New city manager savors challenges

The only object on the meeting table in Eric Holmes’ new office in Vancouver City Hall is a small 3-D puzzle.

It’s got just six pieces and is a cityscape of tall buildings and parks. And somehow, once it’s out of its frame, it is really hard to put back together.

Which is why Vancouver’s City Manager chose it.

“It’s deceptively complex, just like cities are,” Holmes said last Thursday, just a few days into his new role as the CEO of a publicly-owned operation with about 1,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $400 million.

It may also be why he chose to take on his new job. Many would suggest that the guy who wants to lead a city that’s grappling with $9.1 million in cuts, more than 100 layoffs and a loss of services may be a bit of a masochist.

However, Holmes, 41, said he welcomes the challenge. That he’s feeling more invigorated than he’s been in a long time.

“I like complex problems,” he said, sitting in the office that one week before belonged to his predecessor, Pat McDonnell. “Also, what better time to assume a role than this? When there’s the greatest need?”

He won’t find a shortage of intricate mind twisters. Holmes and his management team must solve a structural deficit — the city’s costs outpacing revenue. It’s a problem created by Initiative 747, which limits property tax growth to 1 percent annually, no matter the inflation rate. Health insurance costs, just as in the private sector, have been growing in double digits every year. The recession has pummelled new development and sales-tax income.

That’s why Holmes is in no rush to add any new pieces to his puzzle. To set off on a crusade of new policies and big initiatives “would be a recipe for failure,” he said.

“But doing things differently, doing them in a new way? That absolutely has to happen,” Holmes said.

First off is conducting a nationwide search for a new fire chief to replace retiring Chief Don Bivins, and to backfill his assistant city manager position.

Next, it’s getting employee costs under control.

“We need a labor model and a relationship with employees that gets us on the path to stability first, and then to sustainability over time,” he said.

It also will involve appealing to the voters for more money, something that he knows will be hard.

“It’s something I don’t expect to be simple or easy,” Holmes said. “We just need to be transparent and open about it. And, as with many taxing districts, it may take more than one try.”

Holmes will earn $161,500 a year plus a vehicle allowance and benefits. McDonnell earned $171,650 annually after a decade in the job.

He’s relatively young, as big city managers go, but he has a 20-year history in the field.

He holds a bachelors degree in planning, public policy and management from the University of Oregon, and a masters degree in public administration from Lewis & Clark College.

He’s was planning director for both Washougal and Battle Ground and then served as Battle Ground’s city manager for five years.

“I always thought he’d be moving up,” said Battle Ground City Councilor Bill Ganley, who was on the council when Holmes was hired as city manager in 2002. “If you look at what Vancouver is going through, and what they need right now, he’s the ideal person.”

Holmes was hired as Vancouver’s economic development director in 2007, after spending a year as chief financial officer for MacKay & Sposito, a private-sector consulting firm. He was appointed Vancouver’s assistant city manager in April.

Mayor Tim Leavitt called Holmes “thoughtful, intuitive and measured,” and said he thinks they will work well together.

Vancouver, like the majority of American cities, has a “weak” mayor and council form of government, where the elected officials set policy and Holmes is charged with implementing it. The city manager is the only person in Vancouver the city council may hire or fire.

“Moving our community forward will occur only if the city council is unified, and Eric recognizes this,” Leavitt wrote in an e-mail. “He and I will work well together as we engage the council in establishment of key initiatives and priorities to be implemented over the next several years.”

Most everyone describes Holmes as a measured, level person. He calls himself someone who is suited to high-level thinking.

He reads prodigiously. He runs most mornings. He doesn’t follow sports.

Growing up in Knappa, Ore. (what Holmes called a “wide spot in the road outside Astoria), and later moving to a farm in the Columbia basin, his father, a vocal government critic, took him along to numerous government meetings.

“I’ve always been fascinated about the impact you can make through collective resources,” he said. “I believe in public service, I believe in its ability to make a difference.”

He’s been married for 13 years, and has two children, ages 6 and 9, that he mostly wants to keep out of the spotlight.

Holmes said he recognizes his is a polarizing job, and he’s hoping it won’t trickle down to the schoolyard. But he will bring his children along to some of the city’s more positive events, he said.

“I want to expose them to a bit more, but keep them insulated from some of the bad,” he said. “I don’t want them to only have a groggy memory of dad showing up in a suit and tie to kiss them good night.

“They are absolutely my No. 1 source of strength. Without them, I fail.”

Recognizing a human element is what guides him at work as well, he said.

The 112.5 pending layoffs are not just budget lines; they are people who will be out of work. The reduction in city services will impact people

“Everything we do (as a city) touches people’s lives — every day, every minute,” he said. “That’s something that we need to continue: the sense of human impact.”

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.