Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 09-08-2006 ‎(special-finance director)‎ — reading text

it fester for years and did nothing. 5) Managers may have more articles than, say, assistants because of the nature of their work. Assistants tend to be much lower profile and hence, less is written about them. Further when assistants make mistakes, the manager tends to get blamed. You also need to be aware that the internet changes daily. What you have here is a snapshot in time concerning what was available on the internet the day we did the research. In fact, if you were to search the internet tomorrow concerning information on these candidates, you might find additional information or less information. Search engines take up to six weeks to " find" stories after they are posted on web sites. By the same token, a story appearing on a website yesterday may not be there tomorrow. We should also note we have not included everything we found. Many articles have little if any relevance to the candidate' s qualifications and these have often been excluded. Where issues of concern were found in the following articles, we have attempted to research them and determine their true nature. Had we found information that we believed was serious in nature and the result of the candidate' s actions or that would cause the County or the candidate embarrassment, we would have dropped the candidate from consideration and his/her information would not be in this notebook. c  COLIN BAENZIGER & ASSOCIATES Vi,vit our website lit H'WW. cb- WJ. C011l lI.... c July 14, 2006 Mark Wiltsie, Human Resources Director City of Fort Walton Beach POBox 4009 Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549- 4009 RE: Finance Director Executive Recruitment Services Dear Mark: Please find enclosed the candidates we are recommending the City interview for its Finance Director. All are, in our opinion, well qualified and fully capable of doing the job. Our suggestion would be that the City Manager ( to whom the Finance Director will report on a day- to- day basis), Personnel Director and a representative of the external auditor interview the candidates the first day. That evening there would be a reception for the candidates; and the next day the Mayor and the Council Members, as group, would interview the candidates either later that day or the following day for approximately forty minutes each. We would then suggest a brief period ( say, two days) elapse. The individual elected officials could then solicit the staff's input. The Council as a whole would then meet and make the selection. We do have a methodology for that selection which we would recommend and can present to the council. We also suggest that we try to hold the interviews the first or second week of August. C Our finalists are: Lisa Absher, David Delac, James Fulkerson, Donnie Jones and William Poling. As you review the materials contained herein,you will note that Mr. Poling had a personal bankruptcy in 1995. You will also note in the Internet materials that Mr. Poling was the candidate selected to be the next Finance Director for the City of Venice until the bankruptcy came to light, something we were not aware of at the time we recommended that he be considered. Ultimately, the fact that we did not know about it (and did not specifically run a bankruptcy check) caused my firm some embarrassment and resulted in Mr. Poling losing that opportunity. Nonetheless, we are recommending he be considered again. He is a fine Finance Director and has already done the job successfully in Florida for a long period. We all make mistakes and we learn from them. That is what happened in the Venice instance. Once you have had the opportunity to look over the material, please contact me so that we can discuss the next steps. Sincerely, 1\'7.' (, - LA-:- )./ ~? J- Colin Baenziger c Principal SerJ' illg 0111' clients with 1I 01wl totlch per.... 12970 DARTFORD TRAIL * SUITE 8 WELLINGTON, FL 33414 561) 793- 2624  Interviewing Candidates c The interview is generally the final step in the selection process. At this point, the executive recruiter has screened the candidates and is satisfied that all the finalists are capable of doing the job. Reference checks and more extensive background checks ( including discussing the candidates with individuals who are not on their reference list but who are knowledgeable of their abilities, Internet searches, etc.) have been conducted. Additionally, credit, educational and criminal background checks have been run so there should be no surprises if a candidate is selected as Finance Director. The interview is an opportunity for both the City and the candidate to learn about each other and to determine how well they will be able to work together. It is also an opportunity for the City to evaluate the candidates' management abilities and to decide if the candidate would be a good finance director for the City. As such, both the City and the candidates should act professionally and in a manner that will impress the other party while learning what they can. Since all the candidates are capable of performing in the role as Finance Director, the focus of the interview should be on determining who is the best fit for the City, the staff and the community. Some candidates will have more experience than others. Some have special areas of expertise that others do not. Some have better instincts and some are simply more capable than others. While some may make more mistakes than others, they may also hit more home runs. Again, the key is to determine which candidate will have the best chemistry with the City. No matter how technically sound a candidate may be, if he or she cannot build and maintain a strong working relationship with the Mayor, City Council and statT, he or she will not last long as the Finance Director. Of course, experience and expertise is critical and should not be overlooked. Possible Interview Questions The questions on the next few pages may be useful in ferreting out the information that you need. There are undoubtedly others. The point is to ask the questions that you feel will give you the best idea of what the candidate believes, how he/ she will work with you and with the staff and whether or not he/ she is good match for the City. Further, given the variety of legislation covering civil rights and discrimination, questions into a number of areas should be avoided during the interview process. Consequently, following the suggested questions is a listing of areas that should be avoided. c fl___1 _ C'7  Possible Inten'iew Questions c The following questions are divided into three groups. The first set contains standard introductory questions covering an individual' s background, management style and experience. The second set is designed to provide information about how the candidates will interact with the City' s elected officials and staff on particular issues that may be of concern to the City. Set ill should always be asked at the end of the interview. Since time will not permit asking all the questions, you should select the ones that are most important to you. The last four should always be asked and five minutes should be left at the end of the interview to ask them. Question Set I: 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why are you interested in working for the City of Fort Walton Beach? 3. What is your management style? 4. What would your staff say about you as a manager? 5. What would your elected officials say about you? L 6. Have you fired people? How did you handle it? How did you feel about it? 7. What do you think your strengths are? 8. What do you think your weaknesses are? 9. What has been your biggest success? Tell us about it. 10. What has been your biggest failure ( or mistake) of your career? What did you learn from it? 11. What would you do the first six months in the City of Fort Walton Beach? 12. What do you believe to be the challenges and opportunities facing our City? How are these likely to change in the future? 13. Is there anything else you would like to tell me? Question Set ll: c 1. Explain what you believe the role of the Finance Director to be in the City of Fort Walton Beach and how it differs from the role in other cities. C''7 n_~_.... _  Possible Interview Questions c 2. As Fort Walton Beach' s Finance Director, how do you view your relationship with the Mayor and City Council? 3. How will you go about building a strong relationship with the Mayor and City Council? How will you maintain it? . 4. What information do you think the Mayor and City Council need to have concerning your operations and on- going projects? 5. How will you keep the Mayor and City Council informed? 6. What kind of direction do you expect to get ftom the Mayor and City Council? 7. What will you do if you feel the Mayor and City Council have not made it clear how they want the staff to precede on a particular issue? 8. What do you do when your views of how to handle a situation differ ftom those of the Mayor and City Council? c 9. What will you do if one particular City Council Member disagrees with how you believe a situation should be handled? 9. What will you do when a City Council member contacts a member of your staff and tells him/her to do something? 10. How many people reported to you in your last job? 11. How do you keep your staff informed of the elected officials' priorities? What do you intend to do differently if you are appointed Finance Director here? 12. To what extent do you believe contact with citizens and citizen' s groups is important? How do you typically handle this responsibility? Do you feel that you need to build relationships with the community? 13. What kind of relationship do you want to have with the senior managers and the rest of the staff and how will you establish it? 14. How will you go about identifying the organization' s strengths and weaknesses as well opportunities for improvement? Once you have identified them, how will you go about making changes? c 15. How will you approach the short and long range planning process? What system do you use