SEQUIM — The city will hire a recruiting firm to find a new city manager once Steve Burkett retires midyear.
City Council members voted 5-2 Monday to issue a request for proposals from executive search companies.
They’ll task one of them with replacing Burkett.
They chose to hire an outside firm over doing the job themselves or assigning the search to the city’s human resources manager, Susanne Connelly.
Opposed to move
Councilwoman Genaveve Starr said she’d prefer to have Connelly write a job description, advertise for applicants and screen them.
“I respect her professional responsibility,” said Starr as she opposed the move.
Councilman Erik Erichsen also voted against hiring a recruiter. He recommended forming a special committee within the council to sift the applicants.
“This is really the only job we have other than just saying ‘yea’ and ‘no,’” Erichsen said about hiring the city’s new chief executive.
Still, he said, “the previous gyration we went through, it didn’t work.”
He apparently referred to the council’s decision to hire Vernon Stoner in 2009, a choice they rescinded after a Peninsula Daily News investigative report revealed that Stoner had been the target of sexual harassment claims while working in the state Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
They instead hired Burkett, who also was a finalist for the position.
For his part, Burkett said he had no fixed date to leave the job, only “sometime around midyear.”
Ready to go
When Erichsen asked if the city could pay him enough to stay on, he demurred, citing a public career that included being city manager in Shoreline, a suburb of Seattle, and in Tallahassee, Fla., plus working for a California-based consultant to county and city governments.
“I’ve attended 1,500 city council meetings in the last 45 years,” he said. “I think I’ve had enough.”
As for his plans, “the best answer is to fish,” Burkett said.
He added he’ll maintain a home in Sequim but spend winter months farther south.
Burkett advised the council against asking Connelly to conduct the search because “the HR manager probably is going to be involved in some other proposals.”
Asked what other positions might fall open, he declined to be specific but said, “We know we’re going to have several major ones in the future.”
An outside recruiter probably will charge $20,000 to $30,000 for its services. That sum could grow depending on services such as travel, Burkett said.
No endorsement
In other action Monday, council members did not endorse either the Sequim School District levy or a tax bid by the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center.
Mayor Candace Pratt, however, said she would vote for the school levy, and Councilman Ted Miller urged support of the SARC measure.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com