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CF246EBA2B8B7FE4872589DD005CC63A Hearing Summary




PUBLIC
BILL SUMMARY For COMMITTEE DISCUSSION CONCERNING SEARCH PROCESS FOR DIRECTOR OF THE OLLS

JOINT COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ON LEGAL SERVICES
Date Jun 29, 2023      
Location SCR 357



Committee discussion concerning search process for Director of the OLLS - Committee Discussion Only
10:52:43 AM  
Senator Gardner commented
on the topic of narrowing the advertisement to only people licensed in
Colorado with legislative experience.
10:53:09 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, asked if the timeline to have a new director by September 1st
is doable.
10:53:46 AM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
explained that, yes, he thinks it is still doable as long as the committee
has time in their schedules and added that the executive committee is scheduled
to have a meeting on August 31st where they could appoint the candidate.
10:54:44 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked if the process for hiring a new is Joint Budget Committee
(JBC) director is concurrently underway.
10:55:42 AM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
explained that the JBC has made recommendations to the executive committee
and they are appointing a candidate on July 13th.
10:56:03 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked the committee to discuss any changes to the job description
and hiring timeline they have.
10:57:29 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, asked how soon they need to have a candidate to recommend so
the executive committee has time to interview the candidate(s) too.
11:01:17 AM  
Senator Gonzales
asked if Senator Moreno has any recommendations on timeline.
11:01:50 AM  
Senator Moreno stated
that the executive committee had two weeks for the JBC candidates.
11:02:42 AM  
Representative Weissman
commented on the timeline.
11:03:54 AM  
Senator Gardner commented
on how the committee should narrow down the candidates they decide to interview.
11:07:04 AM  
Representative Weissman
stated that he thinks the committee is small enough size to all review
resumes and interview together and discussed his idea on how the process
should go through the use of a matrix to narrow down candidates.
11:10:04 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, agreed on Representative Weissman's ideas of how the process
should happen and added that interviews and recommendations to the executive
committee should all happen on one single day.
11:13:13 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, supported the entire committee being involved in reviewing resumes
and asked if tomorrow is doable to put out the job description or if that
would be too soon.
11:15:37 AM  
Senator Gardner asked
if deciding who to interview by a matrix rather than in executive session
is okay open-meetings-wise.
11:17:10 AM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
explained that the matrix works but that in the past the committee has
always discussed who they want to interview in executive session and recommended
the committee do so too after using the matrix.
11:18:32 AM  
Senator Moreno commented
that determining the scope of the applicant pool will organically help
the committee decide on timeline.
11:19:05 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked the committee who they want to open up the application to,
aside from just internally.
11:20:33 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, explained that he doesn't believe the committee needs a recruiter
but can open up the pool nationally through the American Bar Association,
NCSL, and LinkedIn.
11:21:47 AM  
Representative Weissman
agreed that there should be a meeting after using the matrix to choose
candidates to interview and gave thoughts on where the job advertisement
should be posted.
11:24:42 AM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, explained what the scope can be and what the scope has been in the
past. Then she asked about direction on what the matrix would look like
so they can get started on it and asked the committee to define their scope
clearly first.
11:28:04 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, commented the he believes the committee should have the scope
open nationwide but should focus most effort on posting the job within
the state.
11:30:09 AM  
Representative Wilson
discussed limiting the job postings for now and then widening the net if
not enough applicants come in.
11:30:45 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, discussed adding to the job requirements that the candidate be an
attorney-at-law barred in Colorado, which would limit the national candidate
pool.
11:34:18 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, agreed the applicants should be licensed in Colorado and there
should be a strong preference given to someone with experience with the
Colorado legislative process.
11:35:19 AM  
Senator Moreno supported
the direction the committee is headed and agreed that the requirement to
be barred in Colorado will act as a good filter to limit candidates.
11:36:26 AM  
Representative Weissman
agreed it should be limited to those licensed in Colorado and that having
legislative experience in Colorado also makes sense.
11:38:19 AM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, explained the downside of limiting the scope to being licensed in
Colorado and that stating it as a strong preference rather than a requirement
might be good.
11:39:38 AM  
Senator Gardner commented
on insights from a previous hiring process for Legislative Council Staff
(LCS).
11:42:04 AM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, brought up the point that the committee may not want to conduct a
nationwide search if they are satisfied with how the OLLS currently operates.
11:43:25 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, expressed that she personally would like candidates who understand
the particulars of the Colorado legislature since the job is so niche.
11:46:04 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked the committee to decide on the final scope.


