McMinnville Public Works director Bill Brock was appointed as interim city administrator Tuesday night. The decision is contingent on the education requirement being removed from the job qualifications.
“If you will trust me, I will show you what I can do,” said Brock. “I will show you what a city administrator should do.”
The measure passed 6-0 with Mayor Jimmy Haley, Vice Mayor Ben Newman and Aldermen Jimmy Haley, Billy Wood, Mike Neal and Rick Barnes voting in favor of it. Alderman Ken Smith was absent.
Brock will take the reins from Haley, who has been filling the position for approximately 11 months. The decision comes after Neal accused Haley of overstepping his authority and Neal making a failed attempt to eliminate the city administrator position.
The vote of confidence for Brock came after more than an hour of deliberations prompted by Haley’s offer to voluntarily relinquish some of his authority to Brock and city recorder Shirley Durham.
Just before the measure to consider Brock as interim city administrator began, Haley asked the board to consider his offer and wait to begin a new city administrator search until after the November election.
“Before we take action on this, yesterday I drafted a letter delegating much of my daily operational duties to both Mrs. Durham and the Public Works director,” said Haley. “This should get us through until the new board is seated.”
When questioned by Bonner on why the board should wait until after the election to begin the hiring process for a new city administrator, Haley said, “We have the possibility of three new board members coming on within the next few months. Politics plays a lot in the elections. As you know Mr. Bonner, many members of this board made promises during the last election. I’m sure some of these new hopeful board members will make promises as well. This board could not wait to get rid of the current city administrator."
Newly elected board members will not be sworn in until Nov. 25. Newman disagreed on waiting that long to begin the process.
“It would probably be a good idea to start putting the position out for a city administrator,” Newman said. “If we start the process now, we won’t be done before the election. The new board can still look through the acceptable applications we get in.”
Brock agreed with waiting.
“Right now, the city of McMinnville’s well is poisoned,” Brock said. “You are not going to get a candidate to apply for this job with what’s been going on. This needs time to go away. Maybe this will give time for things to calm down and get some things on the right path.”
Wood voiced a desire to name Brock as interim city administrator.
“I think we should appoint an interim and then allow the new board to decide what it wants to do,” said Wood. “With this, you will have three people trying to drive the ship. I think we need to name Bill as interim and then let the new board decide. You will have someone at the helm to keep things running smoothly.”
Bonner disagreed due to Brock not having the minimum qualifications of a college degree as required by current city code.
“I want the interim to have the same qualifications as a permanent administrator,” said Bonner.
Wood made a motion to name Brock as interim administrator.
“I make a motion to appoint Brock as interim,” said Wood. “We need someone to run this ship. Someone who knows how to do it. Somebody I think would be fair and even-handed. A bank has one president. A ship has one captain.”
After some legal wrangling on the wording of the motion and the need to use an ordinance to remove the college degree requirement for Brock to serve as interim, Wood changed his motion to be “eliminate the requirement for a college degree for an acting city administrator and to nominate Bill Brock for that position.”
The college degree requirement was only removed for interim city administrators. It remains in place for a permanent administrator.
Bonner attempted to amend Wood’s motion and include the removal of the interim’s authority to hire and fire department heads. His motion failed due to lack of a second.
Prior to casting his vote on the measure, Bonner stated, “Bill, you have asked us to trust you and I’m going to do that. I’m going to vote in favor.”
The ordinance will require one more passing read before the board. Brock’s salary as interim has not been set. He will be allowed to delegate his Public Works director authority to members of his staff and return to that position when his services are no longer needed as city administrator.