SEQUIM — After two hours in two closed sessions Monday afternoon, Sequim’s city attorney made one announcement.
The search for a permanent city manager, after 15 months, is “on the fast track,” Craig Ritchie said during the Sequim City Council meeting Monday night.
Waldron & Co., the Seattle firm hired to recruit candidates for the top Sequim job, has seen more than 100 applications and narrowed the field to five finalists who, Ritchie said, will soon be in town for interviews.
And after the council scrutinizes the hopefuls, “there will be a meeting-and-greeting opportunity for the public,” added Mayor Laura Dubois. “The schedule will be announced shortly.”
The council has set Aug. 25 as the date for the visit, but won’t announce the finalists’ names until they arrive, since, Dubois said, some are still employed in other cities.
Sequim has lacked a permanent chief since May 5, 2008, when a majority of council members voted to fire Bill Elliott.
Police Chief Robert Spinks served as the first interim manager, and then in December Linda Herzog, who’s been on management teams in Mercer Island and other Northwest cities, stepped in. Her nine-month contract will expire the first week of September, and she’s indicated she won’t extend her stay.
Dubois said the council has yet to decide who’ll run Sequim between Herzog’s departure and her successor’s arrival, presuming a new chief is chosen after Aug. 25.
Asked about the other closed session held Monday, Dubois said the council discussed land where a new City Hall might be built. Sequim has needed a larger municipal building for many years: Back in 2003, then-Mayor Walt Schubert worked with Elliott on a feasibility study for a hall that would house city administration, planning and public works offices and the Police Department, all under one roof.
At this point in the recession that’s out of the question, Dubois said Tuesday.
“We can’t build it for a long time,” but the council can at least look at land and think about a down payment.
“We would like to be able to say, ‘This is where we’re going to build it,'” Dubois added.
Also in 2003, Sequim considered a conceptual design by architect Ken Hays — now a City Council member.
Six years ago, Hays proposed tearing down the tiny City Hall at 152 W. Cedar St. and erecting a two-story 19,000-square-foot office building. The price: $2.97 million.
In 2008, Sequim Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham estimated the cost of a new City Hall at around $10 million.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
