Committee members present: County Auditor Tom Slockett, County Recorder Kim Painter, and County Treasurer Tom Kriz. Also present: County Attorney Pat White, and Recording Secretary Casie Parkins.

Convened at 2:05 p.m.

All motions carried by a unanimous vote unless otherwise noted.

Motion by Kriz, second by Painter, to approve the minutes of the December 7, 1998 meeting.

Slockett said he was surprised by how few applications they received. He stated he did not see a logical way to significantly reduce the number of interviews. He said they should either interview all of them or significantly cut down the number of them. He said in the hypothetical instance that they only wanted to interview 10 and not 2, they should interview all 12. He said if they could narrow it down to 4 or 6, he could see utility in that. He asked if the others saw a way to reduce the number of interviews. Kriz said he doesn't see a way to reduce them. He said he was terrifically impressed with the applicants. He said it was a tremendous group of people that applied and he is inclined that if they can find the time to interview all of them, they need to make the time. Painter said she didn't see a significant difference in the applicants so she couldn't reduce them by more than 2 or 4. Slockett said he agreed with that and he was open to reviewing cover letters today but he didn't see it necessary to review them before they interviewed the candidates. Painter said she didn't see it necessary to go through them today.

Motion by Slockett, second by Painter, to formally select all 12 applicants for interviews.

Slockett said one of the members of the Board Member Appointment Committee may not be available Friday and Monday and he strongly favored interviewing the candidates as close to one another as possible. He said he read studies that show that the last person interviewed was much more likely to be selected in the interview process than one of the first people, despite efforts to make it fair. He also suggested they ask the same questions to all of the applicants. He said everyone should have the questions for a reasonable period of time before they conduct the interviews so they each have an opportunity to prepare. He said once they begin the interviews, they should continue every day until they are all complete.

Slockett asked if Wednesday through Friday next week would be a good time. Kriz said that would be adequate. Slockett asked what time of day they should schedule them for. He said the Board Room was available in the morning on Wednesday the 13th. He said if they have 12 interviews, they would need 4 hours a day for 3 days. Kriz said he would rather group as many as they could in a shorter time. He said it's a huge decision to be made, and they want to take the time to study the applicants but at the same time they want to keep moving so the process doesn't stretch out too long. Slockett asked if they wanted to go all day or a half day. Kriz said he had done it both ways in the past. Kriz said if they had a very concise set of questions, they could move through quite a few people. He said they would have a problem scheduling people. Kriz said he would like to go all day if it could be worked out. Slockett said they should conduct all the interviews in the same room and they could probably be accommodated in the conference room. White said that would only present a problem if 50 people showed up to listen. Slockett said historically, they had not seen a large attendance but that could change. White said that room could be arranged to accommodate 10-15 people. Slockett asked if there were a courtroom available. White said it was short notice but it may be possible. Slockett said the Board would be meeting on Thursday and could possibly go into Executive Session so the room wouldn't be available. Kriz asked about evening hours. Slockett said that was a possibility. White said Thursday the 14th would be the Board's evening meeting so the room would be open in the morning. Slockett said there was a budget meeting scheduled at 1:30. Slockett said they would be in a different state of mind by 10:00 at night and it might not be fair to the interviewees. Slockett stated they would meet from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13th and Thursday, January 14th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Board room. He asked if they should schedule them in alphabetical order. He suggested that if a person couldn't meet at a certain time that they have a priority on any other time and schedule around that in alphabetical order. He stated that his staff could schedule the interviews.

Motion by Painter, second by Kriz, to schedule interviews in alphabetical order if possible.

Slockett asked if they would make a decision on Thursday or schedule another meeting for that. He said they could meet again at 4:00 on Thursday, on Friday or keep meeting after 12:00 on Thursday to make a decision. Painter and Kriz agreed they should continue meeting after 12:00 on Thursday. White asked if they were meeting on January 7, 1999. Slockett said they would meet tomorrow to formulate the questions. He said he had not seen the questions used last time, but they could use those and the questions that the Board used for the Recorder candidates as resources.

Reverend Bob Welsh suggested that they issue a letter to the candidates about the budget meetings so they could attend those. He stated setting the budget was one of the most important functions of the Board of Supervisors and they should be able to participate. Slockett said he agreed but they wouldn't know for certain that these candidates would be available on such short notice. He also stated they should not be punished if they couldn't attend. White said it was legally possible that there might be some delay between when they appoint someone and when that person would take office. He explained they could choose an effective date but several of the candidates would need to give some notice to their current employers. White said depending on who the appointee was they might not be able to take office the next day. Kriz asked if there were a time frame allowed for a special election if the public wanted to look elsewhere for a candidate. White said that also posed a problem for interviewees with their current jobs. White said the process would have to work through that and the appointee would have to realize that was a reality of the process. Slockett said the appointee would begin to serve as soon as they were appointed. White stated the appointee would have to qualify by taking the oath. Slockett said even if there were an election, the appointee could begin functioning immediately, if they were available. He said they could attend electronically too. White said at least 2 candidates have potential legal conflict problems that might prevent them from being able to serve immediately that would play a role. He said for example one person could not simultaneously be on the Board of Supervisors and a Mayor. He said they would be incompatible positions. He said the State Judicial Department might also potentially be an incompatible position.

