Holbrook City Council to risk public favor with costly city manager search

Councilwoman Francie Payne placed an item to consider appointing Sullivan to the post on the agenda, but before she could present it, Councilman Tim Dixon moved to table the matter and began to read from a prepared statement explaining why he wanted to table it, citing a lack of letter of intent or resumé from Sullivan among other concerns.

Payne interjected, calling Dixon’s actions a lack of personal courtesy. Dixon stated he felt it was perfectly permissible and Mayor Bobby Tyler agreed to allow Dixon to make his points. As he proceeded, Payne asked the mayor, “Why is he being allowed to make his points before I’m being allowed to make mine?”

Tyler seemed uncertain how to proceed, but when advised by Councilman Richard Peterson and Vice Mayor Wade Carlisle that the action being taken was inappropriate, he changed his mind and told Dixon to wait so that Payne could present the item.

The councilwoman introduced the topic by stating that the decision to hire a permanent manager was put on hold to wait for the outcome of the March council election, but with the incumbent members re-elected, she felt it was appropriate to proceed.

“Many citizens of Holbrook have come to me and asked me to support Randy as the fulltime, permanent city manager,” Payne said as she presented an informal petition to the mayor on behalf of resident Mary Martinez, who collected just under 100 signatures in support of Sullivan being appointed to the permanent position.

“Randy has a great deal of support because he is getting the job done for us. We may not have done formal evaluations, but if you talk to him and go out with him and see what’s being done, if you talk to the people about what’s being done, if you share with the people what’s being done, there’s a lot of support for putting him in,” she said.

She followed the statement with a motion to hire Sullivan for the position with a one-year contract at the pay he is currently receiving, which is an annual salary of $113,000.

There was confusion as Dixon’s motion to table the item was still active and had received a second.

Vice Mayor Carlisle stated he didn’t want the item tabled because he wanted the opportunity to discuss his opinions on the matter.

With that, Dixon rescinded his motion and Councilman CJ Wischmann, who seconded the motion, agreed.

Councilman Peterson seconded Payne’s motion, then stated he would like to amend it to state that rather than appoint Sullivan, they should begin the process of interviewing him, to which Payne agreed.

In the discussion that followed, Carlisle said, “I like Randy fine, but I’m not sure I’m ready to appoint him. The culture we’re under is Ray Alley’s (the former city manager) culture. I will not apologize, in fact I like what we’ve done with Ray when we hired him. We reorganized literally every department in this place. We balanced the budget and did lots of cuts. The reason I’m not interested in continuing with Randy in the vein that we’re in is that I like him as public works director, he’s a good accountant and I have no problem with the things he has done as we are right now,” said Carlisle.

Carlisle then went on to explain that he believes what is critical now is to find someone with executive experience in economic growth. “I’ve talked to a lot of different people who think we’re down on growth and we’re not. There’s not a single one of us down on growth. The problem is that when we start looking out in the world to try to find somebody who might want to come to Holbrook, the reality is that we need to find somebody that’s had their feet wet in those places out there that have grown and has those contacts,” said Carlisle, noting that he doesn’t believe Sullivan has those contacts.

“We’re seeing us slowly lose our industrial growth here. The whole culture has changed and you have to look at the world in a whole new way. We have to be tough about it. The critical issues have been repaired. We’re looking now at a whole new world. We have to grow or we’re looking at more cuts, more shrinkage, more loss,” he said.

Councilman Peterson replied to the vice mayor’s comments, stating, “You might get a super star, but is he going to stay in Holbrook long term? I know Randy is going to stay long term. I guess you could say I want to put Randy in the front of the line right now and if he’s not what we want, then we can start the process. It’s going to be more than $14,000 plus expenses to do that hiring process and we have a guy right now who’s supported by the community.”

Carlisle stated that he has not heard Sullivan address any economic development considerations in the eight months he has served as interim manager and that caused him to doubt his interest in that area. “I don’t want to hire him because of that. I think he should put his hat in the ring. We may put $15,000 into the process and find they’re all just a bunch of jokers and Randy is the best,” said Carlisle.

Councilman Dixon agreed, stating “I want someone who establishes relationships with the state of Arizona, and who is going to go out and get business. I think we should develop our process and reach out to those companies for services, but we will decide who it’s going to be.”

Councilman Peterson then noted that if the council chose to go with someone other than Sullivan as manager, they would have to come up with over $100,000 in the budget to pay that salary, plus the $15,000 to $20,000 for the service contract in order for candidates to be found. “We’re talking about not being able to hire a policeman,” he said, addressing the fact that the Holbrook Police Department is down three officers.

Both Councilman Dixon and Mayor Tyler said they were under the impression that the funds were in the budget waiting for that position to be filled.

Vice Mayor Carlisle corrected them, noting, “He’s (Peterson’s) absolutely right. We do not have that money. We are going to have to cut somebody to come up with that money. We’re short $450,000. If we approve that we’re going to go ahead with this, and I’m recommending that we do, but if we do we’re going to have to be mean on this budget and cut people’s jobs or we’re not going to hire those two police officers or something.

“That’s a reality of where we’re going. I assure you that if we hire someone in this fiscal year it’s going to cost us $250,000, including his salary, his ERE’s (employee related expenses) and the search process. That $15,000 is just an initial deal. I’m betting it’s going to be $30,000 to $50,000, maybe even $60,000,” he said, adding that if they go through the entire process and don’t find someone they like, they’d have to go through the process again.

“That would be my recommendation, but with the understanding that we are not going to hire those police officers. I’m recommending we make the tough budget decisions. We may get recalled over this, but I don’t care,” Carlisle stated.

Councilman Peterson said that was even more reason to allow Sullivan to go through the interim process for consideration as city manager.

The motion to allow Sullivan to be interviewed for the position was again presented, but failed to pass with Mayor Tyler, Vice Mayor Carlisle, and Councilmen Dixon, Wischmann and Earl Kester voting against it, and Councilwoman Payne and Councilman Peterson voting in favor.

No further discussion was made on the matter, but it will be part of the budget work sessions that will begin following the regular city council meeting on Tuesday, April 11.