11:47:02 AM
 Motion I move that the committee set the scope of the director search as being nationwide and advertise through NCSL, CSG, and the American Bar Association but that the focus of the search be in the state of Colorado advertised through the General Assembly's website, in our sister-branches of government, the Colorado Bar Association, and the other associations listed in the 2017 director search including the Asian and Pacific Bar Association, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, and the Women's Bar Association, that the job description and job advertisement include a strong preference for a Colorado licensed attorney with Colorado legislative experience, and that the postings be online rather than in print.
Moved Soper
Seconded
Dickson Excused
Gardner Yes
Mabrey Yes
Moreno Yes
Roberts Yes
Van Winkle Yes
Weissman Yes
Wilson Yes
Soper Yes
Gonzales Yes
YES: 9   NO: 0   EXC: 1   ABS:  0   FINAL ACTION:  PASS
11:49:20 AM  
Committee discussed
the motion and revisions to the motion.
11:53:24 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, moved on to discussing process and timeline.
11:54:05 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, asked Senator Moreno if there is wiggle room to cut into the
two weeks given to the executive committee for interviews.
11:54:30 AM  
Senator Moreno explained
that there is likely flexibility.
11:55:12 AM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked if the committee were to extend the deadline for applications
to the 21st of July if that would work for the timeline.
11:56:02 AM  
Senator Gardner clarified
that there will need to be two meetings after the application deadline
and asked when those will happen.
11:56:54 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, asked how long it will take to get the package of resumes of
applicants.
11:57:58 AM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
stated that the office will add resumes to the box account as they come
in and added that the office will be able to get the job advertisement
out by July 7th.
11:59:30 AM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, asked if the committee believes two weeks of having the application
period open is adequate for the posting for a position as large as this.
12:01:13 PM  
Representative Wilson
commented that he agrees that the committee should review resumes and add
them to the matrix as soon as they come in to stay on top of things.
12:01:58 PM  
Representative Weissman
agreed that the committee should have one meeting to choose who to interview
and a second meeting to do all the interviews and choose their candidate(s)
to recommend and that the job application deadline should be pushed out
a week.
12:04:47 PM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, agreed with pushing out the application deadline by a week.
12:05:50 PM  
Senator Moreno agreed
with the timeline being discussed and asked staff if the timeline is logistically
workable.
12:06:15 PM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
stated he believes the timeline is doable and that the office can make
candidates anonymous if they would like.


12:07:30 PM
 Motion I move that the timeline for the hiring process be as follows: the job advertisement will be posted the week of July 4th, the application window will close July 28th at 11:59 p.m. MDT, the committee will meet August 9th at 2:00 p.m. to discuss who to interview, and the committee will meet on August 22nd at 9:00 a.m. to interview their chosen candidates and make recommendations to the executive committee.
Moved Soper
Seconded
Dickson Excused
Gardner Yes
Mabrey Yes
Moreno Yes
Roberts Yes
Van Winkle Yes
Weissman Yes
Wilson Yes
Soper Yes
Gonzales Yes
YES: 9   NO: 0   EXC: 1   ABS:  0   FINAL ACTION:  PASS
12:08:36 PM  
Committee discussed
the motion and revisions to the motion.
12:13:49 PM  
The committee recessed.
12:20:10 PM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, circled back to discussing the job description.
12:20:34 PM  
Senator Moreno discussed
adding, to the job description, being able to interpret legislative rules
and the role of presenting the office's budget to the executive committee.
12:21:28 PM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
pointed out that there is currently no salary range for the position and
that they're required to have one by state law.
12:22:09 PM  
Representative Weissman
summarized the state law regarding posting salaries on job advertisements
and stated the he believes a broad range satisfies the requirement.
12:24:12 PM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, explained that the office has salary ranges they can use as a guide.
12:30:51 PM  
Senator Moreno stated
it might be helpful to have LCS advise on what they did for their job posting
salary range.
12:32:30 PM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked if there is any further discussion.
12:32:41 PM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
asked if the committee would like anonymization of resumes.
12:32:55 PM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, asked if the resumes are anonymized, when they'll receive the candidates'
names before the interviews.
12:33:19 PM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
stated that the names will be revealed for the interviews to the members
but not to the public until the recommendations to the executive committee
are made.
12:34:20 PM  
Senator Moreno supported
the anonymization.
12:35:03 PM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, explained that the anonymization is just to remove unconscious bias
rather than redact all personal information.
12:35:56 PM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, commented on the anonymization and what would be redacted.
12:38:02 PM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, explained that not all personal information in a cover letter is
redacted.
12:38:50 PM  
Jerry Barry, OLLS,
added that the redactions would include year of graduation or anything
that indicates age.
12:39:05 PM  
Senator Gonzales,
chair, clarified that at the August 9th meeting they also need to notify
candidates who they aren't going to interview that the process is over
for them and thank them for applying.
12:40:34 PM  
Representative Weissman
asked if the office will draft a rubric for narrowing down candidates.
12:40:52 PM  
Jennifer Gilroy,
OLLS, stated that yes, the office can make them a rubric.
12:41:32 PM  
Representative Weissman
asked that the rubric be circulated in advance so they can review it and
asked that there be a rubric for interviews too.
12:43:09 PM  
Representative Soper,
vice chair, agreed on the rubric.






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