Travis County Commissioners Court
March 18, 2008
Item 16
Number 16 is to review and take appropriate action on materials related to recruiting of executive manager, planning and budget, including a, writing exercise, b, candidate travel, reimbursement information, and c, selection process schedule.
>> there are three items, ohm one of which we are asking for a vote on, and that is the writing exercise.
the other two are for your information to ensure you're up to date on the status of that project.
the writing exercise, as you may know, the court approved as part of a large package of materials.
there were two hypothetical circumstances that were developed by Commissioner eckhardt, one was called task force one, one was called downtown where all the light are bright.
in essence the circumstances were described and the idea was to provide the candidates with a room, a computer, a printer and hour and a half and to say in essence look at these hypotheticals and write how you would respond to them, then to ask them all to do the same thing so that then on the second day when you are going to interview the candidates will you have this material in front of you so that you can come pair and contrast.
we've been doing this with analyst where the analyst is has provided a quantitative exercise and written exercise ban we have found it to be very helpful especially when you are able to cut through verbal skills and see what writing skills are or cut through verbal skills and comfort level, personality type with quantitative skills.
in an agenda setting, one of my colleagues suggested that there was some perhaps defects in the item about entitled downtown where all the lights are bright.
the judge thought, gosh wouldn't it be nice if we could see some other budget related hypotheticals.
that evening I put together tw other hypotheticals entitled honey money money, where is the money, and entitled lending a hand or giving a hand out.
so you now have four hypotheticals, four writing samples.
I really do think it's too much to give them all out.
which ones do you like and those will be the wunds that we use.
>> actually in my view the downtown one was incredibly complicated and it didn't help that I was trying to get my arms around our Travis County downtown redevelopment project when I saw the question.
I would ask more budget related stuff.
so I suggested to christian to try to come up with a couple of more hypotheticals for you to consider.
if we give four, then I think we ought to allow more time for reading the four.
if we give four and say choose two.
>> if you give four and choose two then are you not going to get comparability ty and they are going to pick the easiest one.
so I would urge you not to do that because you're going to discover inconsistency if you have five candidates, one writing exercise, five writing samples, you will be able to see how they think and be able to see how they address problems and what their problem solving skills are in writing.
and part of it is a stress test.
they only have, if they only have two, that the 45 minutes each.
I also suggest that Thursday is a busy day.
and therefore, there is time for a writing exercise.
if you want to add to the writing exercise and give them two hours then that certainly is your choice but a here and a half is a long time.
>> I think of the two new once there is something that budget managers likely will have addressed at some point in the past and should be able to come up with ideas fairly quickly.
our goal is to challenge their ability to communicate to us experience and also the ability to communicate.
>> correct.
>> I think we're kind of familiar with the situations as well because we've been down that road.
>> the last involves the unanimous court, opinion by the court about a ten percent increase during good times, decrease during bad times.
>> we're familiar with that.
>> it is essentially two questions in one.
it is strictly a budget question.
my only concern is I do I would like to see, and I can get this from the interview process as well, but I would like to see the applicant's facility with performance measures and also with planning as well.
I think that we're likely to have candidate who are heaviy on budget and numbers crunching, but it is the planning and budget office.
>> okay.
so our first one was fine with me.
of three and four, which do we like better?
>> I like three.
>> the money money money one?
>> uh-huhhow.
>> how do you like that one?
>> that's fine.
two questions in one.
I think pretty comprehensive.
if it were me it would take me an hour and a half just the answer money, money, money, where is the money.
and if I were a money person, predominantly, I'd spend a lot of time answering it.
>> the one entitled task force one is what you are suggesting also be added to that?
>> I am suggesting one and three, yeah.
thing about one, it does talk about performance which we --measures which we have decided to emphasizement so it would be consistent with recent actions by us.
any objection to using one and three?
and the other two let's just keep to ourselves.
unless we want to make their lives miserable in the future.
>> for your next recruiting for the next executive manager of planning and budget.
>> that is the motion.
>> second.
>> one and three.
task force one and the other one won money, money, money, where is the money as the two hypotheticals.
>> yep.
>> that's the motion.
>> second.
>> second.
discussion.
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
are we together on the other two?
>> the other item in your backup is simply the reimbursement protocols for their expenses and the schedule so that you are aware of the schedule when they arrive.
they arrive next Wednesday, they will be here Thursday and Friday.
by the end of the day on Friday you will have either an opportunity to identify top candidate or multiple candidate of your choice.
>> when I saw the schedules for the 27th and 28th, my only question was whether we think we can coordinate all of that movement.
>> yes.
we are going to have a host per candidate.
each candidate will have an analyst from the planning and budget office who will be their host.
we avoided the use of the word keeper.
but to say in essence, if you run into any problems, moving from here to there, they will be in essence making sure, they will be attached to the candidate so that that movement issue or movement problem is minimized.
and also they will have an automobile so that they will be free to do some touring on their own.
>> you and your committee will be able to get them to the Commissioners court for interview.
>> yes.
>> in a timely manner.
>> as long as the court is there, they will be there.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> of c.
discussion?
everybody will be here for those interviews on the 28th?
>> uh-huh.
>> glad to be, judge.
>> all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:51 PM