GILROY—In a closed session meeting, the Gilroy City Council will be interviewing candidates for the position of interim city administrator, Mayor Don Gage told the Dispatch.
With Oct. 16 set to be current city administrator Tom Haglund’s last day with the city, Gage said the council will be interviewing and possibly hiring a temporary replacement behind closed doors Monday.
“We haven’t hired anybody yet,” he said. “We want to feel comfortable with someone and we’ll bring them on board when the time comes. It will be the council’s decision.”
The interim city administrator will lead the city while a national search and recruiting effort takes place for the regular opening, Gage said.
The council will meet in closed session at 5 p.m. in council chambers prior to their regularly scheduled meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. Under the Brown Act, members of the public may be excluded from meetings to allow consideration of the appointment or employment of a public employee.
However, closed session general discussions on employment and salaries are not allowed under the Brown Act. The council may only meet to discuss the appointment, employment, performance evaluation, discipline, complaints about or dismissal of a specific employee or potential employee, according to the First Amendment Coalition.
Following the closed session meeting Monday, the council must report on any and all actions and votes taken behind closed doors.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker told the Dispatch she will be urging the council to make a decision—and make one quickly—because Haglund’s departure is less than three weeks away.
“If there’s a chance we can make a decision tonight, I’m going to push to make it decided. It would take anyone time to get up to par,” she said.
After the council selects an interim city administrator, Gage said the council will likely select a headhunting firm to field candidates from around the country.
“Whoever we pick as an interim will not be throwing their hat into the ring [for the regular position],” Gage said. “We will make that clear.”
Haglund is leaving his post for a job as general manager of the Tuolumne Utilities District in Sonora, where he has a second home. He was hired in 2008 and currently collects a salary of $226,186.
Next, Gage said he expects the full council to select three councilmembers to serve on a subcommittee, which will evaluate applications after they’ve been narrowed down by a headhunting firm. The subcommittee will also interview top candidates.
However, the inner workings of that process would remain confidential “because it’s a personnel issue,” Gage said.
The council followed similar protocols during a failed attempt last year to oust the current city attorney. A divided council voted to replace Gilroy’s contracted legal firm of choice, San Jose-based Berliner Cohen, with an in-house city attorney who would have worked out of City Hall.
A three-member subcommittee—including Gage and Councilmembers Tucker and Perry Woodward—selected its top candidate for the attorney position, but the applicant rejected the city’s offer.
Recruitment for Haglund’s position could take anywhere from four to six months or longer, Gage estimated.
Woodward said Haglund was under no pressure to resign, and pointed to merit-based pay increases he received “at every opportunity,” as recently as July 1. He stressed the need to find a replacement with Haglund’s “financial acumen and his ability to keep the city sound.”
