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WEIMAR — During the Nov. 30 Weimar City Council special meeting, the Council entered executive session to discuss city manager interviews as listed on the budget. When they returned from executive session, the courtesy video operator for the city YouTube page had already left before a resident, Gary Cernoch, delivered a speech prior to an action vote to appoint Reed Jones as manager. The appointment was voted down after a 2-3 decision, continuing to leave a vacant position that has not been filled since June 15.
Some members of the council expressed concern that Cernoch’s speech, as well as the resulting action vote to appoint Jones as city manager, were not available for the public on the city’s YouTube page.
According to City Secretary Dolores Stover, the video operator, Dani Stock, was allowed to leave before the executive session began. Mayor Milton Koller verbally expressed that the executive session would likely not result in any noteworthy action and allowed Stock to depart. However, items of note did occur following the executive session as Cernoch’s comments and the manager vote happened outside of the broadcast on youtube.
Cernoch noted in his speech the struggles the city has had in choosing a city manager during this cycle as well as in past appointments for the position. He recommended two separate potential mindsets the city could use when looking for a qualified candidate to fill the position: using a third-party vetting service to search for and interview candidates or thinking outside of the box to find qualified, local candidates ‘eager’ and willing to oversee the many responsibilities the position holds.
“There has to be a lot of flexibility for a city manager in a small community,” Cernoch said, “He wears a lot of hats. He is closer to his department heads than probably in a larger operation.”
To Cernoch, the ideal candidate is one who has a passion for the city and can provide high-quality leadership toward its betterment. He also expressed that a candidate with fervor and a drive to work for the city would have a higher likelihood of staying long term.
Mayor Milton Koller assured Cernoch and the residents present at that point that the near 6-month long process was to ensure that the next city manager is ‘somebody who is going to be here for some tenure.’
After Cernoch’s comments, Counci lmember Steven Helmcamp moved to make an action item to appoint Jones as the new city manager; a motion seconded by Councilmember Kevin Janecka.
The two council members in favor spoke highly of their belief in Jones’ ability to take on the challenges of the local municipality prior to the predicted wave of new residents from Houston, San Antonio and Austin. They also expressed the pressing need for a prompt decision and cited Weimar residents reaching out to advocate for Jones, hoping that the city would come to a swift decision. Cernoch also gave his support of the Jones appointment during the discussion portion of the item.
Despite the glowing recommendations for Jones as well as consideration for his military past, the dissenting opinion in the Council expressed concerns that the interview cycle was still in progress with more interviews planned for the coming weeks.
As a result, the motion failed by a 2-3 vote. The opposing council members, Roy Ulrich, Becky Roberts and Kurt Scardino emphasized that their vote to decline the motion was not necessarily a decision on whether Jones would eventually become the chosen candidate, but that a decision could not be made in general until the interview process had been completed.
There is no timeline on when the city will come to a decision on the city manager as the search continues into its sixth month.
In other council news, the city approved the purchase of a Bobcat mini excavator for use by the Public Works Department. The department approached the council with three quotes from different companies for heavy machinery with similar quality across the board. The quote from Bobcat for over $64,561.01 was the lowest price of the quotes available.
With the new excavator, the Public Works Department will be able to work on underground water lines and pipelines without renting equipment or services to accomplish the task.
The Council also approved the purchase of a generator for Water Plant 3. Water Plant 3 had been the focus of a discussion around water quality in Weimar. The generator will help the water plant become compliant with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Weimar City Council will meet in their regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 14 at an earlier 3 p.m. time to accommodate for the ‘Down Home Christmas’ Parade.
