SEQUIM — Linda Herzog got to be Sequim’s interim city manager via dinner at the Olympic Timber House in Quilcene.
It seems a friend of Sequim City Attorney Craig Ritchie dined there recently, ran into Herzog and recommended her, Ritchie said on Tuesday.
The Sequim City Council, in a whirlwind of activity Monday night, voted to hire Herzog and retain the Seattle recruiter Waldron & Co., to hunt for a permanent city manager next spring.
Ritchie is negotiating salary and accommodations for Herzog now, and hopes to present a draft contract to the City Council during its Monday study session.
That meeting will start at 9 a.m. in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Herzog, meantime, will finish her current job as interim deputy manager of Mercer Island, and talk with Ritchie about a place to live in Sequim.
She’ll arrive in her City Hall office in early December, Ritchie said.
Herzog has held interim management jobs in Mercer Island and Renton since 2001, and worked with King County on its Jail Task Force in 2007.
From 2003 to 2005, she served as associate director of the University of Washington’s Urban Health Initiative, a set of programs aimed at improving children’s health in Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., Philadelphia, Richmond, Va., and Detroit.
A Washington, D.C., native, Herzog moved to Seattle in 1970 to work for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She entered city government much later as Redmond’s deputy executive from 1991 to 2001.
Reached in her office at lunch time Tuesday, Herzog said she’s eager to tackle Sequim’s issues. And yes, she’s heard about the differences of opinion on the City Council.
“I’ve spoken with the mayor, [Laura Dubois], about the discomfort the new council has about the pace of growth. It’s manageable,” she said. “I’m sure [Sequim] has its growing pains . . . that’s quite normal.”
Herzog believes that while the officials may argue over growth — and an array of other issues — “they all have at heart a commitment to the community.”
Herzog will replace Robert Spinks, the Sequim police chief who’s been interim city manager since May 5.
That was the day the council fired Bill Elliott due to a management style the four newly elected council members believed no longer served the city.
Spinks learned earlier this month that he has a tumor on his auditory nerve that, while not cancerous, requires surgery.
He’ll have his operation next Wednesday in Seattle and anticipates a four- to eight-week recovery period before he returns to light duty at the Police Department.
Through June
Herzog plans to run Sequim through June at the least, while Waldron’s Richard Cushing recruits candidates for permanent manager.
“I love what I do,” Herzog, 62, said of her interim work in cities across Western Washington.
“I feel very youthful. I’m afraid to stop working, because it might change that.”
Herzog and her husband have a home in Quilcene where they spend a large portion of the year.
That’s how she encountered Ritchie’s associate at the Timber House, around the time Sequim brought three city manager candidates to town.
Ritchie and the council settled on preferred candidates, but were unable to negotiate a contract with any of them, so the finalists walked away from the city on Nov. 8.
“After the fateful Saturday,” Ritchie said, his friend called and asked, “By the way, are you looking for a city manager?”
Herzog impressed him when they’d met at the Timber House.
“I called her, we chatted, and I knew she was certainly qualified,” Ritchie said, adding he could tell “she’s a workaholic.”
He then asked Waldron & Co. about Herzog, and after researching her background, the recruiter told Ritchie: “She’s probably the perfect fit.”
It was “a fluke,” Ritchie said.
He believes, however, that Herzog will help Sequim through the first half of 2009 — a period almost certain to be economically turbulent — with expertise gained in many cities.
During Monday’s 9 a.m. council session, Ritchie will present for council approval a draft resolution naming himself acting city manager during the period between Spinks’ surgery and Herzog’s arrival.
Also after Herzog comes, the city will plan an open house for community members to meet her, Ritchie said.
“I think everybody’s excited,” he said of the city’s staff.
“Sometimes,” he added, “the best man for the job is a woman.”
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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.
