LOCK HAVEN — The majority of council’s first meeting in April surrounded continued steps to hire a new city manager, following the termination of its previous one.

On Monday night, council approved an ordinance for the city manager, which offered an outline of the manager’s duties among other items.

Before the vote, council discussed in-depth adjustments and changes to the ordinance.

The first change was brought up by Councilmember Barb Masorti, who noted the ordinance references the duties and qualifications of the manager would follow the state’s Charter Law.

Masorti noted the ordinance later goes on to specifically reference portions of the charter law.

“We referred to it and then we added 85 percent of the charter law,” she said, suggesting council remove the specific charter law items and instead leave it to the reference at the start of the amendments.

“My thought is that if we’re going to put them in, then put them all in. Or if we’re going to reference (the charter law), then reference it,” she said.

Councilmember Tami Brannan agreed with Masorti’s thoughts.

“I know they haven’t for a very long time, but if the (state) legislature ever said they’re going to change this charter law, if we have something written in there then we’re going to have to review our ordinance and take time to change it based on what they do,” she said. “I think it’s better for us and future councils to say we follow this charter law and in addition to that, these are things we also want.”

Council agreed to have city staff change the ordinance so that it doesn’t include specific articles in the charter law and instead references it at the start.

The second topic discussed surrounded the expectation of an incoming manager to furnish a bond to the city, for corporate surety satisfactory. The initial amount on the ordinance was $5,000 with the city expected to pay the premium of the bond.

Councilmember Micah Clausen asked if that amount was too low.

Mayor Joel Long said in researching the topic, nearby Bellefonte’s bond is set at $200,000 and South Williamsport’s is around $1 million.

City Planner/Interim Manager Abbey Roberts suggested council change the ordinance to say “at minimum” so that the amount could be adjusted.

“Just so we have that flexibility,” she said.

Brannan noted increasing the amount of the bond would also increase the premium the city would need to pay.

Long emphasized the ordinance is just to offer a starting point for council to then speak with its insurance carrier to determine the right amount.

“We could change it to “at minimum” so we make it clear it could be higher than that. I think that puts council in a position of how they want to approach it,” he said.

Clausen briefly suggested the ordinance be set at $1 million, to which Masorti asked how much a premium would cost.

“That’s what I don’t know,” he said.

Councilmember Heather Alexander noted a minimum notary bond is typically $10,000.

Masorti suggested the ordinance be adjusted to reflect a minimum of $10,000 would be possible for a bond.

Brinker said he felt the lowest starting point should be similar to Bellefonte’s at $200,000.

“The question to council is do you see us actually bonding somebody for only $10,000,” Long responded.

Masorti emphasized her standing on the idea of setting the ordinance to reference a minimum of $10,000 would be bonded, noting the city can speak to its insurance carrier to find what they would recommend to bond out.

“This is saying if you want to be the city manager of the City of Lock Haven you must be bonded at a minimum of $10,000 to a notary. If we decide as a council that the city manager needs to be bonded for a million dollars, and our insurance company says that’s a good idea, then we need to have them explain why that’s a good idea,” she said.

Councilmember Rick Conklin noted the amount within the ordinance wasn’t set in stone and added it would affect the premium the city would pay.

“The only reason we’re doing this is to make sure (a city manager) can be bonded so that they can use the city seal,” he said.

Alexander agreed the minimum of $10,000 would be acceptable in the ordinance.

“Just because we say a minimum of $10,000 that’s not what we’re going to be at. We just need to make sure that person can get bonded,” she said.

Council also reviewed the residency portion of the ordinance.

At the start of the discussion, Long noted he and staff spoke with representatives from the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) on how best to handle this topic. He said it was recommended that the ordinance reflect a manager should live within city limits, however that can be amended based on a majority vote by council.

Masorti noted the ordinance, as it stood, said once council approves allowing a specific manager to live outside of the city then that would be it.

Long suggested the portion be reworked so, if a manager moves into the city during their tenure, they can’t just simply move back out.

“If they choose to move in, then there’s no going back and forth,” he said. He added council could choose to tie it into salary, as well, but not in the ordinance.

Ultimately, council unanimously approved the ordinance with the changes discussed.

Roberts said she would bring the updated ordinance to City Solicitor Justin Houser to ensure it would not need to be brought back for a third reading.

JOB DESCRIPTION; HIRING COMMITTEE

Continuing to prepare for its search for a new manager, council appointed three members to a city manager hiring committee with one alternate.

Long, Clausen and Brannan will serve on the committee and Conklin will serve as an alternate.

Long explained the committee would review the first wave of applications and narrow them down to roughly 10 to be interviewed. After the committee completes interviews the goal would be to narrow down the pool of candidates to about three or four.

From there, Long said the candidates would speak with city staff and potentially hold meet and greets with the community to hear input.

Finally, candidates would be brought before the entire council leading up to a potential appointment.

Council also briefly discussed the job description of a city manager, though ultimately choosing to give the committee time to review and update it.

The discussion began with Brannan, who noted the six pages presented would be too much.

Brannan, who is currently employed with Centre County CareerLink, noted she reviewed hundreds of job descriptions a week and noted the majority are smaller and easier to scan over.

“A job description is a written summary that communicates responsibilities, duties, skills and qualifications,” she said.

She noted the proposed description included information about Lock Haven, which she said could be given to potential candidates prior to an interview.

“That is also something a good candidate is going to find on their own. They’re going to prepare as much as we are going to prepare,” she said. “I don’t feel we need a lot of this. It’s a lot to weed through and a lot of people, when they’re looking at a job description, scan it very quickly.”

Masorti asked if parts of the description were more for an advertisement and not just the description itself. She referenced two job descriptions for municipalities in the state on the Pennsylvania Municipal Leagues website. Each was roughly two to three pages long.

“If we’re calling this a job description then I think it needs to be clear, concise and the committee needs to have looked at it,” she said.

Conklin agreed, noting the description was sent to him during an extremely busy week and he hadn’t been given the chance to fully digest the materials.

“I know we’re in a hurry to get things rolling, but for me… I would rather let the committee clean it up if it needs to be and then come back in two weeks and we can have something to look at,” he said.

Before council fully agreed to take no action on the item, Clausen brought up one issue he found in the description.

He noted in three places it references the requirement of a degree in business administration. He spoke about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others who did not have a degree.

“None of them ever graduated college. Do we really need someone with the degree if they have the experience,” he asked.

Both Masorti and Brannan noted the requirement is in the charter law.