Title
Resolution to Approve the DDA Board’s Hire of an Executive Director
Staff
Maura K. Thompson Interim Executive Director, Downtown Development Authority
Body
Whereas, Public Act 57 of 2018 The Recodified Tax Increment Financing Act (PA57) authorizes the DDA Board to hire and fix the compensation of an executive director subject to the approval of the governing body of the municipality;
Whereas, PA57 also stipulates that the director shall serve at the pleasure of the Board, and shall be the chief executive officer of the Authority;
Whereas, The previous executive director retired on January 29, 2021;
Whereas, The DDA Board authorized contracting with GovHR to assist the DDA Board with the search process in its Resolution to Approve the Selection of GovHR USA LLC to Conduct Search for the next DDA Executive Director;
Whereas, GovHR, in preparation for this search, interviewed DDA staff, DDA Board members, City staff, and City Council members and used the information gathered to prepare a recruitment brochure and job posting for the position;
Whereas, GovHR posted the position on national job boards and marketed the position through key professional organizations, and also vetted candidates through one on one interviews, social media searches, and the contacting of references;
Whereas, GovHR received over 100 applications for the position and provided resumes and cover letters for eight semi-finalists to the Search Committee which reviewed those finalists in a closed session on October 8, 2021 and upon returning to open session did narrow the slate of candidates to four and did direct GovHR to schedule first-round interviews with the those candidates on October 28, 2021;
Whereas, The Search Committee did interview four candidates at an open meeting on October 28, 2021, and on the following day did hold another open meeting in which they selected three candidates to move forward for interviews with the full DDA Board;
Whereas, The DDA Board did publicly interview three candidates at a special meeting held on November 8;
Whereas, The DDA Board did meet again on November 9 and November 16 to deliberate on their selection and that at that meeting the DDA Board did approve The Resolution to Authorize an Offer of Employment to Jeffery D. Watson which authorized the DDA Board Chair to negotiate the terms of an employment agreement with Mr. Watson;
Whereas, Terms of employment were agreed on by the parties and formalized in the Employment Agreement between the Ann Arbor DDA and Jeffrey D. Watson; and
Whereas, The terms of employment include participation in City benefit programs provided to Non-Union employees, under the terms and agreements of such individual plans and an annual base salary of $142,000.00;
RESOLVED, That the Ann Arbor City Council approves the Resolution to Approve the DDA Board’s hire of Jeffrey D. Watson as DDA Executive Director.