Future annual city manager performance reviews will require input from each City Council member and will no longer solely be the purview of the mayor under an ordinance unanimously adopted by the council on Feb. 4.
The change to the city’s municipal code was requested by Councilman Albert Torres following the negotiated resignation last year of former City Manager Benjamin Marchant during budget discussions. Some council members, unhappy with Marchant’s performance, wanted to eliminate funding for the city manager position.
Marchant denied the allegations made against him but volunteered to resign to resolve the dispute and allow the budget to be adopted while retaining funding for the city manager position.
Marchant and the city then negotiated a severance package.
The city is still searching for a new city manager after the council rejected two candidates presented at the Jan. 7 City Council meeting.
Prior to the municipal code change, the mayor had “the discretion but is not required to solicit a peer review from the statutory positions (using an approved peer review form) for city manager performance reviews.”
Under the amendment adopted on Feb. 4, that language was eliminated and replaced with text indicating, “The mayor shall solicit a peer review from each member of the City Council for the purpose of informing the mayor’s evaluation.”
Under the change, the annual city manager review “would remain the mayor’s evaluation but would require him to consult and communicate with the council” when preparing his evaluation, said City Attorney Aaron Mouritsen.
“So, basically, we’re changing it from ‘the mayor may’ to ‘the mayor shall?’” asked Mayor Neal McIntyre.
“Yes,” Mouritsen responded.
“OK, I’m good with that,” McIntyre replied.
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