The Holbrook City Council held a meeting Jan. 10, with Councilman Tim Dixon excused from the meeting.
An update and discussion on the status of the hiring of a city manager talked about with Mayor Kathleen Smith noting that the initial timeline outlined advertising for the position back in October/November, but that was pushed back due to holidays. “My recommendation will be to run an ad from Jan. 29, 2024, to Feb. 29, 2024,” she said. Mayor Smith then recommended supplying the council with a pool of candidates on the March 13 meeting.
Smith went on to explain she obtained a referral from the Arizona League of Cities and Towns for Susan Thorpe, who is a senior advisor for the Arizona City/County Management Association (ACMA) and International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Thorpe has a long history within local government with accolades and offered her services free of charge as a consultant throughout the process. “If we decide that we want to go ahead and do this on our own and use her as a consultant, I would suggest that as we make a vote on this tonight, that we include that in the motion that we utilize her services.”
Mayor Smith believes if the council holds a work session on Jan. 24, followed by a special meeting to vote on the direction of the hiring process, then the next week open the position for applications. “And if we choose not to do it this way, then we’ve got to figure out in the work session what process we want to do.” Smith also clarified that Sullivan had no involvement in this effort, and it was her and City Clerk Lisa Hunt who put the information together.
Councilmember Arcenia Pacheco referenced the previously created timeline, saying, “It states on here to bring to council the options for a search firm in September that we discussed it and there was no other discussion since then. And there hasn’t been an update about where the search was going.” Smith replied that there hasn’t been any update because the council never decided. She explained that three options for firms were presented along with other avenues, such as utilizing the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, but the motion was tabled and nothing was decided.
“I agree with a lot of the citizens that I don’t believe we need to hire a search firm, especially when we’ve got somebody that’s qualified that can give us everything we need as well. And she’ll help with those background searches as well,” explained Smith. It was also mentioned that, if down the road this solution doesn’t work, the city can also go to using an outside firm if needed.
Pacheco asked if the city could post the position on the website prior to Jan. 29, to which Smith stated that the city is not prepared and does not have a profile and required qualifications ready. Pacheco countered it could enable people to submit a letter of interest, to which Councilmember Black responded that he didn’t think that could be done. “How would they apply if they don’t even know what we’re wanting?” Pacheco replied, “No, not to apply. To submit a letter of interest, that they are interested, that there is a city manager position opening in Holbrook. That way when we get more information, it can be updated as such, at least to kind of get the feelers out there.” Mayor Smith said that the city could advertise the position opening on Jan. 29, which she believes would serve the same purpose without burdening staff.
The council approved to start the process of finding a city manager with the help of Thorpe. The council will be meeting at 6 p.m. on Jan. 24 for a work session to finalize the profiles and qualities desired for a city manager. Afterwards, the work session will close and a special meeting will be held to approve the profile and timeline updates. Smith mentioned that a quick overview of the general plan will also be done in the work session.
The council also reviewed and approved a draft for the 2024 work session schedule as a guideline. At an earlier meeting, the council had approved moving to one council meeting per month, with the second meeting of the month used as a work session but Councilmember Pacheco stated she would like to revisit the decision and go back to having two regular meetings per month. Black agreed, stating that waiting a month versus two weeks for an action item to get done is a big difference.
The council approved going back to two regular meetings a month, to be followed by the work sessions as scheduled on fourth Wednesdays of every month beginning in February, with Mayor Smith and Councilmember Karina Pack voting against and Vice Mayor Michael Nilsson, and councilmembers Black, Pacheco and Teri Tafoya voting in favor.
The council also continued the discussion of the personnel policy on accrual of vacation hours for city employees that was brought up in the previous meeting. “I’m not proposing to take any time away from our employees, what I’m trying to do is encourage them to take their vacation,” stated Black, “But if you’re going to bank it, I think make a max of 240 hours.” Black recommended encouraging employees to use their vacation time and only allow accrual of up to 240 hours.
Mayor Smith stated she is in favor for keeping the 320 hours. Tafoya agreed with Black’s sentiments, saying 320 hours was a lot. “You know, I think that we give our employees a lot. I think that they are compensated very well,” adding that the HPD and other departments might be a little different due to being short staffed.
