Eric Holmes seems proud and excited to be Vancouver’s new city manager, after Monday night’s unanimous vote by the city council. We wonder if he’ll feel the same way in six months or a year, after he oversees the slashing of $9.1 million from the city budget, after the city’s work force is reduced to fewer employees than it had 11 years ago (when Vancouver had 35,000 fewer residents), after some tough union-contract negotiating sessions, and after he’s worked for seven bosses who each count their own re-electability among their highest priorities.
That’s the negative outlook of this vital transition to a new CEO for Vancouver. The positive view:
The baton was passed relatively quickly, in just two months. (Pat McDonnell announced his resignation on Aug. 30.)
Holmes indisputably is the right person for the job. Although just 41, he has two decades’ experience in public administration, with a bachelor’s degree in planning, public policy and management from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in public administration from Lewis & Clark College.
Local familiarity is one of Holmes’ many strengths. He worked as city planning director in Washougal and Battle Ground, and for the latter as city manager.
As a former economic developer and assistant city manager for Vancouver, Holmes holds abundant expertise in expanding the local economy, creating jobs and increasing the tax base. He was instrumental in securing a draft development agreement for the city’s waterfront redevelopment project. That agreement secured more than just the promise of 10 acres of public space on the 32-acre site. It also garnered $31 million in private investment, $8 million in private contributions to off-site public access infrastructure and a potential $235 million in state and local tax revenue over the next 25 years, generated from 3.5 million square feet of new office, residential, retail and hotel space.
Holmes offers an effective balance of nose-to-grindstone work ethic and amiable, inclusive work attitude. That balance will be valuable as he assumes the most powerful position in a city where the council-manager form of government is the opposite of Portland’s strong-mayor system.
The challenges Holmes faces are immediate and severe, starting with the Nov. 2 election. If either Initiative 1100 or I-1105 passes and the state’s liquor sales are privatized, Vancouver could lose more than $1 million in the biennium. Passage of Initiative 1107 (ending sales tax on certain candies and bottled water) could deprive the city of another $300,000.
On the personnel front, Holmes needs to hire a new fire chief. Later on, Holmes must confront additional budget challenges. A 9 percent increase in sewer rates is budgeted for 2011, then a 6.5 percent increase in 2012. The city’s capital budget has been cut almost in half. Other drastic cuts are planned for transportation, parks and other departments. And all of this must be dealt with as city officials consolidate offices and move into the new city hall across from the southwest corner of Esther Short Park. Needless to say, Holmes has a full plate.
Holmes’ hiring would’ve been even more praiseworthy if the city council had not wasted $15,000 on a consultant firm that reviewed the vacancy. To their credit, councilors Larry Smith and Bart Hansen opposed the effort. Smith correctly described the expense as “just stupid. It was a whole farce to go through it, since there was a whole succession plan in place.” Smith and Hansen have a better grasp than their colleagues on what 15,000 taxpayer-provided dollars really mean.
But beyond that unnecessary glitch by his bosses, we salute Holmes’ promotion and wish him well in the city’s toughest and most important job.
