At its Tuesday night meeting the Lakeport City Council discussed with city staff the process it will use in moving forward in the selection process.
Kevin Burke, the city's police chief and interim city manager for nearly a year and a half, said the city has received 61 applications for the permanent position, vacated in September by Jerry Gillham, as Lake County News has reported.
The city is getting “huge interest in the position from all over the country,” he said.
“What we're wanting to do at this point is to get some direction from the council on how they want to proceed,” he said.
Specifically, he and City Attorney Steve Brookes wanted to know how many candidates they should interview and how to structure the process.
With the holidays creating scheduling challenges, Burke suggested they begin the interviews at the start of January.
Brookes suggested the council members set a deadline for themselves to read through the resumes and each come up with a short list of eight to 10 candidates. They would then discuss their candidates in a closed session.
He suggested forming some interview panels that include administrative professions. When the city hired Burke, Brookes said they had a professional panel which he called “very valuable,” as the panel members understood technical aspects of the police chief's job that weren't apparent to the council.
In addition to a professional panel, Brookes suggested panels of community members and city employees, with each panel speaking with a candidate for a half hour before the candidate is rotated to the next panel.
Councilman Bob Rumfelt said he was concerned that during that previous interview process there was no consistent way of judging candidates – such as assigning them a numerical value. “It was all subjective.”
Brookes agreed that the scoring could be done more precisely.
Burke noted that of the applications the city has received, 90 percent have been submitted electronically. All of those have been acknowledged; those that have come in via traditional mail still require a response.
Beyond choosing about eight candidates to interview, Burke suggested the council keep a second tier of individuals in the wings in case some of that first tier drop out.
Brookes said the applications and questions have so far been directed to Burke, but because Burke – in his capacity as police chief – is a department head, it's time to start opting him out of that role in the process. That's because Burke eventually will work for the new city manager, Brookes said.
Burke said he's now starting to funnel things to Brookes. “As we move closer to the final selection process I think we need to phase Steve more into the forefront of it,” said Burke, noting that Brookes has gone through the process before.
The council plans to meet soon for a special closed session to discuss preliminary candidates.
With so many people interested, Burke said he believes the right candidates has to be in the group.
In other action Tuesday, the council voted to approve a $2,500 grant to Mt. Konocti Facilitation for business facilitation services.
It was the third time the group had made the request. The city of Clearlake also gave the group $2,500, and the county has given them $37,500 this year, said co-facilitator Susan Harmon.
Harmon told the council that 35 percent of the people who use the group's free and confidential services come from the city.
Grants from community sources like Lakeport are important in order to get larger grants, Harmon explained.
Dan Felperin of Fresh Energy Systems introduced his company – which installs solar systems – to the city and offered to do a free energy audit of one of their buildings. The council took him up on the offer to audit city hall.
Clear Lake Performing Arts received the council's approval to move its home winemakers festival to the city from Kelseyville in June.
Connel Murray told the council that the group, which funds music programs and events in Lake County, wanted a shady, grassy area like Library Park for its event, rather than a city street, as has been the custom for the several years the event has been held.
The council also approved a contract with National Grant Services, which is going to pursue grants, especially from the state's Proposition 84, which funds parks.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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