CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- An Aug. 10 deadline has been set for the Cleveland City Council to give its first evaluation to Janice Casteel in her role as city manager, a post she has held since 2008.
Each member of the council will rate Casteel on a scale of 1 to 5 in areas such as fiscal management, supervision and policy execution, using a form they selected from a number of evaluation tools offered by the Municipal Technical Advisory Service.
"These will all be public, we'll all sign our names," Councilman Bill Estes said.
In a recent meeting, City Council members also stated their intent to meet individually with Casteel before submitting their evaluations of her performance to Sue Zius, assistant to Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland, for tabulation.
Before making that decision, the City Council discussed the evaluation process with Cleveland school board member Dawn Robinson, who described the current procedures for evaluating Dr. Martin Ringstaff, director of Cleveland City Schools.
The one-on-one meetings between board members and the school director are a key factor in reducing any ambiguity that might result from just presenting scores alone, she said.
"We each get a chance to talk with Dr. Ringstaff and share our vision, our concerns and our praise for the job he does," Robinson said.
Once the individual evaluations are compiled, Ringstaff was publicly presented with the school board's corporate evaluation, which is based on average scores of all the board members' evaluations, she said.
The City Council has not stated if it will publicly address Casteel's overall evaluation at its Aug. 10 meeting.
Councilmen David May and Dale Hughes were enthusiastic for the one-on-one meeting aspect of the evaluation process.
Councilman Avery Johnson indicated that he believed individual meetings should be dedicated to unsatisfactory or borderline performance issues.
Robinson encouraged the City Council to have discussions about the good scores as well, stating she believed Casteel would want to know what it takes to achieve the highest marks.
In late May, the Cleveland City Council voted 6-1 to evaluate Casteel's performance after businessman Ben Moore publicly asked them to remove her from office. Only Councilman Charlie McKenzie voted against the measure.
Councilman Richard Banks has said that Moore and other taxpaying citizens had approached him about their concerns over Casteel's handling of the police department's leadership.
The Cleveland Police Department lost two chiefs - Dennis Maddux and Wes Snyder, both involved in sex scandals - in a recent 18-month period.
Casteel, who served a number of years as Cleveland's city clerk and financial director before her tenure as city manager, has earned his respect, Banks said.
However, Banks also has said she "could better serve our citizens by attending full time to the matters involving the financial issues of our great city."
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.