Leo Robinson, who chairs the Evaluation Committee, announced this week that City Manager Jay Ash will receive an overall excellent evaluation from the city council’s annual evaluation team.
For approximately one month, councillors have been convening to assess Ash’s performance across the numerous categories included in his yearly evaluation. Three public meetings were conducted on the matter, with the final session concluding this week.
Robinson stated: “fblikebutton_button” “Overall, he’s going to get a rating of excellent. We’re going to fine tune the report and then present it at the next Council meeting to the all of the Council.”
According to Robinson, Ash earned excellent scores across most evaluation areas, with the exceptions being public safety and Personnel/Administration, where he received ratings of ‘Good.’
“The Council generally wants to see more police walking beats and the police have not been consistent in complying to that request and we would like to see that become better,” Robinson explained.
Regarding the Personnel/Administration rating, Robinson noted that the concern centered on union relations. While the Council acknowledged that Ash has built an excellent team and prioritized local hiring, they felt union matters warranted improvement.
“On union related matters, the Council believes a more collaborative approach is desirable,” Robinson said.
In eight other categories, Ash received ‘Excellent’ ratings.
Robinson added: “Other than those two identified things, we didn’t disagree on anything. As far as financing goes, we just got the upgraded ‘AA’ bond rating, and the neighborhood development and economic development successes speak for themselves.”
The Council’s final meeting of the year is scheduled for Dec. 16, when the evaluation will be presented to all members.