 The special meeting of the Common Council to order the first item is to roll call Boren here Bulk here Gisha here Hanna here Heidemann here Kittleson here Clioness here Manny here Myer here Montemay or here in place here Ryan here Smith here Vanderweel excuse Rehastled excuse and welcome in excuse 13 present forms present at this time I'd ask the attorney to lead us to the pledge of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Before we proceed with the agenda I'd like to explain to the council and also to the public that's watching The reason why we're in a third-floor conference room As the council knows and the public knows the municipal court shares the council chambers at least up until the new Municipal Court was built at the new police station and because they are holding court all day They had about 125 cases to deal with today It was it was more practical for us to move our meeting to to the third-four conference chamber and let the judge Handle her cases where she started initially this morning. That's the reason. We're here today. The same rules apply We have a quorum present and we're going to move on with the meeting First item on the agenda is the confirmation of mayor's appointments Hereby submit the following appointment for the consideration To your lead the appointed as information technology director commencing December 18 2007 and expiring December 17 2012 signed by the mayor the emotion to confirm President Hanna, thank you, Mr. Mayor I would make the motion to confirm to Jerry Lee second motion and second to confirm in the discussion woman rinse last first Thank you, Mr. Mayor just a point of order the agenda that I received does not have the confirmation of the Appointments on the agenda today. Is this the one you have? Okay my correction then. Thank you very much Thank you, your honor under discussion, I guess I just want to state My stance on this and that is I am not going to be able to approve and support this This appointment, I guess for me There are just too many unanswered questions on why things were done the way they were in the process and the and the outcome of it So I will not be supporting this resolution. Thank you Thank you, your honor. I also have difficulty with this recommendation I Feel as if there have been you know questions. I don't know about evaluations negative evaluations terms expiring terms Just a couple questions. Has this person's term expired? They were appointed at this position The person who had information technology were they appointed in this position to begin with that person? Yes the person had With the IT position was a Manager before yes, there was a Directorship position that position was Eliminated the manager position was eliminated and subsequently the position of directorship of IT was created It went through the debate process both the incelery and grievances committee. It went through the debate process in the Common Council and I believe the debate process took at least four or five maybe even six months the Before it was approved Second question was there a qualifying test for this position test like what mean skill test that the person who ever took on this position would have to Perform, you know prove that they have the background and skills for this position From my standpoint, I only do part of the interview process And that is the the follow-up to recommendations that are made by the civil service commission From my standpoint, I do not never have administer any examination to anyone I do have an administrative interview team that I that I use and that team was used in that instance, too Okay, so we don't have any qualifying test was the person who is being replaced did she apply for this position Okay, and so based on 30 years of experience and performance she was not qualified or not Chosen for this position the civil service did not recommend that person to Thank you Thank you, just Can we get to know Mr. Lee real quickly? Can you tell us some some things about his background? Okay, okay Comes to open the floor. Mr. Tuzer Lee is His qualifications from what I understood from what I read and based on my interviews with him were Very great very great qualifications. He's considered almost an expert in change management. He understands the AS 400 He understands the the software that we operate under he understands the need to update our technology department It is needed updated in a long time During my interview with him. I quickly understood that he got it He understood the whole technology department the whole technology area I was extremely pleased the other people who interviewed him felt the same way. They rated him extremely high I rated him extremely high He was one of two people mr. Tuzer Lee is the one that the Interview committee from my my standpoint selected and again that is a list that came from the civil service Commission moving up. I can't tell you what the civil service Commission does because I don't participate in their deliberation Tell you if they administer tests. I can't tell you how they proceed with their interview process that is entirely Their business not mine, and I never questioned how they do it. I just take whatever recommendations they give me and do interviews Mr. Truth, would somebody like to make a motion? Because it'll fit right in I'm very interested in knowing For our IT department where he sees us from where we are now to where he would like to get us And I would make a motion to open the floor second Thank you Fortunately, I wasn't expecting to be running for office. So I didn't plan anything but a little bit about my background I actually have a double major in accounting and finance and then an MBA from our cat Over 14 years of business and IT experience with eight of those years in a senior management position I actually came from a background where I was a CIO and director of technology for a company Okay, so from that standpoint what that company Ran was a software called JD Edwards and it was also running on an AS 400 platform So from that standpoint, I am familiar with the AS 400 Am I going to be like God's gift of the AS 400? No, there are there are a lot better people out there They're a qualified to do that better than I would be but I do know the The hardware and the software that runs out that particular machine Any other particular question that you might want to ask Yes You've