 Okay. Good to go. Thank you. Good morning. This is a convening of the screening committee for the Interim Executive Director, the Master's Game Commission. It is Monday, June 26, our public meeting number one. And we're going to turn to Mikaerio's partner of Anderson Krieger to go over the screening process for the appointment of the interim. Thank you, Mina. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair and other members of the screening committee. So I will just be very brief. Some of this was explained in the commission meeting by my colleague Dave Mackie. But under the open meeting law and as a best practice for public entities, screening committees are permitted to go into executive session to discuss applications received and the candidate pool for positions that is intended primarily to protect candidates' confidentiality in that process. So what I would suggest for this morning and as a process for today and then going forward is that the group take, we can discuss any questions about the process generally in open session. And then the chair would ask for a motion to go into executive session. And then in executive session, the anticipated discussion would be what the candidate pool looks like at the moment for the position of the interim executive director position. Following the conclusion of the executive session, I anticipate we won't be returning to open sessions. So the chair can declare that beforehand. If you, Madam Chair, if you anticipate coming back, you should note that. And then at once the work of the screening committee is concluded, which may be today, but may be after future meetings as well, the process that's required is that multiple candidates should emerge from that session, from that process for interview by the full commission, a sort of recommended candidates for final interviews by the full commission. And then that process will play out in an open session at that point for selection. And that's that's sort of the general scheme of it. The purpose of the executive session is to again assess what the what the pool of candidates looks like while protecting the confidentiality of folks who may have expressed interest in the position. And our screening committee is comprised of Commissioner Skinner, Chief Moudreau and myself. Any questions for Mina at this juncture, Commissioner Skinner or Chief Moudreau? No, I do not. I do have a couple questions. The candidates, the applicants who have expressed interest or willingness to serve in an interim capacity. What was the process that identified those individuals? And I guess, Madam Chair, that's more a question for you and not Mina. And is that I'm just going to turn to Attorney McCurious, is that appropriate for public session or is that appropriate for executive session? I think it's appropriate to talk in public session about how, you know, the process I wouldn't get into names or number or anything like that, but just yeah. So based on my prior experience when we had a vacancy in the executive director's office, I reached out in this instance to all of the executive director's reports. And as well as the director of the IAB to learn whether or not they would, and it was an interview with each, you know, it was intended to be casual and informal. Grace Robinson was present as well. And it was something that I suppose each commissioner could have done as well, Commissioner Skinner, but it was something that I wanted to learn feedback on what they loved about executive director Wells style of leadership, how the commission could improve going forward, what kinds of things could we do that were different, what they might want to see different for the commission. And then I asked each if they would be interested in either the interim position or the permanent position. And I asked each of those individuals, all of the direct reports I did director Lillios, it was a little bit of a different scenario because she approached me with another commissioner. And so we discussed it. So it's a little bit of a different scenario with her. And so Madam Chair, you've had the opportunity to interview these candidates. But I informally or otherwise, but I have not nor has Dave Muldrew. And so have those candidates been invited to appear at some point during the executive session? I can take that one, Madam Chair, if that's okay. I think that's the Commissioner Skinner. That's what we want to discuss. That's one of the things that can be discussed in executive session is once you have a sense of what the candidates are and what we know so far about them, what the best next steps are, whether it's an interview or process at that point. And Commissioner Skinner, I want to clarify, I didn't interview them for, I asked the level of interest and that was it. And I haven't had conversations with anyone since then. You used the word interview, so I just followed suit. I know. And I realized it was I'm going to speak, I sat down with each in an informal meeting and everybody was kind enough to sit down and it was actually helpful feedback for me on how the commission can improve its work and approach. So that is feedback that I'm definitely interested in hearing from Karen's direct reports. I think that it's important. So I would not anticipate this committee making any sort of decision today at all. And I think part of me feels like this process is entangled in the discussion