The City Council backed off Monday night from a proposal to conduct a 360-degree review of South Portland City Manager Ted Jankowski, who has been on the job for less than a year.

The council instead will conduct standard evaluations of its three direct hires without seeking comments from city department heads or community stakeholders.

Jankowski, City Clerk Susan Mooney and City Attorney Mary Kahl will be evaluated by the full council in executive session.

Jankowski’s review comes at the end of his six-month probation period. The council had agreed to an early review because of ongoing concerns about his management.

The other two reviews are annual evaluations.

The council scheduled the closed-door reviews to start at 5 p.m. Monday at the South Portland Recreation Center.

Jankowski earlier this week expressed doubts that the council could conduct a fair 360-degree review without outside help from a human resources expert.

The evaluations are more common in the private sector and involve eliciting comments from colleagues and peers as well as supervisors.

“The council was trying to do an extensive review on their own and without special training. This is highly unusual for a six-month evaluation,” said Jankowski. “I know of no other municipality in Maine that does this.”

Michael Starn, communications director for the Maine Municipal Association, confirmed Monday that “these types of reviews seem quite rare in city government.”

“They are fairly avant-garde,” Starn said. “The traditional way is to have the review done by the person or persons who supervise the employee.”

The South Portland City Council agreed to conduct the standard reviews and continue trying to develop tools for more extensive evaluations.

City councilors will fill out written forms for the three evaluations. The feedback then will be provided to the employees.

The council opted to review Jankowski at the end of his six-month probation period because of concerns about his management style, Mayor Claude Morgan said this week.

“It is fair to say that there has been criticism and questions with each council member about whether the city manager is in synch with expectations,” Morgan said.

Specifically, Morgan said some councilors complain that Jankowski has discouraged city department heads from dealing with them.

“There’s concern that the city manager is hindering communication and trying to prevent the councilors from having direct contact” with city staff members, Morgan said.

Jankowski said he is aware of the complaints, but is trying to act as a clearing house to ensure that requests are prioritized and a record is kept of work as it is done.

Jankowski, who was hired in September 2006, said his goal is to bring well-established systems and procedures to practices at City Hall.

Jankowski also noted that some councilors question whether he somehow is to blame for recent turnover of high-level city employees, when none of the people who left publicly complained about him.

Councilor Jim Soule said in March that the city should look into whether dissatisfaction with Jankowski’s leadership influenced the resignations of Human Resources Director Brian Smith, Library Director Marian Peterson and Deputy Tax Assessor Craig Skelton.

At that same, City Attorney Kahl echoed his comments. She said that morale was low since Jankowski was hired, and that some veteran managers were looking for work elsewhere.

But Jankowski disagrees with those assessments. “I’m confident in my abilities and what I can accomplish,” Jankowski said. “The city has a lot of opportunity to move to the next level. But it’s time to put the acrimony behind us.”

Jankowski also complained that communication problems extend to the City Council. He said the council still has not clarified for him why a six-month job review is needed.

But Jankowski also expressed relief that the council plans a standard review for his evaluation. “The council seems committed to making the process more manageable,” he said.

Morgan noted that the council has been working for more than a year on developing job evaluations that involve community stakeholders and provide a broad picture of employee performance. Morgan is leading the effort.

Community members offer a “very valuable voice,” Morgan said. “Obviously, what we do with the information and how we process it is a different matter.”