both the department head and Morgan sign off on it being a budgeted expenditure that's complied with purchasing policy or all other City procurement policies present that to the mayor for a approval those expenditures would then be kept on a ledger and it every two weeks Council would as part of its approval of its bills would also ratify those executions by the mayor that would have otherwise been the province of the city manager it is a double check and balance councilwoman Evelyn discussed with me last night a specific issue that certain approvals accounts payable payroll often certain other things require by our own internal policies the mayor and the city manager to sign she and I talked about this at length I spent some time today reviewing over that as well uh in the past we've had a public works director with the title assistant associate city manager that person often filled in and signed those um is a counter signer to the mayor because it requires the Dual signature so that is a policy it's not an ordinance don't have to go through an advertising process to change it but we also don't have anybody that is close enough entitled to city manager just automatically step in and sign that as the next highest ranking Authority within city government is nominally the finance director at this point and her role for financial safeguards should not be spend it should be oversight I don't believe it's appropriate for Miss hen to do it so what the council would need to do today is discuss who that secondary signer in place of the manager would be the motion that we would need from you on that point would be a motion to authorize blank position whatever that may be to sign in lie of the city manager under that policy up until such time that an interim city manager or permanent city manager is hired at that point in time we go right back to it that way we have minutes that show what we did I believe that would satisfy Our concern under management that person could be a city employee also I have looked back we have previously granted Authority and it's been many many years ago to the mayor protim to act along with the mayor in some of those circumstances before we even had a Public Work official Public Works director of the associate title so you could have your mayor protim be that person that's designated to come in and what you do is come in our intent for this with the mayor was not to give the mayor something to sign every day but rather to give him notice have him come in in advance and try to do it at least once a week but as needed on those signatures so really the two biggest actions we would need are the standing approvals that can't be given tonight because we don't have the full list of people although we could do it for the one firefighter the chief needs to let the mayor approve that the other would be the approval necessary for the person to sign in lie of the city manager so those would be the big things we would talk about certainly if there are any other questions the department heads intend to run their own Department departments as they already do they know they can reach out to the mayor for guidance for questions they know they can reach out to me for consistency the city manager's email has been redirected to go to still to Kobe but also to the mayor um I've requested that his Department Edge read the mayor in on anything because he's now getting inundated and bombarded with all his emails plus Mr Barker's emails did we copy Kobe on all of those that way he can keep track and also frankly because of his prior position he is the best suited person sitting here today to be able to read the mayor in on what's this about so you get an email about this the mayor says what is this toobe can get that our view is that we understand that with um current circumstances with Mr Enis that we do not know when he will be available to return to duty on the council at this point we keep him in our prayers I hope everybody here keeps Mr Enis in their prayers to the extent that Mr Enis is able to be back on the 11th that resolves a lot but our goal when we had the discussion with staff was to recognize that at most you're going to have four board members here at at least the next meeting perhaps the next two meetings because of that there is no legal tiebreaking vote the mayor no longer has that so we want to be careful not to force items before this Council that staff would potentially draw two twos and create gridlock in government but I'll defer to any of the department EDS are here miss hen certainly here she can shime in Julie's here from HR I think I see Julie there you are okay sorry see Morgan's head Scott the Public Works our project manager any of the other city employees um about those about what they may need to do their job we specifically asked them to give the mayor updates on any pending things out outstanding there were no major emergency circumstances I think randle's got to buy a few air valves right now is the biggest thing that's coming but um we have that handled with that and that be the vendor addition of that will be ratified on the March 11th council meeting so that's a high level overview without getting into the day-to-day activities that each Department's going to run candly the mayor and I didn't get into the Day activities of them we just made sure they know they have people to go to so it's up to the council what questions you have any other action you wish to discuss or take up at this level and we can talk about it here today I mean on on the second with the mayor Pro Tim