Sandpoint wonders if time is right for city manager

SANDPOINT — The departure of former city planner and community development director Jeremy Grimm has left some council members questioning both the city’s transparency, and its future method of management.

Specifically: Should the city consider hiring a professional city administrator?

That’s what councilmen Bob Camp suggested at Wednesday’s regular council meeting. Now that both a comprehensive plan and re-zoning ordinance have been completed — much of it due to Grimm’s efforts — Grimm’s departure and his now-available salary are an opportunity to consider hiring a professional city administrator to manage both the city’s day-to-day operations, and ensure continuity of services.

Not only would an economic development director not be needed, at least in the near term, Camp noted, but many department heads are nearing retirement age.

“We should take a hard look at whether we need a third person in the planning department or not,” Camp told the council. “The staff there is qualified to handle what will be coming in the next couple of years. I think it’s a good opportunity for city of Sandpoint to ask the question: is the city of Sandpoint ready for a city administrator (or) manager?”

Much of Grimm’s work as economic development director was focused on economic development, something a professional city manager could handle, leaving the two remaining planning staffers to do planning work. Such an arrangement would be similar to how the planning department ran while Grimm was focused on economic development.

Mayor Carrie Logan agreed that a full-time professional manager is a good idea. In a phone interview Thursday, she noted that her role as a part-time mayor was in reality a full-time administrator job. A retired social worker, Logan said she puts in 40 hours a week at the city. She felt there is enough administrative work to justify a professional manager.

“I’m basically functioning as a city administrator,” she said. “The mayor is supposed to be focused on policy.”

Logan earns $1,000 per month as mayor.

The main issue is one of available money. Can the city afford to hire a professional administrator? Accord-ing to payscale.com, the national median compensation for a city manger, including salary, benefits and bonuses, is $85,409. At the upper end, total compensation can run as high as $151,000.

“I was hoping to make that happen by the end of this year,” Logan said of plans to hire a full-time administrator.

Grimm estimated the salary of an administrator in Sandpoint would run between $90,000 to $120,000 annually.

It’s a budget balancing issue. Grimm expressed doubt that money was available to hire both an administrator and a new planning director, even if his position isn’t filled.

“To call someone a planning director you’re going to have to pay him a little more than I was making,” Grimm said.

He left behind an $85,838 per year salary to work for Kochava, an international mobile application analytics firm located in Sandpoint.  

Moving forward with a two-person planning department, as exists now that Grimm has left, and applying the savings to a city administrator would still leave the city short, Grimm felt.

“You’re still going to be $60,000 to $80,000 short,” he said in a post-meeting discussion with councilmen Shelby Rognstad and Camp.  

Asked where the money might come from for a professional administrator, Logan said that departments may need to tighten their belts.

“That may mean that some departments might not get as much money as they got before,” Logan said.

Rognstad, for his part, expressed concern for what he called “major push-back” for asking about the status of issues such as the effort to fill Grimm’s vacated position. He had requested an agenda item be added to Wednesday’s meeting in order to get an update on the effort to fill Grimm’s position.

 “I felt we were all a little bit in the dark,” Rognstad said after the meeting. “We had to get some answers.”

He felt the process to date, “hadn’t been real open and forthright.”

Logan, reading from prepared notes, told the council the hiring process was in the “administrative phase.” Once complete, the position would then be advertised and applications accepted for about two weeks. After some screening, candidates would be invited to interview before a panel that would include one council member.

Logan told the council she hoped to complete the interview process by mid-May, and have the selected candidate on the job by June, “subject to council approval.”

Councilwomen Shannon Williamson and Deb Fragoso were absent from Wednesday’s meeting.