The Cottonwood City Council appointed utilities director Tom Whitmer as interim city manager and selected the law firm of Gust Rosenfeld PLC to provide legal services during its Feb. 6 meeting, as well as discussing hiring a consulting firm to find a new city manager following the departure of City Manager Scotty Douglass on Jan. 9.
City Manager
Human Resources Director Amanda Wilber presented four options, saying that one advantage of hiring an outside interim city manager rather than hiring internally would reduce the additional workload on current staff.
Vice Mayor Debbie Wilden said that hiring externally would bring out a different viewpoint and that she didn’t want to see city staff be burdened with even more work.
“I’m really reticent to consider throwing somebody who has no knowledge of what’s been going on, no knowledge of the players involved and throwing them into that right now,” Councilman Michael Mathews said. He added that council could consider an external firm later if an internal candidate does not work out.
Mayor Tim Elinski said that he didn’t want to put additional stress on staff but was prepared to appoint an interim from the list on the following agenda item.
Councilmen Derek Palosaari and Stephen DeWillis and Councilwomen Lisa DuVernay and Helaine Kurot all expressed their preference for filling the position with an existing employee.
On recruiting a permanent city manager, Wilber said that internal recruitment would cost between $7,000 and $8,000, while a consulting firm would cost around $30,000.
Mathews and DeWillis said they wanted to use external recruitment to fill the permanent position, while Kurot said that she wanted to use a different company than the city last used.
Elinski said that he wanted to delay this decision until after the primary election, as the council could be completely different by then. The council will resume the discussion in March.
Interim City Manager
DuVernay and Mathews cosponsored an agenda item to interview and appoint an acting city manager from a list of three internal candidates: Deputy City Manager Rudy Rodriguez, Utilities Director Tom Whitmer and Financial Services Director Kirsten Lennon.
“I think it’s very crucial for the community at large to fully comprehend the efforts it took to include this item on the agenda despite both council member Mathews and I making requests for this to be on the Jan. 16 meeting,” DuVernay said. “It was pulled prior to the 24 hours by the mayor unilaterally deciding to remove it. We had to actually resort to hiring a private attorney for ourselves whose last recourse before legal action was issuing cease and desist orders on the mayor, the city clerk and the deputy city manager.”
However, the letters from DuVernary’s attorney are non-binding. While the Jan. 24 letters claim actions were filed in Yavapai County Superior Court, no such actions have been filed as of press time, Monday, Feb. 12.
“I felt it was appropriate to wait until we had legal counsel for the city of Cottonwood to represent us in moving forward with any kind of appointment,” Elinski said, clarifying he had the item on the Jan. 16 agenda prior to both the city attorney and city manager resigning. He added that when the item was initially proposed, it did not include the names of those the council members wanted to appoint.
Mathews said that he thought it would be fair to invite three employees who previously submitted applications for the city manager position last year and ask them if they were interested.
Rodriguez declined the position.
Lennon said she would consider it if it was only for a short period of time and that she wouldn’t want to do it for six months or longer.
Whitmer said that in spite of the fact that he was putting in 12- to 14-hour days, he would be willing to undertake the position on certain conditions until the council found a permanent solution.
DeWillis, DuVernay, Mathews, Palosaari and Wilden voted in favor of appointing Whitmer as acting interim city manager, while Elinski dissented, expressing his view that the best move would be to hire an interim firm.
Legal Services
Council also discussed the proposals for obtaining legal services submitted by Gust Rosenfeld and Timothy A. La Sota.
John Austin Gaylord, of Gust Rosenfeld, said his was a full-service law firm that has been practicing public law for 103 years. It has represented nearly all of Arizona’s public entities, such as cities and school districts at some time. He added that public law is the firm’s core area of practice and that he would be the person consistently attending council meetings if selected. Gust Rosenfeld had also briefly worked with the city previously.
“I think anybody we need to consider right now for what we’re doing shouldn’t have much of a relationship with the city previously,” Mathews said. “We do have some serious internal issues we’re going to have to be dealing with, which may be a little uncomfortable dealing with those and also considering being a long term position.”
La Sota said that he has represented government entities, corporation commissions and elected officials. Elinski asked if he was currently representing any cities for public law or general law, rather than individual council members, and La Sota replied that he did not.
DeWillis asked if La Sota was a firm or an individual, to which La Sota replied that he is the sole practitioner at his firm. He said he would be able to sit in at all of the council’s meetings and would plan on hiring an associate.
“Are you then looking to branch out or break into municipal legal services, then?” Elinski asked. “From your resume, I don’t see that you’ve done this before, but it seems to me like there’s an awful lot more providing general counsel to a municipality.”
“It looks like you’ve touched on extensively everything that we would need,” Mathews said.
DuVernay said that the previous use of an external firm, Pierce Coleman PLLC, was unnecessary. The firm had fired the council as a client after Mathews and DuVernay made false claims about the law firm.
“There are several issues that are going to be needed to be taken care of internally,” DuVernay said. “If you analyze what we used the external firm for, it was undoubtedly unnecessary.”
“Have you talked to any of the council members on the dais before, and who are they?” Wilden asked La Sota, who acknowledged he had prior communication with DuVernay.
“Yes, I have talked to Mr. La Sota, but it was on our own personal situation,” DuVernay said. “I had originally talked about the city, but we have continued business on a different level.”
“I think it’s blatantly obvious that the larger firm is overqualified,” Wilden said, adding that it has more than one attorney available.
“With what has been going on in the city and what needs to be dealt with, I think in the short term having a firm that has actually dealt with us is a detriment,” DuVernay said. “I think that firm is really good and I think that if they want to come and work full time once we hire someone, that would be great, but you need a total impartial person that doesn’t know the workings of the city.”
“I’m hearing Mathews and DuVernay allude to some investigation or goings-on at the city that we need a special attorney to look into,” Elinski said. “I was under the impression that we were looking for a firm on an interim basis to represent the municipality for legal services, but it looks like you’re looking for more of a tool to get a job done and then move on after that.”
Kurot said that she thought they should bring in the firm and that La Sota could be brought in for housekeeping items if desired.
Mathews moved for the council to hire La Sota, seconded by Palosaari. DuVernay, Mathews and Palosaari voted in favor, while DeWillis, Kurot, Wilden and Elinski opposed, rejecting La Sota. Elinski then moved to hire Gust Rosenfeld, which was seconded by Wilden and supported by DeWillis and Kurot.