Sullivan clarified that staff can only get to 320 hours if they’ve been at the city for 13 years or more, which are very few employees. “Also, if this passes tonight, or whatever the discussion ends up being, in order to get these employees down to 240, we would have to pay all these employees out and then start that bank over. We would have to go backwards because it is a paid benefit that they have already earned according to this policy.” He also noted that everybody that is already maxed out at 240 would have to use it or lose it. “This is not budgeted and it would be something that we would have to phase in.”
When asked if the city could grandfather everyone in and then new hires would have the 240-hour cut-off, Sullivan said it would be difficult to be able to be figured out in the system. Council asked city employee Pat Serna who was in attendance for his take on the situation, to which he said it was a big benefit and is part of the reason he works at the city, adding that this is time he has earned. “I put in all my 23 years. I put in the time.”
Black proposed the idea to give staff a year to get under 240 vacation hours if they have more than that, to which Mayor Smith replied that it would equal to 80 hours that staff at 320 hours would have to use in a year. “We’re already short staffed. That is not realistic.”
After much debate, Pack made a motion to not make any changes to the vacation hours. Mayor Smith, Vice Mayor Nilsson and Councilmember Pack voted in favor, and councilmembers Tafoya, Black and Pacheco voted against, making a tie so the motion did not pass.
It was then opened up for a second motion, to which Tafoya motioned to table pending Sullivan discussing the matter with the city’s attorney about the repercussions of changing policy. The motion failed after another tie, with Mayor Smith, Pack and Black voting against and Tafoya, Nilsson and Pacheco voting in favor. “It will be automatically tabled until someone comes with a different kind of proposal,” stated Smith.
Also during the meeting, the council passed a resolution authorizing the submission of an application for State Housing Funds, which may include federal funding through the Home Investment Partnership Program or state housing funds. “The grant that we’ll apply for is $225,000 and $25,000 of that can be used for admin costs,” explained Sullivan.
During the summary of current events, Sullivan noted that on Feb. 26 the Air National Guard will be doing an exercise at the Holbrook airport. “I don’t know if it’s going to be closed or open to the public or anything like that, but just in case everybody’s wondering what’s going on.”
He also stated that employee Napo Baldonado is retiring from the parks department after 34 years with the city, as well as Carlos Jimenez.
Sullivan stated that Pat Serna has taken over as the new parks and recreation supervisor. The city’s little league poles and lighting will be delivered on Jan. 22 and work on the project will begin in February.
At the beginning of the meeting, during Call to the Public, Holbrook resident Nancy Barela with Catholic Charities spoke requesting the council to put motel health and fire hazards on the next agenda to ensure “businesses are held responsible to pass safety codes and follow policies.” Barela stated that multiple people have come to her who live in the motels making complaints of lack of working heaters and that they go without running water for days due to frozen pipes. While she agrees tenants should file with the courts, she added “I believe it’s also the city’s responsibility to make sure that these businesses in Holbrook pass codes and follow policies.”
Holbrook resident Mark Romo also addressed the council in regards to the city’s open city manager position and the use of a firm to assist with the hiring process. “I’ve seen there’s been discussions about hiring an outside firm. I saw the range is anywhere between $20,000 and $60,000,” Romo stated. “I’ve spoken to many people here in Holbrook, as many of you have done, and I will tell you right now that the citizens of Holbrook do not want you to spend $20,000 to $60,000 to find somebody from outside.” Romo added that Interim City Manager Randy Sullivan is doing a great job and lives in the town. “My suggestion to the council would be to rather than using the $20,000 to $60,000 on finding somebody, why don’t we use that money to hire an assistant for him (Sullivan), so that we can utilize that money to help him move the city’s agenda along.”
Ron and Diana Gates were unable to attend the meeting but sent an email to be read during Call to the Public in relation to the previous meeting’s topic regarding Councilman Robert Black’s concerns regarding nepotism and vacation hours for city staff. They wrote, “We can assure you that people do look at jobs for the benefits. It’s only after many years that you can earn the maximum vacation hours.”
As for the nepotism issues presented at a previous meeting, the Gates wrote that nepotism should be addressed during the hiring stage and is not the responsibility of employees but rather management. “It is discouraging that the focus is on vacation hours and nepotism when it could be on rewarding your employees and more focus on new job growth and businesses that would positively promote the climate in Holbrook and the best interest of our citizens,” the statement read.
