ATHENS, Tenn. — After several years of discussion, City Council members still can’t agree on an evaluation form for the city manager or whether they should meet privately with the manager for his annual performance review.
At a recent city planning session and retreat, council members again discussed their sometimes-edgy relationship with City Manager Mitchell Moore.
“There are a couple of members who don’t want to have a one-on-one” interview with the city manager, Vice Mayor Bo Perkinson said. “I don’t see how you can realistically evaluate him without a one-on-one.”
Council members put Mr. Moore on probation after they learned last year that he and Mayor John Proffitt had withheld information from them about a decline in the city’s ISO rating. Council members Dick Pelley and Shannon Alvey, who had called for Mr. Moore to be fired during the episode, now refuse to meet with the city manager.
Mr. Proffitt and Councilman Hal Buttram agreed with Mr. Perkinson. Mr. Proffitt said he gets his information from the city manager.
Gary Petree, a training consultant with the University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service, moderated the planning retreat.
He told council members it’s difficult to supervise someone and get desired results without having one-on-one meetings.
Mr. Pelley said he thinks residents want a “transparent” council, not one that has private meetings in closed offices.
He also said the evaluation form is from the International City/County Management Association and does not necessarily reflect the council’s ideas.
Mrs. Alvey said it’s awkward to have a city manager who has five supervisors.
“My comfort level is I want everything in writing so I have a paper trail and he has a paper trail,” she said.
The council members agreed to look again at sample evaluation forms.
Mr. Petree suggested the council meet with Mr. Moore in executive session to discuss evaluations.
But Mr. Moore said that would violate the state’s open meetings law. The state law says almost all local government business meetings must be open, except when the body is receiving attorney’s advice about lawsuits.
