SEQUIM — This town could be called “troubled,” even “broken,” city manager recruiter Greg Prothman told the City Council on Monday morning.
By any measure, Sequim has had a hard, expensive time in its hunt for the top City Hall administrator.
After the council fired City Manager Bill Elliott on May 5, the members opted to bring in Lee Walton, retired manager of Bainbridge Island, as a consultant.
Walton and city staffers posted the job opening and took applications, and the council chose three finalists and brought them to town Nov. 7.
Then negotiations with the finalists fell apart. The council bade farewell to the applicants the night of Nov. 8.
On Nov. 10, interim city manager and Police Chief Robert Spinks announced that he has a growth on his auditory nerve. It’s not cancerous, he said, but it requires surgery.
Spinks urged the City Council to hire Prothman, a Bellevue-based executive search firm — aka headhunter — to first find another interim chief and then recruit a permanent boss.
Too aggressive, mayor says
So on Monday, Prothman appeared at the council’s study session.
But before he could come to the podium, Mayor Laura Dubois termed Spinks’ push for Prothman aggressive, and called a 15-minute closed session to discuss other options.
Spinks is attending the Washington Association of Police Chiefs conference in Pasco this week, so City Attorney Craig Ritchie, now also acting city manager, went into the executive session with the council.
The members emerged saying nothing about how they might proceed in the search for a permanent boss.
Prothman’s first recommendation then was to “go slow.”
If the council looks for candidates now, he said, it won’t find a high-quality pool. The would-be applicants out there will probably see Sequim as a turbulent place with “a divided council,” Prothman said.
He urged the council members to learn to work together — and seek city manager candidates “eight to 10 months down the road.”
Council reaction
Council member Ken Hays took issue with Prothman’s assertion, saying that Sequim had found plenty of good candidates during its recent search.
And, Hays said, city managers are a gutsy group, inclined to stand up to challenging environments.
Council member and former mayor Walt Schubert, on the other hand, agreed with Prothman.
“We’ve spent almost $200,000, and we’re nowhere,” Schubert said, referring to the $152,318 settlement paid to Elliott plus the ensuing expenses and staff time devoted to the search for a successor.
In an interview, Schubert added that the Sequim council is “dysfunctional.” He wants his fellow members to hire Prothman, and soon, to find an interim city manager.
“There’s a group known as range riders,” Schubert said.
“They’re very experienced city managers who like to come in and solve problems and get things calmed down.”
Before Elliott was hired in June 2000, Stan McNutt served as interim manager for several months, Schubert said.
“He was wonderful,” the former mayor said.
“He got the council together. He is one of my heroes.”
But McNutt is retired, so Prothman would need to find some other range rider to pull in to Sequim.
“I’m hoping that will be the process,” so the quest for a permanent manager can restart sometime next year, Schubert said.
One of several routes
In an interview Monday evening, Dubois said hiring Prothman is one of several routes the council will consider as it seeks a way forward.
She has asked Waldron and Co., a Seattle search firm, to give a presentation during the council’s meeting at 6 p.m. next Monday in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Waldron is being used by Port Angeles in its efforts to recruit a new city manager.
As for an interim manager to replace Spinks, Dubois wants to move quickly, she said.
She said the council may turn to the Association of Washington Cities and International City/County Management Association for help.
“We will take action,” she promised.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
