Special Council Meeting

I just returned from the special council meeting where there was discussion about hiring a new library director. Apparently choice #1 said no and they are talking about going to choice #2 and then considering choices #3 and #4, should #2 say no.

Keith Locke said he didn't want to pay moving costs for the person they hire (#2 is in Virginia). He cited "budget issues" and "budget concerns" as his reasoning. He suggested instead of choices #2 and #3 they should consider offering it to someone in house because it would cost them less (their top in-house candidate is #4 on their list).

Doug made it clear that he wanted the discussion carried over to their next week's work session because he didn't know it would be discussed at today's meeting and wasn't prepared (with his notes, etc.).

Odd. It appears he got notice of the meeting the same as I did in the following message sent by Kathy Payne:

Special Council Meeting Notice‏
From: Kathy Payne (Kathy@ci.st-helens.or.us)
Sent: Thu 8/21/08 4:00 PM
To: Chad Olsen (chad@ci.st-helens.or.us); Charles Grant (charlesg@ci.st-helens.or.us); charlesrgrant@comcast.net; Doug Morten (dougm@ci.st-helens.or.us); dougmorten@comcast.net; Keith Locke (keithl@ci.st-helens.or.us); keithlocke@comcast.net; Phillip Barlow (phillipb@ci.st-helens.or.us); Randy Peterson (randyp@ci.st-helens.or.us); telkarpete@yahoo.com

The St. Helens City Council will meet in a special meeting on Monday, August 25, 2008, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the Communications/Tourism contract and the Library Director position.

Notice of Special Council Meeting

The meeting will be held in the City Hall Council Chambers, 265 Strand Street, St. Helens, Oregon. The facility is handicapped accessible. If you need special accommodation, please contact City Hall at (503)397-6272.

At any rate, I believe they decided to offer it to choice two and proceed from there.

When I walked in (about 10 minutes late), they were still on the record and were discussing Keith's concerns about the library director costs. They decided to wait until Charles could get there (he was late, had to be called and arrived saying he had to take his daughter to swimming lessons--does the guy ever make a meeting on time??).

Keith then went on to express his concerns about the recall, saying he thought the council should get involved and that maybe RSVP could mediate. He'd be happy to facilitate that. Paul Pulliam said he thought it was inappropriate for them to be discussing this topic at a Council meeting. Randy said if the councilors, individually, wanted to get involved in trying to resolve it, that was fine, but it was not something the City could or would get involved with.

By the way, I overheard Keith Locke say (last week) that one of the purposes of the meeting was to discuss "the elections" but that he didn't want that included on the agenda.

I think these guys would do better if they just kept their mouths shut. Tight.