Lemoore City Council approves three-year contract for Jeff Laws 4-1 in packed council chamber

Laws has been the interim city manager since the council let go former city manager Jeff Briltz in March. Since then, the city has sought a new city manager. A total of only 16 prospective applicants vied for the job and four were selected for final interviews. Laws was not one of the final four. Several persons in the audience spoke out in favor of Laws hiring, citing his integrity.

"I find him to be a man of integrity who asks his employees to put in an honest day's work and treats the citizens of Lemoore with the respect they deserve," said the Lemoore Recreation Department's Sheila Taylor.

However, Lemoore Councilmember Eddie Neal, wasn't as forthcoming with his praise of Laws. While acknowledging that Laws is good chief of police, Neal, who voted against the contract, wondered what kind of message the council was sending by hiring laws. "What kind of message are we sending?" he said. If I want to work at Leprino, I have to take a test. I don't care how many people say you're a good guy ... if you don't pass the test you're not going to get that job.

"I know he's a great man," Neal continued. "I don't have anything against Jeff Laws. He's a great chief of police, but we want a city manager, not a chief of police." Neal said that if education doesn't mean anything, then let "me be the chief of police. Let me be a director of something. Our community wants somebody who is qualified to do the job."

The council, in the early stages of its manager search, opted for a set of guidelines which allowed Laws, the recently appointed interim city manager and Administrative Analyst J.P. Prichard, to review city manager applicants before sending the finalists to an expert panel of former city managers to interview those remaining applicants. From there a citizens’ panel reviewed and narrowed the final list to four.

Laws, 50, started with the City of Lemoore in 1997 as a police commander and was second-in-command for several years before taking up the chief’s reins when former Chief of Police Kim Morrell retired. Since the sacking of Briltz, Laws has held the dual roles of city manager and police chief.

Early in the process Laws indicated he was not interested in the city manager position but did end up interviewing for the job, despite not having gone through the formal evaluation process, and not having any previous experience in city management.

At least one councilmember isn’t very happy about the prospect of Laws getting the job full time. “He didn’t go through the normal process,” said Councilmember Neal. “It was all pre-planned. I feel our city is getting cheated.”

Neal said Laws is a great police chief but he’s not qualified to be city manager. “He shouldn’t be there. I feel it was all pre-planned,” he said adding that Laws plays poker with Mayor Billy Siegel and Councilmember John Gordon and that could send wrong messages to citizens.

The Leader contacted Councilmember John Gordon for a comment, but he did not respond.

Laws has asked for and will receive a three-year contract valued at $9,809 starting pay per month. His contract also includes retirement, an automobile and expenses, and all benefits normally given to employees.

Council can terminate the city manager at any time, but must pay the remainder of his salary, or 18 months’ severance, whichever is less, if asked to leave by council. The contract also states that the city manager cannot be immediately terminated following a change, or elections of new councilmembers, so as to “allow any newly elected or appointed member of the city council or a reorganized city council to directly observe the actions and ability of the City Manager in the performance of the powers and duties of his office.”

Also included in the contract are terms for termination, which include the following pair of items:

• Failure to disclose pertinent information to the City Council
• Failure to follow direction given by the City Council at a duly convened meeting

Earlier this year, Siegel and Gordon attempted to create a special liaison that would shadow the city manager and report back to council. Siegel claimed that he and council often didn’t receive pertinent information from former manager Briltz. The liaison was voted down 3-2 with councilmembers Neal, Lois Wynne and Willard Rodarmel dissenting.