Interviews Are Done But Council Defers Winnowing Down City Attorney Applicant Pool
The process of winnowing down the applicant pool for the open East Lansing City Attorney position will begin in earnest next week at City Council’s Jan. 25 meeting.
After completing five interviews last Thursday and a sixth just prior to Tuesday’s discussion-only meeting, Council members struggled to agree on a process to select a smaller group of candidates to proceed with.
Mayor Ron Bacon said he’d like to have Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg’s input on how to handle the process, plus give her time to listen to the recording of the interview done on Tuesday with the Clark Hill firm. Gregg missed the interview and discussion-only meeting on Tuesday due to contracting Covid-19 last week.
Thus, with all the interviews done as of last evening, City Council will wait until next Tuesday to discuss what process they’ll use to pick their preferred applicants. From there, it seems apparent that the City will check the references of the firms or attorneys selected for further consideration. The rest of the process prior to choosing a firm to negotiate with is unclear.
Council member George Brookover applied to be City Attorney the last time the job came open and said no references were checked that time around. He was intent on checking them this time around, saying that he would not hire someone without checking their references.
Council member Lisa Babcock said she was concerned that deferring the action until Tuesday would mean that the City is likely to be spending another month paying Foster Swift for legal services without a cost cap.
She had hoped to get further along in the process tonight and appeared keen on naming her preference for prosecutor. Robert Easterly, the Foster Swift attorney who is currently handling the bulk of the City’s prosecutorial work, was the only person to apply only for the role of prosecutor.
However, it was unlikely that Council would’ve managed to select a firm to negotiate with and hammered out a contract before the end of January, regardless of the outcome of the discussion-only meeting on Tuesday.
Bacon countered Babcock and stated his desire to be patient and deliberate throughout this process.
“This needs to be a really good pick and the right decision needs to be made here,” Bacon said. “And I’d hate to hurry up and rush — in any way — through this process, because it’s been such a sensitive and really cantankerous issue around here. So I’d rather do it right. Measure twice, and cut once, kind of thing.”