LISA HOBBS - News Editor
The city of McMinnville is keeping the public at bay during its search for a city administrator.
According to the city’s Human Resource Director Libby Rutledge, only the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and its legal counsel, Attorney Tim Pirtle, will be allowed to sit in on the in-person interviews.
“The interviews will be an executive session, but discussion and decision will be in an open meeting,” said Rutledge, who also added that four individuals will be interviewed on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16.
The Tennessee Open Meetings Act requires that the information of public policy and decisions be public business and not conducted in secret. Executive sessions are allowed but must meet certain requirements.
Among the exceptions that would allow an executive session: personnel matters, such as discussing the reputation, character, physical condition, or mental health of an individual, or discipline/dismissal/complaints against a public officer, employee, staff member, or individual; strategy sessions, preparing for negotiations with nonunion personnel or conducting collective bargaining/contract negotiations with nonunion personnel; and legal matters, such as litigation or pending litigation.
This decision is in stark contrast to previous administrator searches in which in-person interviews were held in public meetings. During the search in which former city administrator Nolan Ming was hired, officials asked about holding those interviews in executive sessions and were advised by legal counsel that they could not.
Warren County Way will request that the city provide a legal opinion to justify its decision on the use of executive sessions to interview potential city administrators.