had a chance to look at us as a city look at us from a technology standpoint Where we are today, where do you see us in 18 months 24 months? Sure From from what I can glean from discussion with Sue and some of the other individuals within the Interview process and with Amir as well. My understanding is that this particular that the city Right now is running on a mainframe system using cobalt programming and a lot of custom programming now the difficulty with that type of environment is that eventually you're gonna have to find people through that skill set that individuals half of that type of environment will eventually Die away because they're not teaching that anymore in the school and in the business processes So you're gonna find harder and harder to have people who are qualified To be able to come in here and do that kind of work So that's the first thing that we're gonna look at it. You know what in what direction can we take the city? you know one of the software that Sue and Amir have mentioned was a package called Tyler municipality It is specifically designed for cities and county governments and state governments And what it is what entail with that particular software package is that it's a client server architecture essentially what that means is that you're gonna have a Box most likely going to be a Microsoft box Running either a sequel server back in or an Oracle back in and what back in by that What I mean by that is that it's a database And then on top of that is that you're gonna have a user interface that will sit on top of that and that would be the client where the Users will eventually interface with that software package and that's where I see us going down the road is that we're gonna move the city government to a client architecture environment where you have servers and you have a Web server and and and and networking share integration services so that when work is done and I'll use a vernacular down familiar when work is done Let's say you purchase a police car the moment that that's that particular asset is acquired The information required for that particular asset. It's automatically propagated throughout the whole system So every individual within the the city who needs to know will know that yet You know we just bought this car $18,000 I wish you know Here's the depreciation schedule for that particular car and this is when we're gonna retire it And that's how the software will work is that it will integrate every single aspect of the city government Into a highly integrated package that will be more easy to use will be more seamless and going forward It will help position this city for growth for the next decade to two decades from now And and I wish I can give you a more definitive answer on where do I see everything going? But I do not know enough about the overall Infrastructure yet to give you a complete assessment of that But that if the confirmation go through it would be something that will happen within the first 30 to 60 days of my administration more or less Thank you So if I'm understanding you correctly we're gonna move from environment of customized Programming to use it much more off-the-shelf Plug-and-play that is correct. That is correct You know and the beauty of that type of off-the-shelf packages that it will allow you to utilize some of the best Processes that have been developed by other city governments other county government other state government You know allow you to kind of share. Well, you know what? This is the way that we've always done it But is it the best way that we could do it, you know all that best practices have been built into the software So utilizing something like that Will allow you to kind of tap into a little bit of that resources also finding Employees To come off the street to support an environment like that will be a lot easier than the environment that you are on right now I know that our little woman want to ask questions and that's perfectly alright But I I don't know that we should be setting a president that we interview all candidates because we haven't done it in the past And I'm I'm somewhat disturbed that mr. Toodalee is getting sort of interrogated over issues that have already been dealt with Confidentially interviews for employment for the most part are confidential And we need to be careful that we don't cross that line basically what we do is it's it intruders the person and Qualifications in general and speak in varying general terms As he said he hasn't had opportunity you can't expect a man or a person or a woman to come in Tell this is what I'm gonna do if they haven't worked here one day at all So but I appreciate your questions But please be be cognizant of the fact that we're establishing a president here president here We're we're going to start interrogating every every single candidate that comes in by all of us all the many This is more information I think for the city and moving ahead I assume with the direction that we're going That maintenance and service of systems would be more efficient and thus less costly. Is that correct? It would be too full on that question One is that because you're moving into a non-customized environment what you will be doing is that we will be paying an Annual maintenance fee to the software manufacturer What that does entail is that it will provide you tech support if you have any issue It will also provide for software upgrades when there is a new software upgrade that's available and Because of that usually in that type of environment is really more or less on a weekend the upgrade is installed or the patches applied to the system and hopefully With the testing everything else that's provided by Monday. It would be business as usual for for all the employees But it should lessen the overall expenses associated with You know keeping your system and your infrastructure up and running I Respectfully want to acknowledge that we don't want to set a bad precedent But I don't think we've done anything improper and I think we've given mr. Lee a fantastic opportunity Just knocked the ball out of the park. He's done a fantastic job. Thank you Thank you, right or just a procedural question and that is did we follow due process Did you receive a recommendation from the Civil Service Commission regarding this position? Thank you I thank you, mr. Mayor I just want to say that I was one of the