Black Diamond council members approved former city council member Janie Edelman to the city’s civil service commission Thursday, July 7, in a 4-2 vote.

This was the second time Mayor Carol Benson proposed Edelman for the position. The council took the same vote on Edelman’s application at their June 2 council meeting, but failed to approve her in a 3-3 tied vote.

Civil service commissioners are volunteers who help cities and other government bodies select hires for important city jobs, particularly in law enforcement.

In Black Diamond’s case, the job is not complicated: A panel interviews candidates, then scores their performance and sends that information to the city to calculate. The city then asks the civil service commission to certify the scores, according to Black Diamond police commander Brian Martinez and city clerk Brenda Martinez.

The commissioners can’t change the scores, Brenda Martinez clarified; they only certify the scores and that the hiring process was proper.

At their June 2 meeting, council members Leih Mulvihill, Tamie Deady, and Debbie Page voted to confirm Edelman, but Bernie O’Donnell, Kristiana de Leon and Trish Stallard voted against confirmation, citing concerns that the council didn’t know Edelman’s qualifications and that the commission’s meeting time (11 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month) had made it inconvenient for many residents to apply for the job, resulting in Edelman being the only person who applied.

de Leon also raised concern over Edelman’s earlier statements on social media about the council’s previous attempt to draft an inclusion proclamation.

With Benson and council member Therron Smith unavailable for the meeting, the tie couldn’t be broken, so the motion failed at that meeting.

Benson asked the council to confirm Edelman’s appointment again at the July 7 meeting, and Edelman came before the council this time to answer their questions. (She was unavailable at the June 2 meeting due to a conflicting meeting.)

“I asked Janie to apply,” Benson said, adding that Edelman was a “very honest, reliable” member on the council who has been involved in the city for years.

The appointment is only to fill a vacated seat through December this year, after which the city could select a new commissioner. Benson said the city will keep advertising for the position in the meantime.

The civil service commission position has been regularly advertised since last year, Benson said, and Edelman is the only person who ever applied. As far as the weekday meeting time, it was chosen because the commission has to work with city staff while they’re on the clock, Benson said. Furthermore, the commission itself would have to vote to change its own hours.

“It would be different if this was a competitive position opening,” Edelman told the council. “It’s not. No one is applying. How many of you ran in the last election without an opponent?”

Waiting to fill the seat risks delaying hiring at a time when the department is down five officers, council member Page said. The commission is currently at only two of its three-person membership, and if one of the current members can’t attend a meeting, the commission is unable to reach a quorum — meaning the hiring process would be stuck. (Black Diamond competes with other cities for the cream of the crop of prospective officers.)

“There’s opportunity for improvement in the process, but delaying the appointment of Ms. Edelman only hurts our city,” Page said. “Everything we’ve done as a council, we seem so committed to making sure the police department has everything they need, (and) recruiting is at the top of the job list. … It’s been a month and we don’t have a list of other candidates. We didn’t have a troop of people coming in. It’s time to move this forward.”

O’Donnell stressed that his original ‘No’ vote was simply because he didn’t know Edelman’s qualifications, not because he had any particular issue with her, and he didn’t want the council to become “a rubber stamp” on the mayor’s appointments.

“I didn’t know your qualifications and no one provided that,” he said. “I recognized your name … but there was nothing provided to say the council should confirm this.”

Edelman responded that any of the council members could have called her — her contact info was listed on her application — and asked her for that information. And between her time serving on the city’s public safety committee and serving on the selection committee for one of the city’s police sergeants, Edelman asked rhetorically what other experience the council expected of her.

Council members de Leon and Smith both brought up concerns over how Edelman responded to the council’s attempts to draft an inclusion proclamation during a previous work-study session.

“I have concerns about folks who may balk, or question, or intimate that a statement of inclusivity is a waste of time,” Smith said. “That’s not a partisan thing. … (It’s) a notion and embracement of human rights writ large.”

Edelman acknowledged calling the work-study session itself “a joke” in a post on Facebook but said she was speaking specifically to the process the council took, not the proclamation itself.

“I don’t have a problem with the document itself,” Edelman said. “I’m all for that document. It was the process. … To me, it didn’t need to be a work-study.”

de Leon acknowledged the urgency of filling the commission seat but said the city shouldn’t pick someone just because they’re the sole applicant.

“I thank the former council member for her service,” de Leon said. “I still don’t know if this is the right fit for this kind of position. I hope going forward we can find additional applicants who can speak for additional lived experiences.”

Ultimately, council members de Leon and Smith voted against the appointment, and O’Donnell joined Mulvihill, Deady and Page in successfully voting to appoint Edelman. (Council member Trish Stallard was absent from the meeting.)

Also on Thursday, the council…

• Held a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to adopt new stormwater management regulations and to update the city code.

• Unanimously adopted a resolution updating the city’s school impact fee schedule.

• Held a preliminary discussion, raised by council member O’Donnell, about creating a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program for the city. DEI programs are used by workplaces and governments to addresses biases, improve relationships with employees and communities and teach people from different backgrounds to better work together.