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minutes 12-04-99Page 17 of 39
<br />RAY: These are your big line item departments, Public Works, and Parks and Rec, so that is most of the bodies, and major
<br />personnel management. Sue.
<br />IRVINE: Could I just quote from this Riverside County Charter, where they do have a County Manager, whom is selected by
<br />the County Council. But it says, "the Council shall appoint, by a majority vote, the available person that it believes is best
<br />qualified on the basis of executive and administrative qualifications, with special reference to expertise in, and knowledge of,
<br />accepted practice in respect to the duties of the offices as set forth in this Charter." So, then they go on down below to say the
<br />duties, and they are much greater, of course, than our Managing Director has, because it’s the Managing Director who
<br />prepares the budget and things. I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything spelled out anywhere else, as far as qualifications that
<br />might help us find somebody who is, like, professionally qualified to manage these more than what we have in our Charter.
<br />It’s on page C-12.
<br />HIGASHI: We just need to elect the right Mayor.
<br />HERKES: Well, we’ve done that, but the trouble is we can’t do it again. The Charter says we can’t.
<br />HIGASHI: Steve, maybe the Managing Director is one that is not confirmed by the Council. Maybe you can set some
<br />criteria. Maybe he must be confirmed by the Council, like the other department heads, and given some guidelines and
<br />qualifications, like Chief Engineer has. I mean we’re going to change it to Public Works Manager, or something like that, but
<br />maybe we can insert some language and confirm by the Council so that it is scrutinized somewhere.
<br />BESS: I haven’t given a lot of careful thought, but I have thought of that; about the Council confirming him, and I would
<br />prefer that there be a strong Administrative Branch, and that he would be beholden to the Mayor rather than some confusion
<br />about Council vote.
<br />HIGASHI: Why don’t we table it and maybe you can form a subcommittee or maybe people can get together and would like
<br />to put their heads together -
<br />HERKES: We voted against it.
<br />BESS: Yes.
<br />HIGASHI: No, we’re talking about a Managing Director.
<br />BESS: Managing Director.
<br />HERKES: Where is that on our list?
<br />IRVINE: It’s under Department Heads.
<br />HIGASHI: It just popped up.
<br />HERKES: You now, you guys, I’m pissed off because you voted against it, so you know.
<br />HIGASHI: But it’s coming around -
<br />BESS: Yes, I did because I think that a complete overhaul -
<br />RAY: In terms of Roland’s suggestion and, Steve, your comments, that’s the way the department heads are appointed and
<br />confirmed now, and they clearly answer to the Mayor, not to the County Council, so I don’t think that’s really a conflict. I
<br />think, if you put in there the criteria so the Council has something to hang their hat on; this needs to be a professional City
<br />Manager type and have those types of credentials, so if the Mayor doesn’t bring forth somebody of that caliber, with those
<br />qualifications, then the Council clearly has a reason not to confirm them, in terms of their professional qualifications. So, it
<br />seems like we could address that because that’s a whole specialized field now, that we could go out and, certainly, recruit
<br />somebody. The other areas; we could eliminate the residency requirement because that’s normally done with City Managers.
<br />You anticipate that you’re probably going to have to bring somebody in from outside.
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