Council voices concerns about consultant

By Holly Green
Staff Reporter

May 13, 2008 11:33 pm

— The Huntsville City Council expressed concerns Tuesday night about the consultant company hired to help search for a new city manager and selected a three-member subcommittee to contact Arcus Public of Harrisburg, Pa., and voice those concerns.
Seven councilmembers met in special session at City Hall specifically to discuss a draft of the candidate profile submitted by Arcus to the council on Thursday, but the talks evolved into dissatisfaction with Arcus’ performance so far.
Councilmembers unanimously voted to form the subcommittee, including Mayor J. Turner, Dalene Zender and Mayor Pro Tem Mac Woodward.
With the assistance of city attorney Thomas Leeper, the subcommittee will draft a letter to be sent to Arcus by the close of business today.
The letter will include councilmembers’ concerns and setting up a conference call with the subcommittee and Arcus representatives to voice the concerns.
The conference call will be set up as soon as possible.
The subcommittee is expected to report back to council on May 20 — the next council meeting date — with responses it receives from Arcus.
At that time, councilmembers will possibly take action on which direction they wish to proceed.
The candidate profile, according to Turner, is a document that provides potential candidates with an explanation of both the Huntsville community and the position the council is wanting to fill.
During Tuesday night’s session, each councilmember had an opportunity to point out likes, dislikes or changes they noted and all were in agreement that the document, which includes several factual errors, did not satisfy the needs of the City of Huntsville.
In addition to Turner, Woodward and Zender, also attending the meeting were Melissa Templeton-Mahaffey, Clarence Griffin, Tom Cole and Wayne Barrett.
Councilmembers Mickey Evans and Jack Choate were not in attendance.
Councilmembers-elect Lanny Ray and Charles Forbus were included in the discussion after Turner obtained consensus from other councilmembers to allow them to participate.
Ray and Forbus do not officially become councilmembers until votes are canvassed from the May 10 election and they are given the oath of office along with Zender and Mahaffey.
Zender and Mahaffey were unopposed in seeking new terms to council.
Turner said the council is not taking the situation lightly.
“This is a very important process for the city — finding a city manager,” he said. “We have to do everything possible to make this a successful process.
“Councilmembers read the document and were very well-prepared tonight, and there are some concerns. It’s important that we pursue this in a way that will get us the best city manager possible to guide our city in the future.”