By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM – In a split decision along familiar lines, the Sequim City Council Monday night voted to immediately begin taking steps to hire a new City Manager, a month after negotiating a 6-month contract with former Assistant City Manager Charisse Deschenes.
After the vote, City staff were directed to work with Councilors to narrow down a list of search firms and selection criteria.
Councilors Tom Ferrell, Brandon Janisse and Rachel Anderson made it clear that they are perfectly happy with their decision to hire Deschenes and are not in favor of beginning a search to replace her.
“We the council asked the Mayor, if I recall, to negotiate, and in good faith, that we would have a contract with Charisse for six months. I don’t think that contract has a word in there about turning around the next week and starting to recruit. You need to look at Charisse as a person who’s qualified, not a means to an end.”
“Tom, I agree with you, with that. I mean, we just signed a contract with Charisse, and I think we need to see it out to the end. And I stand behind her on that, along with the rest of staff.
“I’m also a hundred percent agree with Tom and Brandon. I have seen the working relationship that Charisse has with staff, and it seems really great. Like, if I wasn’t a Councilor, I’d want to work at City Hall under Charisse, to be honest. And I’m also not quite sure why we’re talking about recruiting when we have a contract.”
From the other four councilors, the same four who voted to force previous City Manager Charlie Bush’s resignation, one suggested it was in Deschenes’ advantage to compete for the job. Others referred to time restraints and public demand.
Here are Councilors Mike Pence (with a response by Anderson), followed by Keith Larkin, Sarah Kincaid and Mayor William Armacost.
“I look at it, that we’re up against a time limit. Our contract with Charisse is up in August, and we don’t have a an idea of where we’re going. We’re going to wait till the end of August and then all of a sudden decide which way we’re going then to recruit? That makes no sense to me.”
“Well couldn’t we just easily extend her interim City Manager contract if we wanted to?”
“I guess you could do that forever. Yeah, if you wanted to.”
“If Charisse is truly the best candidate then she will come out as the best candidate when we go through this process. I think, in a sense, she’s being given a great opportunity to outshine all of the candidates, because we get to watch her in action for six months.”
“I was approached by a large number of citizens wanting to know exactly why it was that we did not open it up for other applicants.”
‘I am extremely positive about Charisse, but I have a responsibility to listen to my Council, and also to our constituents, and I too have had emails, voicemails, conversations, that there is a decision. Why have we not looked at the options that are available to us?”
Mayor Armacost reiterated his desire that the search for candidates include local people. During the Council meeting’s public comment period, some residents asked whether that meant he already has someone in mind.