Franklin City Council interviews city manager candidate in closed session; negotiations to continue

Franklin City Council met in a special call session Feb. 16 and entered a closed session to interview a candidate for city manager, then certified the closed session and said negotiations with a second candidate will continue the next night.

The chair opened the meeting at 7:01 p.m., citing the Franklin City Charter, Section 3.04, as the authority for holding the special meeting. The chair said the session was requested by Councilman McLemore and Councilman Johnson and turned the meeting over to them to restate the meeting’s purpose.

During roll call the council recorded Dr. Johnson, Councilor Banks, Ms. Copeland and Mr. McLemore as present; Mr. Grizard and Mr. Kitchen were absent. The chair noted that a candidate for city manager, Mr. Freeman, was present for the interview.

A motion to go into closed session was made and seconded and members voted to move into closed session. The chair later announced the closed session time as 8:13 p.m. After returning to open session, a council member moved to “certify that to the best of each member’s knowledge” the council had discussed only matters exempted from open meeting requirements; multiple members responded, “I certify,” to record compliance.

The chair told the council, “we met with a candidate for city manager and the negotiations will continue with the second candidate tomorrow night,” and no appointment or final action on the hiring was announced at the meeting.

The council then moved to adjourn and voted in the affirmative.

No votes to appoint or employ a city manager were recorded in the public portion of the meeting; the council said further negotiations and consideration will take place at the next scheduled meeting of the special hiring process.