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Personnel committee untables appointments and withdraws other items; Pamela Gonal cleared by ethics letter
Summary
At the Personnel committee meeting April 28, members untable and advanced consideration of Pamela Gonal’s appointment after the city’s ethics review; the committee also withdrew or dismissed several long-tabled items, including a police chief search update and a redevelopment authority appointment.
The Personnel committee convened April 28 and took up several tabled items, including the confirmation of Pamela Gonal as assistant commissioner of Health and Code Services.
The committee voted to untable item 38-25—confirmation of Pamela Gonal—and reviewed an ethics commission letter that staff said cleared the candidate for permanent appointment if she files a disclosure and abstains from decisions involving her husband’s company. The committee chair read legal advice provided to the city that stated in relevant part: “...filing a disclosure and abstaining from any decision involving her husband's company, she is free to be appointed permanent.” Following that explanation, members discussed whether to request additional paperwork; some members said Ms. Gonal had already submitted required materials and an interview had been conducted, while another member suggested asking for any outstanding documentation from her college assignment. The committee moved forward on the item consistent with the ethics advice.
Separately, the committee motioned to untable but then withdraw or remove several long-standing items: a police chief position search-committee update (item 393-23) and the appointment of Modesto Maldonado to the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority board (item 1022). Members said they had received updates outside the committee and that some nominees were no longer interested.
The Personnel committee concluded by adjourning; no formal objections to the ethics commission advice were recorded during the discussion. The committee did not record a final confirmation vote for Ms. Gonal in the transcript excerpted here; staff indicated the ethics commission’s written advice had resolved the outstanding hold on the appointment.
