Personnel committee sends top three finalists from each division to full council for final interviews

The Lawrence City Personnel and Administration Committee voted Tuesday to forward the top three finalists in each division — education, finance and legal — to the full City Council for final interviews.

Councilor Luzon moved to send the top three finalists for education, then accepted a friendly amendment from the committee chair to apply the change across all divisions. The city attorney confirmed the procedure was permissible. In a roll-call vote called by the clerk, Councilor Anna Levy voted no; Councilor Wendy Luzon and the chair voted yes. The motion carried.

The committee began the meeting with an update that one applicant was unavailable for interview because of a personal emergency and that HR had completed tallies of scores from the preliminary interviews. Committee members debated whether to expand the number of finalists for education alone; the chair said any increase for one area should be applied across all divisions to avoid perceptions of unfairness. "If we're going to make any changes, it has to be across the board," the chair said.

Because the council president is serving as acting mayor and therefore unable to participate in council votes under council rules, the final interviews originally scheduled for that night were postponed and tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 2. The chair asked the clerk to notify the third-ranked candidates in each division so they can be prepared for the full-council interviews unless the council president later changes the schedule.

Councilor Levy expressed hesitation about increasing finalists and said she preferred to keep the two-finalist practice but would go with the majority vote. The committee recorded no amendments to the motion other than the accepted friendly amendment to expand the finalist pool to all divisions.

With procedural steps complete, the committee approved a motion to adjourn and ended the meeting. The full City Council will conduct the final interviews on the date set by the council president; HR will notify candidates of any changes or meeting logistics.