on the second signature I just wanted to ask Todd you GNA as far as you know you'll be pretty local the next couple of three weeks yes sir okay all right and uh so we'll probably ask for a motion to us to designate him in the city manager would be the motion before we do that mayor can I ask a couple questions are you already a signature at the bank or do we need to add him because I do have a couple other concerns that I'd like to share with my council members I I vaguely remember that because I know from time to time the trust Mark will call me about something on the account he is so is perect Mayor and mayor pro pro that's wonderful so thank you that that I'm comfortable if I would like to make that MO that it would be you at a minimum once a week that we appoint Mr to sign in the city manager on on du on Dual required signatures I'm I would like to make that motion thank you motion a second go ahead any a comment yeah I just had a question in terms of if the mayor is not available is it just something just has to wait or if it's a signal signature if we're not authorizing for Signal signature we're authorizing correct so that we need that in one motion is the Dual signature because that addresses that policy and this will be our specific motion and action that will be attached should we require any responses to Auditors for management responses to those kind of deviations so let deal with that then we can talk about how the council won signature Authority in the in the absence of the mayor typically with default to the mayor protim without action being necessary is the answer to your question but if we need to take up another option we can have that conversation can I continue with just a couple other concerns I wanted to share with my council members okay favor say I I I I scary than go ahead are we asking for public comment on each of these motions before we uh Vote or can I can I continue we're going to give an opportunity any of things we're discussing have we already contacted the bank and our vendors like uh to say Mr Barker is no longer a representative for on behalf of the city has that been done and notified and those documents being changed so the city manager is typically not an authorized signer or transactor on on so his signature is not an automatic on that little chip card thing that we have when it says and and these are questions I don't know I have to defer to staff to I know I'm not sure what you're referring to as far as chip card our mayor is our main signature on on anything okay so that's not a that's not a question we don't have to be concerned about uh making sure that uh the banks notified what about credit cards he had a credit card in he does have a credit card and the credit card we are in process of cancelling that which is is in the process so yes we in possession of credit card and the keys and the and the devices and the credit card um when Rafael used it for um Monday yes he used it Monday so your your credit card holders they they don't hold the card Finance holds the card even though it's not issued in his name okay there is a card issued in the name of Mr Barker but he's never held it in his position he doesn't he we have okay okay so to answer the question that clay just asked me this is important no one the only Raphael left on Monday night at 9:00 with the card in his possession unknowingly that it was supposed to be turned back in that day of course military leave he was he's been out since Raphael's on leave for two days it is in the city's possession but if you ask if it's in City Hall secured by Morgan it is secured by Raphael safely but he had it at 9:00 Monday night and he's not here in City he has the one that's in the Mr Barker's personal name listen make sure that was case just want to make sure we got our bases covered and because it's G to come back on the council I just want make we're all aware let me make a comment on while we're on that that that is extremely unusual very very rare but given the circumstances except issues happen so this is why I can't sleep this is why I wanted to call and you know just chat out loud to say so you've got a policy I understand to cover that and as soon as he returns we're going to terminate the one or eliminate the one that has his personal name on it ma' correct I did not because he used it on on Monday wasn't Monday the night that he okay so since he used it Monday night I did not want to cancel the card on Tuesday because of any pending transactions I'm okay with just as soon as he returns it then yes ma'am we we are it and he knows he's not allowed to go to spendings that is a fact so yes has anybody thought about or has it already been taken care of that the cell phone key badges electronic devices and other things that were issued to the city manager have they been put back in our possession so is there a written document where he's brought them back there's no issues everything that was issued to that position has been returned yes okay which is standard practice when any employee terminates it is it is a standard checklist that between ITR and the the supervisor of the department it is standard practice that they go through this checklist I appreciate so I apprciate on Monday he turned all of his stuff in and I'm assuming based on the time frame and unknowing of the contract again Jesse has authorization to remotely terminate anything off of his computer okay wonderful and I think we already issu uh addressed this that you don't need anything from the council to get new signatures or new signers because we