Othello to revert to previous practice, hire city administrator
The city of Othello will hire a new city administrator when current mayor Shawn Logan leaves office at the end of the year.
COURESY PHOTO/CITY OF OTHELLO
OTHELLO — The mayor of Othello will not simultaneously be city administrator under the terms of an ordinance amended by Othello City Council members Monday by a unanimous vote. The revisions came at the request of council member John Lallas.
“I want to repeal that resolution,” Lallas said at the Nov. 10 council meeting. “The city of Othello goes back to a city administrator-mayor city.”
The ordinance allowed the mayor to serve in both jobs and was approved in 2018, after then-administrator Wade Ferris resigned to take a new job. Mayor Shawn Logan took over as city administrator and has been serving in that job, as well as mayor, ever since.
Logan lost his race for reelection to Ken Johnson, and Johnson said in earlier interviews that he intended to hire a separate city manager.
“I do not believe the mayor should also be the city administrator. It takes away accountability for that position,” Johnson said. “The mayor is supposed to oversee the administrator, but there’s no oversight for that, except for the council.”
Johnson said he thought combining the two roles led to what he considered some poor decisions.
Lallas’ position was up for election this year, and he did not file for reelection, saying he believed in term limits. Lallas didn’t say why he wanted to make the change to the city code.
“We can do that,” Logan said. “We can go back.”
City attorney Hillary Evans said that’s what the revised ordinance does.
“This ordinance effectively separates those two positions again,” she said.
All Washington cities have a wide latitude when it comes to the way they choose to govern themselves, she said.
“The role of city administrator in a strong mayor city is not actually required by state law,” she said.
Under the revised ordinance, the mayor will appoint a city administrator subject to confirmation by the city council. The mayor would be able to remove a city manager, but that too requires a city council vote.
The city administrator will be in charge of supervising city offices and carrying out council directives. The city administrator is in charge of budgeting and personnel management.