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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-09 Council Appointed Officers Committee Summary MinutesCOUNCIL APPOINTED OFFICER COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 4 Special Meeting September 9, 2025 The Council Appointed Officers Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers and by virtual teleconference at 4:00 PM. Present In-Person: Burt, Stone (Chair), Veenker Present Virtually: None Absent: None Call to Order Chair Stone called the meeting to order. The clerk called the roll declaring all present. Public Comments No requests to speak. Agenda Items – Public Comment 1. Executive recruitment process review for Council Appointed Officer (City Attorney) including recommendation of executive recruitment firm and feedback on overall process. NO ACTION Sandra Blanch, Human Resources Department, instructed the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the upcoming vacancy of the city attorney's position. The CAO is asked to review the proposals of the three executive recruiters available to provide services and select one of the firms. The Committee's recommendation will go to the full Council for approval. Recruitment is expected to take approximately six months. All three firms have recent experience in placing qualified candidates for this council appointed officer position. The City has worked with all three firms in the past. The proposal costs range between $30,000 to $39,000. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 4 Sp. Council Appointed Officers Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/09/2025 Councilmember Burt observed having none of the representatives of the recruiters present limits the ability to ask them questions. The approach of the Bob Murray Company is interesting. Councilmember Burt inquired why the Teri Black Company would work with the city manager to design a customized candidate profile. Ms. Blanch stated the firm would work with HR and the CAO committee members to craft the recruitment brochure to the specified profile. Councilmember Burt expressed concern that the proposal did not seem to be customized to this position and the fact that this is a CAO. Vice Mayor Veenker inquired if there is a process to obtain information from the references. Ms. Blanch stated the recruiters could be followed up with regarding recent recruitment with neighboring cities. Vice Mayor Veenker suggested checking with the neighboring cities for references. Ms. Blanch agreed Staff can ask the recruiter or HR staff at either of those agencies for more information. Vice Mayor Veenker discussed the difference of emphasis and processes between the recruiters. Vice Mayor Veenker did not see a necessity to develop a brochure and encouraged looking at City Attorney Stump's self-assessment to build out a front end. It was suggested having panels of people holding the same position from other cities interviewing applicant pools. Ms. Blanch explained Staff develops the panelists that will serve on the interview panel and colleagues with the same expertise will be included. Vice Mayor Veenker asked if there would be additional fees if a candidate was not chosen after the first set of applicants have been interviewed. Ms. Blanch replied there would be an additional modified fee. Councilmember Burt stated one of the applicants said it is an additional $7500 for a second round. Vice Mayor Veenker pointed out there are a lot of open city attorney spots so there will be tough competition. Chair Stone agreed with the comments made, performing outreach, and finding out other experiences locally and wanted to know who Ms. Greathouse is. Ms. Blanch answered that is the same recruiter being offered for this recruitment. Chair Stone wanted to understand the process of how it is determined who is a part of the Council panel interviews. Ms. Blanch responded it is typically the full Council in closed session. Chair Stone advised City Attorney Stump's engagement in the process and feedback would be valuable. Ms. Blanch agreed to ask for City Attorney Stump's assistance. Chair Stone opined the Teri Black Company has the most local experience. It would be challenging to choose a firm without having representatives present to question. Hearing feedback from surrounding communities would be beneficial. Public Comment: Herb B. commented when the goals, objectives, and key performance indicators are agreed upon, they should be disclosed in the brochure for the position. Another consideration is criteria that might have been used for someone hiring an attorney for a completely different job than city attorney. Councilmember Burt indicated the 2010 brochure would be a valuable reference, agreed with the value of City Attorney Stump's self-assessment as a reference point and a peer panel of SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 4 Sp. Council Appointed Officers Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/09/2025 neighboring cities. There was discussion of the community stakeholders versus staff ranking process. The term "ideal candidate" should be changed to "what are the characteristics or qualifications being sought." There was question as to why the mayor and CAO would be the final round interview rather than Council. Ms. Blanch answered that the