have the mayor and the mayor proem already authorized along with uh abut uh the other yes ma'am who are all the authorized signers just the mayor and mayor Pro only two okay and nobody else can sign on the bank they must be actual officials of the city now and we don't ever go to the employee level and Clay you could be the best one to answer this probably because there's there is a notice that we should give to our local state federal and all of our vendors to say hey if you think that he was the responsible person because I noticed a lot of our contracts have him as the actual designated person to contact is there some standard letter that you could authorize and give to staff that just could be blanketed to to every vendor with the checks that go out to them with the so TP so typically you don't do that at the city or county level you can the reason you don't is that the design KN is the position of city manager and if you send that notice we're required to update the contract so for instance if we send that contract to any state or federal agency they're going to demand us to update the positional element of that so when they send the notice there it's for notice requirements they will notice City Hall at our address to the city manager we're in the process of making sure of course as always Kobe sees the mail that comes across City manager's desk the mayor will see it so rather than update the out is we have contracts we had a contract with Doc for years and it didn't matter how many times we told him who the city manager was how many times it changed Mike Stanley's name was on there for 42 years mayor I think at some point I mean it went from the 80s and and May car name may I was about to say the May has the same problem because it is mayor of the city city manager of the city defix Springs second line name of and they just they don't always update them we don't even know how they get the name sometimes but mayor you've got notices that have come out well past 2012 oh God yeah that were brand new things created that still go to Mar Carpenter so we can try to but the simple fact is the the title of who our notice is is our city manager and so rather than update it once when they're not here update it again when a new one comes update it again after that is to leave it as is understanding that we are in receipt of it Mr Barker does not get personal mail outside of City Hall and he shouldn't be getting personal mail in City Hall but I don't know that's the case can I ask who have who will um help the clerk in the in the need that he needs it uh because he's fairly new so should it be the mayor should it be Kobe since Kobe you're experiened so what I wanted to ask the council is is that clear because I wasn't clear who's doing what and um I just think if we're clear then the staff's going to be clear so in terms of what part of the clerk's duties because I know Kobe's assisting training him in some of his responsibilities some of the stuff he already is well trained in so he might not need supervisory stuff you know if that's going to be the mayor I'm comfortable with the decision of the board I just want to I just want everybody to be clear on what the roles are because I think we got great team leaders for each of the divisions now let's just let them do their thing while we work through getting a permanent and bro broadly what I would say for all city employees is and I address this out to you city employees but for the council to understand for you as well they should go to the mayor not an individual counsilman not let me go talk to find three councilman and hope I get three people to say yes I need to do it they should go to the mayor with their immediate day-to-day issues what the mayor will do he's been in this position before unfortunately is he will bring items that they cannot do and he cannot do to this council's attention at the council meetings when we have to do it uh the general day-to-day things hey how does this work it's no different than every other day somebody doesn't know what to do and they're brand new here they're going to go ask Kobe they're g go ask Cindy they're gonna go ask the people who've been here long enough to get those answers but the reporting chain of command should work through the same things your HR director for HR issues Finance Finance issues planning people go through Mr Wallace and after they go through their chain of command the buck stops the mayor Ines as the co-executive now can the mayor go about reorganizing the Departments of the city no that's a charter based issue for the city manager can he hire and fire people no but what can he do he can talk to them on a daily basis and be there to give them guidance and Assurance of what their roles are now so there won't be any confusion we um what we were talking about doing for the chief on the fire department U that would be a position of hire that will get ratified well I know the chief's ready to H that now if the council would be so willing I would request the council for today's purposes to go ahead and give the authority to with the chief's approval of his hire and the satisfaction of all HR screenings background checks and otherwise to allow the mayor to approve the hire of that budgeted currently advertised firefighter position so mov second all right have a motion second any questions any question from anyone regards to the fire department position uh all in favor to say I I I ask Carri thank you very much and I had another question go ahead in the event similar to a hurricane do we have a hurricane