we're going to have beginning Thursday on the ED job description, though it could very well be its own item. But I would like to review and evaluate the perceived reporting structure in place now, along with, you know, what you just described, Madam Chair, and understand getting an understanding of, you know, what we can do, what we can improve on as a commission, because I want whoever steps into the role even on an interim basis to understand that they report to all five commissioners and that their obligation to each is equal. And I want them to feel comfortable asserting so to any one of us when necessary. More broadly, I also think we need to clarify the ED's authority and the decisions that role is empowered to make on his or her own and with individual commissioners versus what must come to the commission to decide. And in the latter instance, how the matter will be teed up for discussion tied into that as a discussion about authority as a commissioner and the chair's authority in comparison, because I don't think the statute speaks to the finer points of either role. And if there's been a reliance on certain interpretations of the broader statutory language, I would like to have an opportunity to discuss that interpretation. Because one of the concerns that needs to be addressed in that as part of that discussion is information isn't flowing as freely as it should to all commissioners. Staff don't feel authorized to speak to commissioners about certain matters. You almost have to play the game of figuring out how to ask the question in order to get someone to answer it directly. And I think, in line of that, and there are other concerns that I think need to be addressed and hoping we can do it again as part of this process. But I think there's a real opportunity that I'd like us to take advantage of to set expectations as a commission for the new executive director and what that role entails and what at the end of the day that they that we ensure that they understand that there are five of us because at times it has felt like that's been missing. So Commissioner Skinner, in fact, I had a conversation with Grace this morning and based on conversations with council outside council, who I have relied on extensively to do this process correctly and make sure it was an inclusive process. I did receive guidance all the way with respect to the statutory authority and our limitations under the open meeting law. With this process, I did receive advice from Attorney McCarrius. I also asked Attorney McCarrius if he would appear at Thursday's meeting. So Grace is updating, it's the agenda to make sure it reflects this, that it would be to go over the options for the selection process for the permanent executive director. Certainly, I can't speak for conversations that the commissioners may have or may not have with staff. I certainly am not involved in in in any way limiting the the staff's input with commissioners. I know we're careful and we are compliant with the open meeting on around restrictions among ourselves. I don't have conversations like the ones I had with the the reports to the executive director because I honor their relationship with the executive director. But given that the executive director had given correct designation, I did what I did before. And as I said, every commissioner could have sat down as well with the individual reports as I did. And it was very much from my purpose of understanding what they want to do so that I would also be able to figure out how we move ahead on the interim. And that's where I did seek counsel from day one. So it is not an easy process. Commissioner Skinner, it's really a difficult process. Attorney Macarios makes much of his career out of advising commissions like ours, municipalities that are subject to the open meeting law. But I am certainly interested, of course, in making sure that each commissioner feels included in the process. And at the end of the day, we'll learn more about the permanent selection on Thursday, but it will be a high level, as I understand, a high level explanation on Thursday. And then we'll continue and that will be on the permanent selection. Right now, we're not really just working on the interim. And that's understood. But I think, you know, what I just what I just mentioned applies to whoever steps into the, you know, just a basic level of understanding. And I want us all to be on the same page. I did have the opportunity, like you, you know, to speak to certain individuals, certain of the executive directors, direct reports, you know, to your point around, you know, just not being an easy process. I might disagree. I think it could have certainly been an easy process. I think that it could have been straightforward in that, you know, there was our, you know, a role that historically has stepped into the interim ED role, you know, that could have been a discussion that was brought to the commission and an easy decision. So, you know, just I'll just say that I think this could have been a very straightforward process. That being said, we are engaging in this meeting process, you know, happy to serve in as a member of this committee. And I will do the best that I can in terms of putting forward candidates who are qualified to step into this role on an interim basis. But as I stated, I don't anticipate doing that today, because there's some information