The Green Park Board of Aldermen voted last week to adopt a resolution approving an agreement with the East-West Gateway Council of Governments for “technical assistance” in finding a new city administrator/city clerk.

As reported exclusively by the Call, Green Park City Administrator/City Clerk Zella Pope recently resigned her post after serving the city since September 2007.

Pope told the Call that her resignation was not voluntary — she was forced to resign because of conflicts with some of the city’s elected officials.

Aldermen voted 5-1 July 18 to adopt the resolution approving the agreement with East-West Gateway, with Ward 1 Alderman Michael Broughton opposed.

Under the agreement, Green Park will pay $7,000, plus direct costs incurred in the search, including copies, postage, job-notice postings, mileage, background checks and other incidentals.

Julie Stone, director of the Local Government Partnership, outlined the terms of the agreement with Mayor Bob Reinagel and aldermen.

“It (the Local Government Partnership) is actually a partnership between East-West Gateway Council of Governments, which is the metropolitan planning council and the council of governments for the eight-county, bi-state region, including St. Louis County. As a municipality in St. Louis County, you are a member government of East-West Gateway,” she said. “And the Local Government Partnership really is designed as a partnership between Gateway and (the) UMSL (University of Missouri-St. Louis) Public Policy Administration program and the Center for Ethics in Public Life at UMSL to provide technical assistance, outreach and education to our local governments and their officials around the eight-county region …”

Stone, who also teaches public policy administration at UMSL, noted she has assisted with searches for city managers and administrators in such municipalities as Overland, Olivette, Hazelwood, Shiloh, Ill., and Swansea, Ill.

“… We are a public entity, just like you are. You are a member government. We are not consultants. We are not private sector,” she said. “If you were to issue — I always explain this to my councils and boards — if you were to issue an RFP (request for proposals) for professional services to do this, I would not apply because I cannot compete with consultants. I cost too little. They would get very angry at me and at us.

“We do this as a technical assistance fee for service kind of situation for our members, and I’ll be really honest with you, the amount that we charge our member governments for this kind of service doesn’t even get close to paying (the total cost). If I were to do it hourly like (City Attorney) Paul (Rost), it wouldn’t even get close.”

Her role, Stone said, will be to facilitate and help city officials perform a search “for what you want. So, as opposed to my becoming your de-facto employee, right, that goes out and does something completely independent of you, this model is much more that I’m going to help you do it.

“I’m going to do a lot of your heavy lifting, right, but at the end of the day, it’s your search and your decision-making process … I’ll be the one that says, ‘You know what, I’ll risk telling you that that’s a really dumb idea. Let’s not do it that way.’ But at the end of the day, if you say, ‘This is the way we really should do it,’ then we’re going to figure out as long as it’s legal and ethical, that we do it the way you guys want it done …”

The assistance Stone will provide includes such things as:

• Facilitating a work session with elected officials to discuss needs, priorities and qualifications.

• Drafting the request for qualifications.

• Placing the job posting in local print media and all other agreed-upon outlets.

• Collecting resumes.

• Screening resumes.

• Making interview appointments.

• Assisting with interview plans.

• Staffing the selection committee.

• Checking references.

• Facilitating an offer with preferred candidate and drafting an employment agreement, if needed.

The search process will be open to the public, Stone said.

“We cannot close a meeting having to do with this search, until such time as we are dealing with actual names. It’s that simple,” she said.

The city’s elected officials must determine exactly what they want in their next city administrator/city clerk, Stone said.

“… We know that you’re looking for what I call a city clerk/city administrator, and we have to talk a little bit about what that means because you can be looking for somebody who’s basically a trained clerk, but can do more,” she said. “Or you can be looking for somebody that’s a trained city administrator, but who can also do your clerk work … Sometimes they’re different people, and so to find the people that can do both well at the kind of level that Green Park needs is a discussion of definitions in what we’re looking for …”

On July 20, aldermen conducted a work session to establish a job posting for the city administrator/city clerk’s position, but did not finalize the posting, according to Diane DeLonjay, who is serving as interim city clerk until Pope’s successor is hired.

During a period for public comment July 18, resident Jonathan Byrd asked why Pope no longer works for the city.

“… Between this meeting and the last meeting, something happened,” he said. “The citizens would like to know what happened to their city manager …”

Ward 2 Alderman James Jones responded, “Sorry, but we cannot discuss personnel matters with the public.”

The terms of Pope’s resignation, which was effective June 30, were discussed by aldermen during closed sessions on June 20, June 22 and June 30, according to information released to the Call through a public-records request.

Because the issue is a personnel matter, Reinagel previously told the Call he could not comment beyond what documents had been released to the Call.

Under the terms of a separation and consultation agreement approved by the Board of Aldermen, Pope will receive six months’ salary, payable on a twice-monthly basis, and compensation for accrued vacation time — a total of $28,644.50.

She also will continue to receive city-paid insurance coverage — medical, dental and vision — for six months or until she finds new employment.