By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — The Clarkston City Council approved the acceptance of city Manager Jonathan Smith’s performance evaluation last week at the council’s regular meeting on Aug. 26
The evaluation was done by a city council subcommittee made up of Mayor Sue Wylie, Councilmember Gary Casey and planning commission chair Derek Werner.
Annual evaluations seek to take a critical look at the performance of the city manager as well as allow for an introspective look at the relationship between the Clarkston City Council and the manager to provide an opportunity for the council to align expectations, and re-establish the goals and objectives for the City of the Village of Clarkston.
According to council documents, the three members of the committee prepared the 2024 performance evaluation after seeking input from others on council and in the community which was then presented to Smith in June.
“The city manager had no questions about the evaluation and thanked the sub-committee for their efforts,” said Wylie. “In a discussion in the Aug. 12 city council meeting, council agreed that additional input from councilmembers and residents would be sought for future performance evaluations.”
Accompanying documents show that Smith was evaluated on seven categories: professional development, organizational management, intermediate and long range planning, fiscal management, intergovernmental relationships, relationship with the public and management of and relationships with employees.
All seven categories had various individual subjects of review and for each of the individual subjects, Smith was given a rating of zero to three. Zero being not applicable or not enough information, one being unsatisfactory, two being satisfactory and three being outstanding.
Smith received twos and threes across the board with the exception of a few subjects that were not applicable in the fiscal management category.
The committee also provided comments and suggestions going forward in categories where they felt it necessary like professional development, organizational management, fiscal management and management of and relationships with employees.
Some added comments in the evaluation including several positive remarks on Smith’s performance as well as some comments expressing concern over the issues with the city’s police services contract that went undiscovered for roughly 14 years and was not resolved until recently.
The council unanimously approved accepting the evaluation.