Chandler council ponders written annual evaluations of officials

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

The Chandler City Council is discussing new ways to evaluate the four employees directly hired by the council.

Kristin Maier, Chandler’s Human Resources acting director, outlined possible elements of a new annual evaluation process for the city’s manager, attorney, city clerk and magistrate — the only four positions council appoints directly — during a Jan. 22 work session.

Driven publicly by Councilmember O.D. Harris, starting last year around the time of his public criticism of now-former City Manager Josh Wright, the process would allow council to use forms it helps design to more formally evaluate the four appointed city officer positions.

All seven council members would write out their annual evaluations individually of each of the four officers. Maier presented two options: A single form for all four, versus different forms tailored to each position.

The 40-minute work session ended with Mayor Kevin Hartke saying there was a consensus to have Maier return for a future work session after her department crafts some changes into the options, though the mayor said he doesn’t want to move forward with either plan,.

Harris said he believes the city’s mantra of making pay for the four positions and directors needs to be rethought. Rather than look at state and Valley averages and what similar-size municipalities are paying, Harris said he wants to see a more merit-based system for determining raises for Chandler's appointed officials.

“I think our system needs improvement,” Harris said. “I would like to see a simple form with a series of the same question: Did the official hit each goal we set out for them — yes or no. If no, the narrative part can be used for comments.

And then we meet (as a council) and vote on whether they met goals, and tell them, collectively, here’s how we voted.”

Harris said regarding court rulings around executive-session paperwork, “We might have to re-litigate that,” saying he believes the four officers are employees the same as any others in the city.

Harris and Councilmember Jane Poston acknowledged any written evaluation — especially criticism — should be written out clearly, thoughtfully and constructively.

Councilmember Christine Ellis said she believes it would be a lot of typing for her and the mayor and other council members, but having the four officers conducting self-evaluations doesn’t sound like a way to go, either.

“Will they be self-writing these evaluations, or will all seven council members write on all four officers?” Ellis said. “Because I’m telling you, (self-writing) is not gonna happen with me.”

Councilmember Angel Encinas said he believes a written narrative evaluation could be a useful tool in what’s likely to remain a structured, formal annual evaluation process.

Councilmember Jennifer Hawkins said she believes a written component would be helpful — especially if priorities change from year to year and one of the officers has been instructed to follow a different direction.

Hartke said he’s concerned such written evaluations could be “record-search material.”

City Attorney Kelly Schwab said the city of Scottsdale lost a court case decades ago in which written evaluations of officers were created only for use in executive sessions, with a judge ruling those evaluations are public records.

The city’s current annual evaluations of its four council-appointed officers have, for years, been held in executive sessions with no public records available on those verbal discussions.

Council also meet quarterly with all four officers to go over goals. Council members meet with City Manager John Pombier every two weeks, one-on-one, to go over an array of current and ongoing events; Mayor Hartke and Pombier meet weekly.

Poston said there could be seven completely different opinions written about each of the four officers. But she said it would be good if the way each council member is interacting with the four officers, especially around goal completion, should be uniform.

Councilmember Matt Orlando said a numeric, rating-based system was used by the city for officers for about a seven-year period in the early 2000s. He said he would be in favor of a return to some typed of evaluations.

Maier and Pombier both said the city, as well as throughout government and much of the private sector, is moving away from any sort of numbers-based rating or ranking in employee evaluations, as an industry best practice.

Pombier said the city of Mesa, where he spent much of his career, had regular one-on-one meetings involving the four officers meant to be “frank and goal-focused,” but those weren’t documented.

A supplement to Maier’s presentation shows that among comparable Valley municipalities, only Gilbert — with its “360-degree evaluation by direct reports” — along with the formal evaluation forms used in Goodyear, Tempe and Peoria are exceptions to the verbal-executive feedback method used by many Valley cities.

Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.