The Holbrook City Council remained divided on how to proceed in filling the position of a permanent city manager during the April 11 meeting as members of the public addressed the council in support of allowing Interim City Manager Randy Sullivan to continue in a permanent capacity.
The first to the podium was rancher Bill Jeffers, who stated, “Based on your budget and based on what you’ve heard from the county (regarding a lack of funds), I can only hope that you would consider postponing any major decisions about going out across the country to hire somebody. I think in the interim, and until the budgets across the country and in this community improve, I would suggest that you keep Randy on.”
Former city councilman Phil Cobb also spoke, stating, “I have gone through numerous situations with the city managers in the past. I have tried finding one outside, which we did not do so well. I accept the fact that I made a mistake on that one. I do not wish to see the city council repeat that same mistake. We do have an interim city manager that seems to know his job, has the knowledge, has the loyalty to Holbrook. I think you have no more than a 25 percent chance of finding anybody in a search outside of Holbrook.”
Resident Barbara DeSpain also addressed the council, stating, “I have been here a long time and I have yet to see a really successful outsider that we have brought in to serve as our city manager. I don’t think we can do any better than Randy. We have to be realistic,” she said.
The council later discussed the matter, taking a moment to review packets from several companies with information regarding the services they provide in locating a city manager.
Councilman CJ Wischmann moved to table the item until the entire council could be present, which was seconded by Councilman Tim Dixon.
Following the motion, Carlisle stated he felt a moderator would benefit the council in determining an agreed upon opinion as to what was expected of a new city manager.
Sullivan suggested a work session, but Councilman Earl Kester said he had a problem with the whole discussion.
“We don’t have any money. How are we going to spend money when we don’t have it?” He asked. Kester then admitted that he made an error in the vote at the last meeting when the council voted in favor of utilizing a service to locate city manager candidates, noting that he thought he was voting for something else.
The motion to table failed to pass as Councilmen Dixon, Kester and Wischmann voted in favor, and Councilwoman Francie Payne, Councilman Richard Peterson and Vice Mayor Wade Carlisle voted against it. Mayor Bobby Tyler was not present.
“One thing I’ve noticed about this council in particular is that we’re split. But I don’t know that we’re really all that far off. We just don’t ever have that opportunity to sit down with a moderator and talk about all these things and come to a consensus,” stated Carlisle.
He then moved to locate a moderator and hold a special session on the matter, with the date to be determined by the availability of a moderator. The motion was seconded by Peterson and received unanimous support.
City Clerk Cher Reyes said that she would locate an individual that all council members would agree would be a non-biased moderator from either Arizona Public Service Co., the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, or another non-biased entity.