Kriz said they could formulate questions about the applicants' availability and time frames. White said the candidates, as they are contacted for scheduling interviews, would be asking questions about the structure and process of the interviews so they might want to have some follow up communication. Slockett said since the process is public information they should make sure the applicants were all informed. White said the person scheduling the interviews should know what will be going on with the interview process to answer applicants' questions. Slockett said the way he envisions the interview process going is they would have specific questions that they asked every person. He said they could ask for additional clarification if they wanted to. Slockett asked if they should encourage additional questions. He said he didn't think that would be fair to other candidates, but if there were an important question that someone wanted to ask, they shouldn't be precluded from asking it. Kriz said they should have a standard set of questions. Slockett said he also liked to give an applicant the opportunity to make their own case. Painter said that it important to allow the applicants to speak on their own behalf, but they should have a set of questions and not try to improvise very much. Recording Secretary Casie Parkins asked if they were going to take turns asking questions. Slockett said they would take turns. He said they could also e-mail or mail the minutes of this meeting to the applicants. Kriz said there should be an open and a close to the interview. Painter said she liked the idea of including a forum in the interview. She said people may function differently in the interview process so their different strengths would be allowed to show.

Painter asked if they would pose any questions that required written responses. Slockett said they could give the applicants the option to present written responses. Slockett said in the past some candidates did submit written responses and others didn't. Painter said they could give all of the candidates the opportunity to do so. Slockett said they might want to see what their writing skills were. Kriz said he wasn't sure how this would fit into the schedule that they have set up. Welsh said there have been situations when the Supervisors have had the applicants have an oral and a written interview, but the applicants didn't know what the questions were. They had an appointment and they answered questions on a computer. Welsh said there was a chance with written responses that the candidates wouldn't write them themselves. He said he would be leery if any of the 12 candidates in an interview just read their responses. He said writing skills is not what the Committee is looking for. Slockett said it might be worth mentioning to the applicants that they do not expect them to read their answers. Slockett suggested that they might not want written answers. Painter said the context of which they had spoken about the written responses from candidates was not a writing skills issue, but to get a more in depth flavor of what their policy decisions might be. Kriz said if he were on the other side he might be confused. He said they don't want to send the message that they expect written responses. Slockett asked if they would mind if applicants referred to notes. The Committee agreed that wasn't a problem.

Painter asked if it was typical to provide the interview questions in advance. Slockett said his feeling was that since it was a public meeting after the first person was interviewed the questions would be available in advance to the other applicants. Parkins asked if she should tell applicants that the questions will be posted on the Internet and they will be mailed a copy. Kriz said yes. Slockett said that a copy of the minutes should be mailed to the applicants so there was no confusion over the written responses. Slockett said if the applicants have questions they can call the Auditor, Treasurer or Recorder.

White said where they are on the written response is muddy and candidates are going to be confused. He said his own advice is to not talk about written responses and forget it, because as soon as they send a hint that written responses are OK, they will have people doing written responses. Slockett said maybe they should state they do not wish to receive written responses to the questions. White said it would be just an oral interview in which they were providing the questions in advance. Kriz said they talked about sending the minutes out for clarification and he is sitting in the meeting a bit confused. He said he couldn't imagine reading the minutes from the other side of the table. The Committee agreed they do not wish to receive written responses to the interview questions.

Kriz said people appreciated everything being posted on the Internet because of the convenience and he congratulated Slockett on his office's timely work. White said he has also heard a dozen favorable comments about the availability of the material. Slockett said he would tell Account Clerk II John Deeth in the office what Kriz and White said. Slockett said Deeth was very conscientious about keeping the web page up to date. Welsh asked about the scheduling of interviews process.

Gazette Reporter Kati Phillips asked if they had a rating system they were going to use in making their decision on who to appoint. Slockett said unless the Committee would like to discuss a rating system, each Committee member would evaluate performance on their own.

The Committee decided they would make their decision after the final interview on Thursday January 14, 1999. Slockett said if at that point they aren't ready to make their decision, then they can decide when to meet again. White said he wasn't planning on attending the interviews or the January 7, 1999 meeting, but he would try to make himself available to answer questions that might come up by telephone.

Adjourned at 3:10 p.m.