An emerging plan to hire Deputy City Manager Morgan Smith as Bainbridge Island city manager was rejected unanimously by the city council this week.
Council members had previously expressed interest in the idea — first proposed by Smith — that she take over for a two-year stint in the position following Doug Schulze’s resignation.
But a proposed employment contract for Smith, presented to the council at its meeting Tuesday, failed to find support.
Mayor Kol Medina admitted that the draft contract contained some problem areas that both sides couldn’t agree on.
“There were some points of contention we really couldn’t agree on,” Medina said. “We felt we brought back the best contract that we could.”
Medina said he wasn’t sure how his fellow council members would feel about the proposed agreement, but the lack of support for it became clear in a conversation that lasted less than 10 minutes.
“I don’t know what the council is going to do with this tonight,” Medina said.
“I just want to say to the world and everyone in the room … that if it doesn’t get approved, it’s not because there’s any sort of rift between the council and the deputy city manager, or any sort of hard feelings or anything,” he said.
Under the terms of the 10-page agreement, Smith would take over as city manager from Oct. 8 until Dec. 31, 2020. She would be paid an initial base salary of $174,000, which would rise to $184,000 in six months “upon a determination by the city council that the employee has successfully performed the functions of the city manager position.”
Bainbridge Island is currently without a city manager, and the council indicated this week it would hire a professional search to find an interim, and then permanent, city manager.
Bainbridge’s last city manager, Doug Schulze, put in his last day at city hall last Friday and moved from the island Saturday.
Schulze accepted the job of city manager for the California town of Banning earlier this summer, and submitted his letter of resignation Aug. 3. He had been Bainbridge’s top employee at city hall since November 2012, and was paid an annual
salary of $178,252 per year.
The idea of promoting Smith into the city manager’s position — which she had filled as an interim manager before Schulze was hired — was discussed in detail at the council’s Sept. 11 meeting. Smith had earlier proposed taking the job for a two-year term and then stepping aside after the city conducted a comprehensive search for a new manager during her second year in the post.
The council decided at that Sept. 11 meeting to authorize the mayor to begin negotiations over a possible employment contract.
Smith came to work for Bainbridge Island as deputy city manager in October 2010. Previously, she had been the executive director for the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council, and before that, she was the chief of strategic planning and director of fiscal policy for the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
The draft contract include language where Smith’s employment could be ended “without cause” and “with cause.”
The council’s main concern with the contract, however, came from a provision where Smith would have her contract paid out if she was fired without cause, and she would continue to get her city manager’s salary through Dec. 31, 2020.
The contract was rejected after Councilwoman Leslie Schneider motioned to approve the contact and her motion was not seconded.
“I’m in favor of this contract; it’s not without reservations,” she said.
Smith amicably accepted the council decision and said she was ready to assist the council with Plan B.
“It’s not awkward and it doesn’t need to be,” Smith said. “I’m here to support you in the transition.”
“This is an option that we looked at together it didn’t work out,” she said.
Councilman Matthew Tirman said he had initially supported the idea of a contract for the deputy city manager.
“I really wanted this to work out for a sense of continuity,” Tirman said, but added he just “could get around the severance piece of this and the length of it.”
