Saline City Council Discusses Accusations of Hiring Bias

At its May 19 meeting Saline City Council voted on a motion to request the hiring committee in charge of filling the recently vacated city manager position report to the council and address an accusation of bias in the interviewing and hiring process.

Councilmember Dean Girbach brought this motion forward over concerns regarding Acting Manager Elle Cole, who was not selected as a finalist in the hiring process. According to Girbach, there are concerns regarding inappropriate discussions of workplace performance that did not follow standard procedure, violating Cole’s established rights as a city employee.

“From my perspective, one of the issues is that I believe there was some performance concerns that were reviewed at the hiring committee, by the hiring committee, without the presence of our internal candidate that had applied to the job,” Girbach said.

While not clarifying what was being looked into, Girbach also said he was concerned about a correlation between Cole’s current “investigation” into activities in the city and the fact that she is not a finalist for the position. Neither Cole nor Girbach explained the statement further. Other council members questioned why the discussion with candidates was done in a closed session rather than an open one.

“I thought the process was fair, and thoughtful, and thorough,” Mayor Marl, a member of the hiring committee, said, before addressing council member Girbach. “I don’t think much of what you’ve expressed tonight is accurate, quite frankly. We did go into a closed session, per the recommendation of our consultant, to protect the confidentiality of most, if not all, of our candidates who requested that. They requested discretion for obvious reasons, and they didn’t want their name advertised unless they were going to be a finalist. I have a lot of confidence and faith in the process, and I think it’s critically important that Council have confidence and faith in the process, especially processes that they establish, committees that they appoint and consultants that they retain.”

Councilmember Nicole Rice, another member of the hiring committee, echoed Marl’s reasoning behind the decision to have a closed session.

“We followed all of the procedures that were laid before us for the collection of information and for going into a closed session to discuss personnel information,” she said. “That was at the request of the candidates.”

Mayor Pro-Tem Janet Dillon and councilmember Jenn Harmount both raised concerns regarding the process itself, wanting to have further discussion on the hiring process, along with accusations by Girbach that Mayor Marl had discussed city matters via his personal email.

“I think disagreeing with the process is one thing,” Mayor Brian Marl said. “I think impugning the integrity and character of your colleagues is quite another.”

The motion to investigate further into the hiring committee failed 4-3. Girbach stated intent to continue these discussions in Saline’s next City Council meeting.

Public interviews with the finalist for the city manager position will be held at Saline City Hall tonight at 4pm.