Council discussing city manager position July 1

By Kathryn Reed

The South Lake Tahoe City Council has called a special closed session meeting for July 1 at 6pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

Agenda item – city manager.

First order of business will be to discuss the two men who were interviewed June 27. A decision is likely to be made whether the council wants to consider one, both or neither a finalist. A finalist means they would go through an interview by the two employee groups and public panel.

The two men interviewed on Father’s Day already went through the additional interview process.

The reason given by the council for the differing processes is the first two had no problem with their names being out in the public and the last two didn’t want their employers to know they were looking for a job until they became a finalist. This in turn has set up what appears to be two standards for city manager candidates. Council members defend the process by saying in the end everyone will have interviewed whoever is chosen to be city manager.

More than one council member has acknowledged this has not been the smoothest of processes, and that things could have been handled differently — like having the public/employees interview only the candidates the council deemed finalists.

With past city manager hirings, what was called public sessions were in fact closed-door interviews where select people were chosen and sworn to secrecy. They didn’t meet any threshold of being public.

It’s also possible on Thursday the council will decide to interview an additional person.

If anyone were going to be interviewed – by the council or the three panels – it would be after the long holiday weekend. In a perfect scenario, the council will pick the person by July 8. That person could make a decision the next day.

Assuming the person says yes, they could give four week’s notice – with their last day being Aug. 6 at their current job. Aug. 9 could be their first day on the job in South Lake Tahoe.

This would leave a one-day gap between Aug. 7 – City Manager Dave Jinkens’ last day – and the new guy’s start date. (Only men have been interviewed.)

Mayor Kathay Lovell said the goal all along has been to have someone hired before Jinkens’ last day.

“We’re still shooting for that,” Lovell said. “My goal is to get a new city manger in as efficiently and quickly as we can.”