SEQUIM — Whoever becomes the next chief of police in Sequim is in line to make a significantly higher salary than current chief Robert Spinks, thanks to a unanimous City Council vote Monday night.
Endorsing a proposal by City Manager Steve Burkett — who has said Spinks’ management style isn’t compatible with his own — the council voted to increase the future chief’s salary range by 10 percent.
Before Monday night’s council meeting, the range was $72,000 to $96,000.
Spinks is in the middle, earning $86,299 annually, plus benefits.
So the city manager, in his eighth month on the job, called for a new range, of $86,400 to $106,000 per year.
“I do not think we can attract someone with the experience and skills we need at the current range,” Burkett told the council in his report before the meeting.
The council members spent almost no time discussing the range hike.
Conduct interviews in July
After their vote, Burkett said he’ll begin recruitment next month and conduct interviews in July.
Through it all, Spinks, who has served as Sequim’s police chief for five years, sat quietly at his desk.
In an interview Tuesday, he quipped, “I think that’s what I should have been paid all along.”
Burkett told Spinks several weeks ago that he was no longer a good match for Sequim’s needs.
And Spinks, 51, has been interviewing for other positions in Oregon and Washington state, to no avail so far.
In a joint statement Burkett and Spinks issued May 6, the two said Spinks would leave his position “later this year, allowing for an orderly change in leadership at the police department.”
The city manager said that he wants to minimize the gap between Spinks and the next chief, and added that “they won’t overlap.”
Interim chief
Burkett predicted that he’ll appoint an interim chief of police to serve until the new one arrives, and the logical choice, he said, is Sequim Police Lt. Sheri Crain, who was acting chief while Spinks was on medical leave in late 2008 and early 2009.
Earlier this month, Burkett laid off Frank Needham, Sequim’s capital projects manager, saying the city needs a planner with urban-design expertise rather than someone to manage capital projects — something Sequim doesn’t have many of these days.
In a brief interview Monday night, Burkett said he’s seeking to take Sequim’s government to a higher level by hiring top-caliber professionals.
“Bob [Spinks] is an excellent professional,” Burkett added.
“He’s just not a good match,” for the Sequim of the future.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
