PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 27, 2021
DYSFUNCTION,
Continued from page A1
councilor Ross Day, who at last week’s
meeting described the selection pro-
cess and contract as “shoddy work” and
“embarrassing.” Ross’s main concern with
Prothman, which is a Washington com-
pany, was that they weren’t a registered
business in Oregon.
City Attorney Shannon Johnson seemed
to alleviate these concerns at Monday’s ses-
sion, informing the council that Prothman
was now registered. Johnson added that
he had conferred with colleagues in other
cities who said that it wasn’t abnormal the
company wasn’t registered before.
Day, however, was still upset that
the mayor, finance director and human
resources director were the only people
involved in the selection of Prothman.
“Something better change. I’m looking
at everybody in the room. Something bet-
ter change and include all seven councilors.
It’s not staff’s decision, period,” said Day,
BUSINESS
AND
banging the dais to emphasize his point.
Prothman was one of three eligible com-
panies that applied to help Keizer recruit a
city manager.
The mayor, finance director and human
resource director individually scored each
company based on project understanding,
qualifications, and project approach and
schedule. Prothman was selected after
receiving the highest collective score.
Mayor Cathy Clark said using a lim-
ited committee to propose a selection,
rather than the whole council, was typical.
She added, however, that she should have
Services
realized this wasn’t a typical selection.
No contract with Prothman would have
been signed without final approval of the
council. Additionally, while Prothman
would help recruit city manager candi-
dates, and propose viable candidates, all
final decisions would have been by the
council.
“One of my concerns in this process is
that by, disrespecting our staff, and calling
into question every little detail of every
little piece of the process, we are disincen-
tivizing candidates,” said Reid. Reid added
that while some of the questions raised
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