One of the key pieces of Clark County’s new home rule charter may be put in place today. The Clark County council will debate naming Acting County Manager Mark McCauley as its official county manager.
The council will consider granting McCauley an 18-month employment contract at the 6 p.m. meeting, according to a draft posted on the county’s website. The proposed contract includes a 3.9 percent raise, which would raise McCauley’s pay from $163,100 to $169,460 per year.
McCauley was appointed to the acting county manager position at the beginning of last year, when the charter began to be implemented. He had served as the county administrator since September 2013. The position will essentially make McCauley the CEO of a 1,600-employee enterprise with an annual budget nearing $460 million.
But this evening’s hearing, unsurprisingly, is already shaping up to be heated. The council is not scheduled to take public comment on the contract. Republican Councilor David Madore, who has been urging his fellow councilors to open the job to all applicants, has already begun to criticize that call.
“Shouldn’t the citizens have the opportunity to provide public testimony on that important decision?” Madore wrote on his Facebook page late Thursday night.
But County Chair Marc Boldt, no party preference, gave little credence to Madore’s comments.
“We felt it was strictly a personnel matter between us and the county manager,” Boldt said.
And indeed, when the then-Clark County commissioners unanimously appointed McCauley to the county administrator position in 2013, they took no public comment.
But is it unusual for a government board to select a top administrator without hearing from the public? A check of some local jurisdictions reveals a mixed bag of practices.
When Vancouver appointed Eric Holmes its city manager in 2010, it did so after conducting an interview at a public workshop. There was, however, “no specific public hearing” before the decision, said Amanda Delapena, assistant to the Vancouver City Council.
The superintendent of the county’s largest school district, Evergreen’s John Deeder, faced significant public scrutiny prior to being hired in 2006. District spokeswoman Gail Spolar said there were opportunities for people to meet all of the superintendent finalists, and some community groups were allowed to give their recommendations to the school board.
Similar pay
Clark County is one of three home-rule charter counties with an appointed executive, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center. In Washington’s other four charter counties — including King, Snohomish and Pierce County — the executive is an elected position.
Clallam and San Juan counties are the others that appoint executives like McCauley.
McCauley’s proposed $169,400 salary, considering the smaller population and rural nature of those counties, does not far outpace those of other executives.
Clallam County, population 73,486, pays its administrator, Jim Jones, $150,006 annually. Jones notes that unlike McCauley, he does not have full executive authority in Clallam County. He does only what executive jobs the county commissioners allow him to do. Even then, the commissioners keep the authority to override his decisions.
“Interestingly, enough when you read the charter, everything that I actually do comes to me 100 percent from the authority of the commissioners,” Jones said.
San Juan County, population 16,252, did not provide details of County Manager Mike Thomas’ salary after multiple phone calls and emails from The Columbian. A 2014 story by The Journal of the San Juan Islands, however, reported his salary was $134,820.
