City of Lincoln:
Aldermen to hold special Committee of the Whole after tonight’s voting session

[December 04, 2017] 

LINCOLN

The Lincoln City Council will hold a special Committee of the Whole (COW) after the regular first Monday of the month voting session this evening.

The council will discuss one topic, a proposed contract with GovHR for the hiring of a new full time city administrator.

At last week’s COW, aldermen heard a presentation by Kathy Rush, Vice President of GovHR USA. During that presentation Rush outlined the proposed scope of work the firm would do for the city and quoted a price of $19,000 for the service.

Aldermen balked at the price tag and asked about ways the city could reduce the price, by possible doing some of the work in the plan on their own.

Among the items within the scope of work was a brochure of the city and community designed by GovHR. Aldermen discussed the fact that a brochure had been created when this same firm conducted the last search for a city administrator.

They wondered if the city could use the same brochure, or do a re-write on their own. Rush said they could review the current brochure, which is still on the GovHR website.

She indicated that there was a possibility the city could save part of the fee if the aldermen did re-write the brochure on their own.

Rush was asked about the reduction in pricing, and she wasn’t able to give them a concrete answer. She said that she could do some new quotes and change the scope of work outlines to come up with a lesser fee.

Aldermen asked that she do, and return to the council tonight, Dec. 4th, with a new proposal.

The original scope of work proposal included creating the brochure, advertising for the position, screening the candidates, initial interviews, then narrowing the pool down to five or so for aldermen to meet and interview personally.

[Nila Smith]