mayor was the CAO chair during the clerk process. Councilmember Burt opined it needed to reflect the plan accurately. Getting consent for reference checks would be valuable. The issue of exploring recruitment outside the region should be explored with the recruiters. Where the recruiters list the different agencies they have done recruiting for should indicate when it occurred and the ones that have worked for the City should indicate when and what functions were performed. Ms. Blanch added that an option the CAO Committee established in the past was to designate the interview with the CAO chair as one option of the interview process rather than the entire committee. Councilmember Burt thought there would be a number of follow ups requiring a meeting to make sure there is a process agreed on. Vice Mayor Veenker advised having 3 20-minute back-to-back interviews would accomplish a lot. Vice Mayor Veenker wanted to see the first two categories in the staff report tightened up. The planning and candidate profile development and advertising and sourcing could be put together in three to four weeks. Three to four weeks might be ambitious for candidate review and screening. There was hope that review and screening would go in parallel with the candidate pool creation to condense it. The current city attorney seemed willing to give feedback and input. It was suggested to explore having the current city attorney be a consultant for another two or three months past the date of notice. Ms. Blanch agreed that could be explored. Vice Mayor Veenker asked about printed brochures. Ms. Blanch replied smaller quantities are usually printed to be shared at conferences. Vice Mayor Veenker wanted a chance to do a Zoom call with the recruiters. There was concern about the Bob Murray firm not having nearby experience. There was interest expressed in speaking with Roberta Greenhouse from Peckham and McKenney but seven years' experience seemed short. Vice Mayor Veenker leaned toward the Teri Black firm. Nicholas Raisch, Assistant Human Resources Department, explained as a part of bringing the three firms to the Committee, Staff engaged with many of the local agencies they worked with and all received excellent reviews. The guarantee section of each of the bids outlines if the type, quality or depth of candidate is not found, they will go out one more time and do the full process only charging the expenses for things that have to be produced. The timeline is four months but the staff report says six months because it includes the stage of discussing which executive recruiter will be selected. The process of reviewing candidate throughout the entire four or five week process, they are reviewing already tiering and ranking candidates and in some situations already sending out supplemental questionnaires to the people they already see as the best or the top. The caveat is the last 48 hours of executive recruitment sees not only the most applications, but the best applications. Stakeholders in the panel demographics means who is selected as a committee. That could be subject matter experts who are active city attorneys in other areas, community engagement, members of ELT, etc. That is all fleshed out with Staff and the executive recruiter. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 4 Sp. Council Appointed Officers Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 09/09/2025 Chair Stone agreed Teri Black firm was the most interesting so far. Bob Murray firm's experience was too much outside the region. The timeline seems like a long process that is not necessary. The candidate selection on the interviews and final round interviews needs to be flipped. City Council should be the last interview. Ms. Blanch explained the reason is it in that order is because Council will narrow the number of candidates and the CAO would interview with that narrowed number. Councilmember Burt pointed out the current city attorney was not hired on the basis of her background but her aptitude. The Bob Murray Company did work for the City in the past but under a different ownership team. Councilmember Burt understood why the CAOs would be in a process after Council has narrowed but assumed there would be another Council interview subsequent to that. Ms. Blanch stated the HR team could start working on a draft of the brochure to show at the next meeting. Vice Mayor Veenker suggested having Zoom meetings with all three applicants. Council should make the final decision. Ms. Blanch explained the CAO would not make the final decision. Regarding experience, quality is more important than years. Mr. Raisch mentioned that all of the executive recruiters could be invited to an open and public meeting, it might be a different conversation than if one individual was selected to go and interview these people. Chair Stone suggested either each of the Committee members take on one recruiter or appoint one member to be the point of contact. Vice Mayor Veenker preferred to appoint one member to be the point of contact. Future Meetings and Agendas It was agreed to try to have the next meeting with the recruiters at 5:30 on September 22, 2025, with September 23, 2025, at 6:00 as a backup. The draft brochure would be available to review as well as the 2010 brochure. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:08 PM.