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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,February 24, 2014 Page 27 trary point to renegotiate a contract after four years versus using the regular chan- nel used for all other non-union employees of the City. Councilmember Etten clarified that no other employee has a contract with sever- ance included; with the City manager being an unusual and unique position and the only contractual position entered into by the City Council. Councilmember Willmus concurred, opining that Section 7 was included for pro- tection of the City and was not unusual. If looking deeper in the contract, includ- ing Section 14, Councilmember Willmus noted that this contract could be renego- tiated at any point; and opined that he did not share the same concerns of Coun- cilmember McGehee. For the record, City Attorney Gaughan pointed out and drew attention to State Statute language that the City Council must appoint a City Manager for a term in- definite; and clarified Section 6.a.1 (page 3), and Item b (page 4) as well address- ing removal of the City Manager without cause and the employee at their own vo- lition. Mr. Gaughan further clarified that Section 14 did not mandate that the ap- pointment terminated, with this contract in fact strictly speaking for an indefinite time, with severance and other provisions intact, but simply terminating four years from now, and in accordance with and satisfying state law. Specific to the termination clause, Mr. Gaughan noted that this is of benefit to the City Manager as well, and takes into account, that in 3.5 years from now, he's still doing a fan- tastic job for the City, he has traversed through a lessening degree of severance, leaving him leverage for negotiations. Mr. Gaughan opined that this balances the interests of the City and the City Manager, and if the City wants to end the con- tract after four years, no severance would be given if deemed appropriate; howev- er, if he was performing up to their expectations, it benefited him as it provided him with more leverage. Councilmember Laliberte thanked the subcommittee for working on this; and while she was hoping they would negotiate and come up with a new document versus using the previous agreement as a model, she understood in practice that this was what was done. Councilmember Laliberte expressed her general agree- ment with what had been negotiated; and in some areas, opined that it was proba- bly more generous in certain terms than if she had served on the subcommittee. Mayor Roe noted that there was always a balance and challenge in making those decisions. In response to City Attorney Gaughan, Councilmember McGehee agreed that the benefit appeared to be in the interest of the City Manager versus the City; and opined that if future negotiations failed, the City faced a disruption. Coun- cilmember McGehee further opined that, in agreement with Councilmember