The Human Resources Committee for the Lima City Council held a special meeting to discuss how the council can help the city administration better their hiring process, but much like the current process, it was not all smooth sailing.
The meeting focused on an ordinance that was introduced to take up a contract with a temp agency to fill empty positions, as it was determined the current process takes too long to work through. The city has raised concerns that the ordinance would disrupt their relationship with the labor unions and that the unions were not willing to negotiate, but just before the meeting began the council received a three-page letter from a labor representative that largely contradicted what the city has been saying. This prompted some back and forth that eventually led to the committee breaking the meeting for the time being so the city can review the letter.
"What we decided to do tonight is go ahead and take a break from the meeting, let the law director look at the letter that was handed to us, and let everyone come together with facts that they have found," says Committee Chair, 4th Ward Councilor Rebecca Kreher. "We as a committee cannot make smart decisions with things coming right at us without information being correct."
The committee moved to recommend to the council to pass the ordinance, which will go through its third read in council on Monday, May 7, 2018.