policy so in other words if if a water main breaks in the middle of the night and we got to spend $15,000 do we have a policy in place where staff is very clear that they can go to I guess now it's going to be the mayor is what we're going to is what I'm hearing our purchasing policy deals with emergency circumstances yes so are we going to set a certain limit uh because I think right now the manager can do what up to 10,000 and so so so what I would recommend that was the other thing I recommended earlier in the meeting is that as to those approvals what we would ask is that the mayor bring the ledgers of those expenditures he can identify which ones are emergency SE which one's your routine purchase orders as part of the bill ratifications uh for the council to approve him to execute those within the manager's Authority into to bring a ledger to the council or have Morgan bring the ledger to the council showing what's been done as part of the bill pay or any emergency expenditures and then you can ratify them and that would actually give you three checks as opposed to the two you have now and is there a threshold are we placing a limit on it or is it unlimited there's already a limit in the policy yeah so I was pulling up the purchasing policy so it um emergency procurement is already listed in here so if you'll give me just a second I'll tell you what it is while you're doing that I'm just GNA go down my list so we can just make the necessary motions because I only got a couple left if that's all right good not yet um emergency what she's looking up and actually the last one was the hiring which we're going to do in a minute and yeah that would I have no further question so it's 20,000 for emergency purchases and um so the city manager is authorized to make purchases necessary in a declared emergency for Relief efforts up to 200,000 but that would only be through the declared emergency so 20,000 would be the threshold and then it would have to come back to counil for ratification so if there were to be something it stands correct so so our policy already gives us guidance on what to do and we're just asking the mayor be able to exercise that Authority provided it come back to the council in Ledger form once been approved and I I would be happy with that I just wanted us all to agree that hey that's the case uh this this is kind of an emergency that we find ourselves in so even though it's not it's a declared emergeny well I I believe the mayor probably does have that Authority implicitly under our policies provided he brings it the council for ratification but if the council wants to go and make that motion it's well able to do so and we have a policy I mean right I think I'm sorry maybe I misunderstood it I thought it said the city manager only during declared emergency so you have your department directors you have umy get declared we're going to have to meet to declare the emergency if we meet to declare the emergency you can give the mayor The Authority at that time I'm thinking about in the middle of the night if he figures out that okay but if it exceeds $20,000 that they need to you know ass Su or I don't know I'm not if if something breaks and it's more than $20,000 I have a feeling we we'll all be here as long as y based on what the policy says is that it just comes back for ratification so if there is something an expense or a NE a necessity after hours they can still follow through and make the purchase even if it's over 20 ,000 it just has to be explained and given to the council and ratified after the fact so they can still and now that I'm aware I'm totally fine with that I don't have any problem with that okay and most of the big ticket items particularly Water and Sewer U they have a backup I know they it's not we don't have a backup everything we do but sometimes we can bypass and sometimes we can draw from a different well there's a lot of things we can do rather than replace it that night well correct me if I'm wrong here clay but we with with the way the Jacob contract works because that's a that's a standing contract if something dramatic happened you know to to your level of concern more than likely what's going to happen is we're going to turn to Jacobs and say go get whatever that piece of Machinery is and get it down here and from a contractual standpoint they'll then bill us after the fact at what at what that then at that point we can ratify and and are we comfortable because I remember a couple weeks ago where I think they were going through some transitional period time too with their their staff so are we comfortable do they know who our players are and we know who they are so they can contact each other uh fairly quickly okay thanks okay did you have any other did you have any other I'd like to make a motion but I can do it at any time uh I I make a motion that uh we give dual sign uh I'm sorry uh that Kobe will be the staff member that will delegate the city manager's emails that he'll go through it and then he can guide it to where it needs to go is that I think he's already doing that I don't think Council needs to direct that on because that's part of your already your responsibilities correct you already help address those so where and he'll go to the mayor as I understand what we're saying then he'll go to the mayor in the event that something is at a concern level the mayor's getting those emails already all those those emails are dual copied to Kobe and the mayor right now everything going to the city Oh you mean since Monday whatever all right so you don't want to