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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWK September 26, 2000 I ~cuv Wl LttLn \()-f7-co CITY of ANDOVER SPECIAL ANDOVER CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP - SEPTEMBER 26, 2000 MINUTES A Special Workshop of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Jack McKelvey on September 26, 2000, 6:30 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Councilmembers present: Tony Howard, Don Jacobson, Mike Knight, Ken Orttel Councilmembers absent: None Also present: Finance Director, Jim Dickinson Community Development Director, Dave Carlberg City Administrator, Richard Fursman INTERVIEW PROFESSIONAL SEARCH FIRMS The Council interviewed the following professional search firms: Brimeyer Group, Larson Allen Search, LLC, and PDI. Brimeyer Group - James Brimeyer and Pam Carlson represented the organization, provided personal background information and reviewed their process for assisting the City in hiring a City Administrator. They would consider themselves the City's temporary Human Resources Department. Most of their work is done in the public sector in the upper mid-west region for city managers and administrators, department heads and some non-professional work. They typically do five to six assignments at a time, and they want to remain that small to be available to their clients. They would first meet with the Council and Staff to develop a profile of the position to be used as a recruiting tool. They recruit by sending the profile to a list of potential candidates and by posting to a variety of sources including their web site. They will screen the resumes against the profile and provide a summary of the candidates. From that, the Council will pick the number of candidates they want to continue through the process. Once it is down to the fmal five candidates, they do background checks and coordinate the interview process, which can include an informal reception, the Council individually meeting with the candidates individually and the Council as a group meeting with the candidates individually. They also deal with the media and will do an evaluation six months after the individual is hired. There is a guarantee the person will remain in the position for 18 months, or they will go through the process again at their expense. They do evaluations themselves and recognize that personality and desire for the position is critical in the end. The cost is a flat fee of $14,000 to $16,000, depending on the time to develop the profile, plus hard-cost expenses such as printing and phone calls. Typically it costs about $2,500 in expenses for a position, depending on where the candidates come from. -- - , , ,~ I Special Andover City Council Workshop Minutes - September 26, 2000 Page 2 (Interview Professional Search Firms, Continued) Larson Allen Search, LLC - Jan Kruchoski and Alexis Todd represented the group, noting they are a traditional search firm. They also offer consulting and recruiting on an hourly basis. Ms. Todd would be the lead on the search. The research department does the research and recruiting phase. The initial phase is to meet with the Council and the City's professionals to develop a profile of the position. Prom that meeting, they put together critical success factors which go the market place. They would be selling the City of Andover to the market place. Once through the recruiting phase, they wi!! view the applicants to find people that are compatible with the critical success factors. They do phone interviews to narrow it down to 15 candidates to interview face to face. Then they present a panel of three to five candidates to the City Council. They coordinate the face-to-face interview between the Council and those candidates. Prior to that they do reference checks. They can also be the go-between in the negotiating stage. The process takes two to three months. They are recruiters who very rarely advertise. Payment to them would be done in three installments -- one- third at the signing of the engagement letter; one-third after the presentation of the partial list of candidates; and the final third at the completion of the search. Their flat hourly charge is $200 plus direct expenses. A lot of those expenses occur when they go national. They estimated the direct expenses would be under $2,000 plus the fee of 30 percent of the base salary. They guarantee the placement for one year or they will go through the search process again at no charge. They spend a significant amount oftime up ITont to make sure they have everybody's profile on what will make this person successful at this position. They don't test individually but rely on their ability to ask the right questions and conduct background checks and references. It is a rigorous process that has made them successful. They have never done a search for a city manager before, but they have worked for nonprofit and corporate America using the same process for both. They have had a lot of experience working with communities. This position is close to several administrative positions they have worked on, so they are sure they could do a good job for the City. PDI - Harry Brull, an industrial psychologist, represented the firm and provided some background on the company which employs 950 people around the world. They would define the need, determine how to attract applicants, bring the people here to meet the Council and interview. He strongly suggested Staff be allowed to interview, both department heads and other employees to interact with the prospective City Administrator. Then they test to see how the candidates make decisions, how they plan, how they handle controversies, etc. They do background investigations, and the end result is an individual who has the strength and qualities needed to do the job. After hiring the individual, they come back six months later for an evaluation to make sure the person is on the right track. He will provide a written guarantee that he will go through the process again if the person does not stay in the position for at least two years. He knows there are city administrators in the metro area. He'd make calls to be sure they know of the opportunity. They are experts in interviewing, plus they test them, often using simulations. He estimated a cost of $22,500 plus expenses, though they typically don't have other expenses except phone calls and advertising. If there is something in the process that the City would prefer to do, he would have no problem with it. Typically it takes 10 to 12 weeks for the process. He will point out the differences between the candidates, but it is the Council's choice when selecting the candidate. In screening candidates, the ¡ ,~ Special Andover City Council Workshop Minutes - September 26, 2000 Page 3 (Interview Professional Search Firms, Continued) methods he uses can include seeing how the person reacts in formal settings, talking to other people, having the Council visit that person's city and doing a newspaper search. He predicted the person for this position could be someone who is capable and wants a change in position to something that is more challenging, someone who is ITom a small community who would like to move up to a larger one, or someone who is now a department head and wants to advance to administrator. If the person has the correct qualities of problem solving, leadership, integrity, hard working, creative and organized, they will be able to learn and effectively deal with Andover's issues, such as dealing with the Metropolitan Council. If Andover is in the position of needing an assistant administrator in the near future, he suggested the City Administrator be hired first to be able to provide input on the assistant position. He is actively working with three cities now, and there are about 200 people in the Minneapolis office that are at his disposal. He would be the point person. Discussion - The Council then discussed the pros and cons of contracting with an executive search firm; and if so, how much, if anything, should the City do. Mr. Dickinson thought Staff could easily place advertisements in the local papers and contact the professional organization at a cost of about $500. They could also send a mailing to all managers, doing the recruitment in house for less cost. Doing both the mailing and advertising in the local papers should get the word out not only to other managers but to those who wish to move up. He felt there are good people on Staff that could go through the recruiting process. He would be willing to put in the time to do a good search. Council member Jacobson stated Andover is one of the bigger cities in the state. He felt a firm should be hired to do this. The finns know a lot more people and can narrow down the candidates. That would be preferable to having Staff do it, especially with a potential conflict if some Staff will apply. The Council tended to agree to hire a firm and have the firm do the entire process as proposed, They then deliberated on which firm would best meet the City's needs. Mr. Dickinson stated he has been through both the Brimeyer and PDI process and found the process with Brimeyer to be more pleasant. The Council did not feel Larson Allen Search, LLC had enough experience in the public sector. There was no real support for the rigorous testing that is done through PDI. It was finally agreed that an offer will be made to The Brimeyer Group, me.. Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Howard, to ask The Brimeyer Group to come back with a contract for us to look at and see if we want to add or subtract from it. Motion carried unanimously. Mr. Fursman stated there is a potential candidate on Staff who may apply for the position. If through the process the Council has a strong feeling one way or the other, he advised them to talk bout it. Maybe it won't be necessary to go through the entire process, or the Council may want to have that person go through the entire process along with the other candidates. 1 Special Andover City Council Workshop Minutes - September 26, 2000 Page 4 (Interview Professional Search Firms, Continued) Motion by Jacobson, Seconded by Ortte1, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted, \\\~C~ '\~L Marcella A. Peach Recording Secretary