The Clearwater City Council held a special work session on July 16, 2026, to interview four finalists for the position of City Attorney. The candidates were John (last name not provided), Owen Kohler, Andrew (last name not provided), and Camilo Soto. Each candidate gave a five-minute presentation on their vision for the first year, followed by questions from the council. The council also discussed the process and noted disappointment that an internal candidate, Mr. Middich, was not included among the finalists.
Mr. Time, I'll call to order the special work session of the Clearwater City Council for July sixteenth, twenty twenty-six, and we'll move to item two point one of the agenda. Good morning, Mayor Council Tiffany Macris, Human Resources Director. So this morning, um, before you will be the four finalists for the as the candidates for city attorney. They are each waiting by us, standing by in the next room in the conference room. So each this morning is prepared to give you a five-minute presentation on how they would see their first year as the new city attorney. At which point, once they're done with their presentation, the floor is open for any follow-up questions you may have. And um question I have for you is would you prefer to see them in alphabetical order this morning? I think that'd be fine. Okay. And so with that, I would be happy to play escort to go get them and bring them in and out and just let me know whenever you're ready. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. And then uh then we'll see what the if the council has any questions for you. SQR just uh mentioned that you wanted about five minutes on the first year. Yes. Uh thirty days are going to be uh intense assessment of the city attorney's office, all its staff individually, uh, as well as make contact and develop trust with the uh CM, the ACMs, and all the department heads, and figure out exactly what's the most effective way of delivering legal services to the city. Uh days thirty to ninety. Uh we're going to be going into a little more detail. Uh starting an audit legally of the city, starting a review of the charter, ordinances, policies, procedures, rules, uh to see where there may be any landmines. Uh where there aren't any landmines, we leave it alone, unless it's uh wordsmithing. I've yet to see land use ordinances that couldn't be tightened up with a little better English. Uh the balance of the year is going to be looking forward to projects like downtown and any long-term goals that may be uh before the uh commission uh council. And that's it in the sum. All right. Any uh questions from the council? Mr. Edmund. I'll go ahead, Mayor. Yeah. Uh thank you. John, nice to see you. Thank you for joining us again. Uh enjoyed our conversation yesterday. Apparently, we had so much fun, you're back for more. Glutton for punishment. I like to hear it. Oh, and so you know, I went through security, so I'm safe for now. Very important. John, when you and I spoke a little bit yesterday, um, we talked a little bit about uh the importance of culture and internal culture, not just throughout city staff but city attorney's office. Um you highlighted important to you uh three words uh mission first, people second, and self third. Can you share with the the rest of us a little bit deeper about that? Well, as they say in a separate habits of uh highly affected people, uh you know got to bring first things first. Uh first thing is making sure that in this case uh my mission. Well, perhaps it might be I don't believe I shared it with everyone, but if I can just take oops, sometimes paper and pencil look better. If I can just take a few moments uh in case I missed a couple of you on the uh mission statement that I had drafted tentatively, let's see, where did that go? Never find it when you need it. Oh, there we are. My goodness, I've got so many notes here.