so do we want to make a motion to place a hiring freeze except for those that are going to come back to us at a I would feel comfortable with that well there's no there's no way to make a hire because what I'm saying to you is the only person who can hire and fire is the city manager unless the council does it at its level the mayor cannot be delegated that Authority because it is a matter of ordinance and we can't amend the ordinance without advertising and going through the formal ordinance adoption process so all we're saying is is a process our department EDS are going to get you as a counsel for your next meeting the open budgeted positions that they see possibly needing to be filled and at that time you can decide which ones you give the mayor the authority to sign off on or not and so that'll happen at your next board meeting once you have that list in front of you and I would recommend doing it on a position byos basis or at least a slate of positions rather than making it blanket one way or the other because right now we are effectively in a hiring price you don't have to take action the law prohibits it yeah and we just like we did tonight with the fire but U anyway I have nothing further thank you I was G you know this may not be the time and place but maybe so but uh uh today I think it was today I just because of Kobe had you know finally have rafhael take over back as Clerk and I dismissed his $3 increase because he was filling in clerk ever since on was Andrea had left and uh but besides the clerk we have stacked him up with a whole lot of other things that uh they we got his feet to the floor hot and heavy um and I was going to wait till the 11th come to the council asked about let's putting that back on um for all the extra stuff that uh Kobe's having to do but uh that'll be up to the council but um I did remove $3 because his time as a clerk had kind of expired even though he's clerk tonight you know and uh um it was a tempor to put a little more on it's a temporary pay increase it was not a permanent pay inrease he got that temporary increase effectively was due to Sunset so what the mayor's asking is it's Sunset but given the light of the circumstances the council in a position where it wishes to continue to extend that to Mr are we are we appropriate to make that motion with it not technically being on the agenda or could we do it at the next meeting and just make it retroactive retro do it put it on the agenda and that way if there's anybody else that is going to be assigned additional duties that for whatever reason that comes up between now and then we can look at those and do all those temporary pay increases at one time so they're consistent okay that's great Kobe you got that your own pay raise and Kobe can I ask a special and can I ask a special favor could you try to get it to where those all those meetings that are behind caught up at your between you and Raphael as best you can because they're not been updated I think since October thank you all right uh okay did so you did not make a motion just no he said I didn't need to make an any addition anything else so which meetings haven't been updates since okay and since this is a special meeting if you have comments I would take that up take offline we have very agenda yeah we' hope that your public comments would relate to uh the special situation we're in so this time procedure we will open up the floor for public comments and I give you three minutes please state your name and if you're representing organization or Company please state that as well so the floor is open yeah Jean Robinson resident not representing anybody it seems to me uh that I got into uh confusion about the role that the uh City attorney is playing here it seemed to me he might be making recommendations of a procedural and management nature rather than legal advice from time to time and for example I couldn't tell who was making motions whether it was a City attorney or one of the city council members and who was seconding in things of this nature and any or and I've run a lot of organizations and we had the lawyers do legal things and then we had managers and uh people in executive positions making management and procedural decisions well what where we're at right now is a little bit off the beaten path and we kind of defer to him because of that um well that's fine for legal things yeah but you're qualified people in making procedural and managerial decisions well yeah we are we are we I hope we are we just want to make sure that everybody's you know legally in a position to do what we're doing that's really why we had this meeting tonight all I did at the start mayor was sum up what occurred in that staff meeting at your request because I was present there with you for it so it wouldn't necessarily be you as the mayor saying I get to do this I get to do this I get to do this it more as a courtesy to you that I sum that yeah but yes I did certainly opine as to the distinctions between matters of policy and ordinance and we greatly appreciate anyone else Danny Coen def func Springs is the newly created position that was not budgeted that was created by Mr valet for the deputy uh city manager is that position locked down and Frozen short answer the only position that was authorized to be filled tonight was one firefighter position no other position at any level of the city budgeted or unbudgeted can be filled without it coming back before the coun thank you okay anyone else all right we'll close the floor for comments and we will call this meeting a journ