individuals that voted to not suspend the rules on mr. Tooger Lee At the last council meeting out of respect for Margie Verhalsden or 27 years of service to this city I am impressed with mr. Lee and I will affirm this guy from this appointment. Thank you I Kittleson no Manny hi, my ear. Hi, Montemay or I rent life. Hi, Ryan. Hi, Smith. Hi Levin eyes to nose motion carries the claim is confirmed the other movement on the other appointment Regarding Susan Hart, I am pulling out This appointment will no longer be before you I am like to explain in very brief general terms The reason that I submitted this appointment to the council was pursuant to the legal advice of labor council from Davis and Kiltel We At least HR spoke to an attorney there two attorneys and they looked up and our civil service rules and policies they looked up in our city code both on the internet and and Our municipal code book they looked up our policies that all policies we have there was nothing there to reflect subsequently I've learned through the assistance of attorney McLean that section 29 of the city code does require that the position of the HR director Be be referred to the mayor from a list of Candidate by the civil service commission. So what I have done is I am pulling out the the appointment I'm starting fresh. I want to look at all candidates. I interviewed one candidate today from Beloit and The reason I did that and I've done it before when they come from afar It always takes a lot of time to come back for another appointment. This particular individual was from Beloit I believe it's two and a half hours away. That's five hours round trip an hour for an interview that's six hours Give or take a lunch and drive around get lost a little bit in the downtown Blue Harbor area And you've got about seven get a full day's loss so civil service asked if I was able to to Scramble and and meet with the individual. I Honored their request. I did my interview team was myself Paulette Anders Bill Bittner and fire chief Stusky and we met with the individual and interviewed her for About an hour or a little over an hour And that's where we're at now as I said I want to start fresh follow the process turning McLean has made it Clear that the process needs to be followed and there was never an intent not to follow it as I say not to belabor the point I was following legal advice from a labor attorney. It doesn't matter. We're back on track. We're starting fresh Next item on the agenda matters laid over S5 1 resolution number 175708 So when Hannah authorizing the city attorney and appropriate city officials to begin negotiation with and to prepare a contract for Wilson To provide emergency medical services to the town of Wilson effective January 1st 2008 president Yeah, thank you, but this time. I believe it's the best interest Then I make a motion to file this document second motion second to file under discussion. Thank you, mr. Mayor I want to congratulate Fire chief and his staff for working hard on this concept. I would encourage them to continue to explore Alternatives from the city Look forward to hearing more good ideas in the future Thank you. Oh, man. Yeah, any further discussion motion to file I Just would like to thank the council for their deliberation on this and the discussion on this and we'd be remiss if we did not recognize the integrity and In-depth discussion that took place with the town of Wilson and the the board representatives Mr. Roger Miller David Gartman and Dale Summers. They have looked at this very closely and Looked at the benefit to their residents plus the potential of shared services and cooperative efforts in the future And I just think it would be remiss not to recognize the good discussions that we had and the doors that have been open for future Cooperative efforts with the town and other Municipalities, so I just thought it was important that that was recognized Always if there's any final product to be made to be brought before the council or council does have the final authorization Bound you speak sir. Yes. Thank you. I just want to commend Chief Lestosky and his team the quality of the business plan. They brought forth back in the spring based on that In their spirit of entrepreneurism. I have no doubt that they'll bring forth future future ideas to increase their revenue stream and In lieu of some of the create In lieu of some of the half truths that we've seen out there on the blogs and at open forum and things I just again want to Express my absolute confidence in in Lestosky and his team and we look forward to hearing how he will expand his revenue base in the future I think one of the The problems that came with this was that we really don't have a process in place as things like this come up I think the chief handled himself the way he should went to the mayor I know I asked about it I was involved with others were were at least aware that it was going on but there really isn't a Procedure like we have with other things like we're talking about procedurally tonight in involved and I know the mayor discussed Monday night setting up those types of procedures and I would encourage Perhaps taking the ambulance committee as it is now a quality assurance committee Which was kind of to oversee Orange Cross and turning that into a committee a real committee that deals with rates Potential opportunities and quality assurance And I think that would be helpful to allow people the opportunity to come to a committee and express rather than it just showing up at the council floor but Along with alderman Bauch I I commend that spirit of entrepreneurialism, and that's a tough one to say And and and commend the work of the fire department to bring us this opportunity more opportunities the better thinking outside the box I I greatly appreciate that from all department heads. Thank you Hi Yes, thank you, mr. Mayor. I just wanted to announce to the council I'm going to have for the benefit of the council an open house holiday cheer Happy hour at my house on on this Friday starting at 5 p.m. This will be open to the council the mayor Our city clerk city attorney all department heads and city employees that want to come and have a drink for free I want to say here in the council chambers that this is a Social gathering. This is not a council meeting and no city business will be discussed at this meeting. Thank you very much