SEQUIM — City Manager Steve Burkett has urged Police Chief Bob Spinks to find another job “as soon as possible.”
“It’s probably apparent that Bob would not be looking for a new job if I hadn’t urged him to,” Burkett said Thursday.
“My goal and his goal is to find a new police chief job as soon as possible,” said the Sequim city manager, who took over in October.
“Hopefully, it will be within the month.”
If Spinks does not find another job by the end of the year, “he will be resigning,” Burkett said.
“We haven’t set an actual date, but we will play that by ear,” he added.
The 51-year-old Sequim police chief, who is a finalist for positions in West Richland and Pullman, said Tuesday he is “aggressively” seeking police chief positions elsewhere in Washington state and Oregon, deferring other questions to Burkett, his boss for the last eight months.
Burkett said the two have differences in style and approach.
Joint statement
In a joint statement Burkett and Spinks issued Thursday, the two said Spinks would leave his position “later this year, allowing for an orderly change in leadership at the police department.”
In the joint statement, Spinks employed a sports analogy to describe how he has reached the verge of leaving Sequim, where he had said he wanted to retire.
“Coaches, players and other professions see employment changes and turnover with new management, and government experiences some of that too,” Spinks said in the statement.
“I’d consider this a starting line-up change versus anyone having an issue with performance of the team.”
Returning request for comment in an e-mail, Spinks said: “While I would have liked to have been able to retire here in Sequim, that decision is not mine to make.
“So my interest in staying here has never changed.”
Spinks called himself “a leader, not a manager.”
Interviews next week
Spinks is scheduled to be in West Richland on Monday and Tuesday and in Pullman on Wednesday for panel interviews and meetings with city officials as a finalist for police chief positions in those cities.
He was informed earlier this week he will not be hired as police chief in Lebanon, Ore.
Burkett said Thursday that he wishes the situation were different.
“The ideal thing would have been if I had arrived here and came to the conclusion Bob and I mesh well and would make a great team and move forward,” Burkett said.
“That was my goal. In this case, I came to the conclusion that wasn’t going to occur, that the chemistry was not going to be there.
“It’s best to be honest with people and say, ‘this is not going to be a good match,’ so I asked him to look for another job.
“It doesn’t mean Bob is not a good chief,” Burkett said.
“It just means it wasn’t a good match in Sequim in 2010 with the guy who’s the new city manager.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
