Chandler council creating evaluation program for top city employees

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

The Chandler City Council is looking to rework how it reviews top city employees.

Council discussed proposed changes to how it reviews the city’s manager, clerk, attorney and magistrate during an April 23 workshop with a decision on how to move forward still to come.

Mayor Kevin Hartke polled council, informally, on several choices in policy and procedure presented by Assistant City Manager Tadd Wille.

In addition to timing and frequency of evaluations and other meetings to discuss performance goals for the four positions, council also got into details of the competencies to evaluate each official.

For example, Councilmember Christine Ellis got into a couple competencies she wants to track with the city attorney.

“Policy, and documenting accuracy — I want that,” Ellis said. “Because we need to verify the attorney’s giving us the right information, and if they’re not, along the way, we need to course-correct.”

Ellis added she wants legal coordination to be another attorney core competency, as the city attorney runs the city’s legal department and must keep staff on the same page in both procedure and messaging.

Staff will incorporate council’s direction and return with a proposed process for adoption, Hartke said.
Here are the main conclusions council reached during the work session:

• Clarified which universal and role-specific competencies should be used for evaluation of each of the four officials.

• Chose an option of a formal written evaluation that generates a single summary document that can be made available to the public as a matter of record.

• Directed staff to have a step-by-step evaluation format that includes October and January check-ins in addition to a June annual formal goal evaluation.

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.