that I think I don't have and will not have as part of today's executive session. Commissioner Skinner, we do have a three-person committee with Chief Mel Jusell. I don't think anybody anticipates that. And with respect to what you alluded to in terms of other choices, I was advised by legal counsel that this was the appropriate and legal option to take. It was not a decision I made independently. I don't know if the option that you're suggesting was ever vetted with our legal team. Understood. Mina, if you don't mind, I'd like to understand what the legal counsel to the commission was in that regard. And so at your convenience, I'd like to connect offline. Sure. And I can say what I can say in terms of your nonprivileged conversation, because it comes from the open meeting law, is where there are multiple potential folks who might fill any position, whether it's internal candidates or external, the open meeting law does not allow that choice to be made in executive session and does require vetting process, which consists of a screening committee or public, otherwise everything would be in a public session of the full commission, if it was done that way. And where there is a screening committee, as is the case here, as I mentioned earlier, you need to be able to recommend multiple candidates. And for practical reasons, it's not possible. We would need to address how to do that. But happy to talk about it further, Commissioner Skinner, but that's sort of the upshot of it is that it's a process that's meant to provide for both fair competition among interested candidates while protecting confidentiality. As an option, the other option would be full interviews or full discussion of candidates. But if you have more than a quarter of the ultimate public body making the appointment, in this case, the commission, you can't go into executive session for those conversations. So you can't have, for better or for worse, I might have written the open meeting law differently for this, you can't have sort of a committee of the whole good executive session as a screening committee. It has to be a subgroup. So that's why the subgroup is convenient. I understand that generally and respect it. And I also know that, you know, yeah, I think we all respect the OML. And, you know, it's just the fact that we're bound by it. So that that in part, you know, hinders a lot of discussion necessary discussion. So thank you for that. I'll turn to Kerrios. I think Mr. Skinner was also alluding to the idea that there might have been some kind of a historic presumption. Right. And on that note, I think there is no statutory presumption. And the commission has been in place for 11 years now. So there haven't been, fortunately, thanks in large part to Executive Director Wells, long tenure and our protesters fairly long tenure. There haven't been that many transitions. But there is not a statutory or by regulation, a presumption. We reviewed that issue and there is it. So that meant that there was a need for a process to identify candidates and then decide what to do after that. Yeah. No, I wasn't suggesting that there was a regulatory or statutory basis for, you know, historical presumption at all. I'm clear that there's no. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. So my fellow screening committee members, the committee anticipates that may meet an executive session in conjunction with the initial screening process to consider applicants for the position of interim executive director in accordance with GEL, Chapter 30A, Section 21A8. The chair declares that an open meeting will have a detrimental effect on obtaining qualified applicants for that position. To go into executive session, I'll need a motion if you're so inclined to go into executive session. I would that this committee go into executive session for the reasons just described by the chair. Do I have a second, Chief Maltron? I second the motion to go into executive committee. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Skinner? Hi. Chief Maltron? Hi. I vote yes. So 3-0. Now for moving to the executive session, we'll go to another link. Grace, correct? And back in our calendars. Now we are not anticipating returning to public, the public session. I imagine that Dave, you'll keep up that screen in the event that we must return the public session. But at this point, we do not anticipate returning to the public session. Okay. Thank you, everyone. And thank you to Dave and Mills for helping us on this Monday morning. Okay. I'm sorry. Just a just process. We didn't take a roll call, but we did take the vote to go into executive session. So I think that will suffice. But it might be worth stating that on the on the record. Yeah. Thank you so much. So on the because we're holding this meeting virtually, I'll just confirm that in front of us, we did have Commissioner Skinner here, Chief Moldrew here. That's here. So the three of us for present and we do have a recording of this. So thank you. Appreciate it. And we'll see you on the other link. Dave, what do I do? Hey, Dave. So I think you should be going to a different room that Grace had set up for the executive session. Do I? So disconnect. So X this, we are this, then go to where I would just hang. I think you just hang up like normal and wherever the secondary link is, we should be fine. All right. Be on your calendar, David. Okay. Thank you.