Isabel Piedmont-Smith

Bloomington Regular Session — Feb 25, 2026 · 45 segments

• 6:40 Currently the way council office is set up as there is one employee who actually reports to council as a body and the others all report to that person and the way that it is phrased in here multiple times is it's authorizing this
• 7:02 Committee to Authorizing this committee to hire all of those positions to write the descriptions for all of those positions And I don't think that any one of us or as a body
• 7:15 Actually have the skills necessary to write all of those descriptions in terms of actually knowing what all of our staff do And then I think that that with it The structure is problematic already in that we have one person who is supervised by nine part-time people and to have any kind of additional
• 7:35 like piling onto that is really problematic. So I don't think that this committee should be authorized to hire any more than the one person who we want to supervise all of the other people within the office. So like, I can appreciate the idea of like, going like, okay, if we want to separate out the attorney with the administrator work, but we still probably need to be like one of those people need to be like the supervising kind of person of the rest of them. And then that supervising person needs to be the one that council members and as a body do that. So like, I just, I think otherwise we're.
• 8:13 We're taking a problem that at least I think no exists and making it worse
• 9:07 I don't think that that takes care of it by the letter of this because it authorizes this committee to, it just has plurals in multiple times to, you know, process for recruiting and recommending candidates to fill vacant roles.
• 9:23 to
• 9:24 Under 4a bring forward no fewer than two qualified candidates for each open role to the full council so that's I mean I
• 9:34 I absolutely agree in terms of like the changing of the structure and to authorize that but that but that even within that changing of the structure like I don't think that that we Know enough about what our staff actually do to be able to write all of those job descriptions Well without I mean like I think that that we need to be able to write the one well that we're actually Supervising right but the rest of them
• 10:01 We need that person that we're supervising to help us fill in those gaps.
• 14:02 question about what Council Member Piedmont-Smith was asking about earlier in terms of the day-to-day supervision.
• 14:12 And so your response to that was that the committee would assign somebody to do that? Or what was your, can you clarify what your thoughts are related to that?
• 14:24 like as a body, like an appointment kind of thing.
• 14:32 Okay.
• 14:35 If we're going to do the
• 14:37 if we're going to pursue it that way.
• 14:40 I think that like under the authority it has that the authority of engaging temporary or external legal support
• 14:47 essentially lies solely with the committee and I think if there's going to be a Separate individual being that staff liaison. I think that something needs to change about
• 14:58 That authority to engage that temporary Support and I'm not sure like because I think that it makes sense to be able to delegate that
• 15:15 of it being hard for all of council to get all together, but I also think that it might.
• 15:21 Because that single person it like if there's a single person dealing with staff and then the committee which is separate doing that engagement
• 15:29 That could be a challenge. So I don't know if the single person could could do that engagement But then all of us as a body could approve. Yep
• 16:08 So you're saying that that you would think that somebody on the committee would also be that person who was I Think that that might be a lot of work
• 16:17 I mean it I think that the that the hiring piece and simply dealing with those job descriptions and the stuff with HR like All of those steps to all of that process is going to be a great deal of work and managing day-to-day operations in terms of meetings and committee meetings and all of those pieces and making sure that I mean what collectively right Right now we'll have staff working All of them together more than 40 hours a week not all at the same time And so I think that that that that might be a lot for somebody who's on the committee to do all the committee responsibilities and do that
• 19:51 I don't know if you guys are gonna like this motion. So here's a proposal for the motion kind of for now. And then maybe think in maybe the meeting next week about something more thorough.
• 20:04 Is to I move to authorize the to be
• 20:11 Delegated ad hoc hiring committee to fulfill the Scopes of work as listed in the draft agreement under number one number two number three
• 20:25 Number four.
• 20:28 Number six and number seven.
• 20:37 No that oh, I wasn't including authority and limitations because The authority at least might be Kind of in flux and so that's where it's like Because because I don't think that in the next seven days
• 20:57 Will in the next seven days that make a difference in terms of rewriting some of the documentation around the authority?
• 21:04 but I do.
• 21:35 in terms of the temporary.
• 21:37 Thank you.
• 21:38 Yeah.
• 21:42 Right.
• 21:50 Well, I think I had finished the moment it was it was sorry. Thank you scope of work and number one. Okay. Thank you. Thank you
• 22:18 Yeah, it wasn't to lead it so much as revisit the ones that I didn't specify so that then the work of the committee could start immediately in terms of the pieces that are more in internal of looking at the job descriptions and starting that initial assessment and Then it it could hopefully get get rewritten with some of those other pieces that need some Amendment for the meeting next week
• 22:43 So, then there would be a more final one done next week. Yep.
• 22:48 I I mean I I agree that that part of the work of the committee could could be I think to your concern Looking for that third party consultant. And so then I was kind of looking through going where like so maybe maybe it's authorizing the committee to complete Items one two, three four
• 23:11 Yep six and seven and Be further authorized To research and bring to the full council
• 23:26 Recommendation for temporary or external legal support during this time second
• 25:05 I thought that we were going to as a body Appoint the liaison in the same way that we appoint To other Boards and commissions and things like that
• 25:23 Know that that we vote on things like at the organizational meeting where somebody is Nominated or self-nominated and then as a body we vote on that. That was what I thought
• 25:40 Well you get to appoint the committee as president.