Verner names new city administrator

The city’s top non-elected official will be replaced as a result of this month’s election.

Mayor-elect Mary Verner, who takes office Tuesday, said she will replace John Pilcher with a retiring officer from Fairchild Air Force Base. She’s asked Pilcher to consider another job in City Hall, saying one will probably be available – though she declined to say which one.

Verner also is creating a new position, chief of staff, which she is filling with another retired military officer.

Among other staff changes she discussed during an interview, Verner said she plans to restore Mike Adolfae to his former role as community development director, a position he held for 26 years before being demoted by Mayor Dennis Hession in April – a move criticized by neighborhood leaders.

Ted Danek, an Air Force squadron commander at Fairchild, will replace Pilcher. Verner interviewed Danek in September after asking Fairchild officials if they knew of any good candidates for the job.

“You have to be prepared when you take office on the day after the election is certified. You can’t wait,” Verner said. “I want to bring somebody who’s my own team with my own style of approaching the city’s business.”

Danek, 41, has led a Fairchild survival training squadron, which consists of more than 200 people, for three years. He said his new city job is similar to his military career, just on a larger scale.

“It does equate quite readily,” said Danek, who holds an international relations degree from the Air Force Academy. “As a squadron commander, you have to deal with all the support agencies to make your job work.”

Danek is married and has two daughters who attend Ferris High School. He lives on Browne Mountain, just south of the city limits, but plans to move into the city, an action not required to take the job.

“I should be subject to the same decisions” as those affecting other city residents, Danek said. “To me personally, I don’t think there’s anything optional about that at all.”

Pilcher was hired by then-Mayor Jim West as the city’s economic development director. Hession promoted him to chief operating officer in March to replace Jack Lynch.

Pilcher said Friday afternoon that he isn’t surprised by the latest change. A new mayor should make his or her own choices for the top spots, he said.

“I sincerely believe that,” Pilcher said. “I’m not particularly bummed out.”

He said he and Verner briefly discussed a possible position for him at City Hall.

“I’d consider anything under the right circumstances,” he said.

Either way, Pilcher said he has agreed to stay on during a transition period through the end of the year or a couple weeks beyond.

Danek’s job will be called “city administrator.” The name switch represents the third title change for the city’s top unelected position since the city switched to the strong mayor system. The city charter labels it city administrator, but Mayor Jim West called it deputy mayor. Hession changed it to chief operating officer earlier this year.

A step below Danek, Verner has selected retired Army Col. Mark M. Earley as her chief of staff, a position that doesn’t exist in Hession’s administration.

Attempts to reach Earley were unsuccessful, but his resume says he was the business development manger at SprayCool cooling systems company in Liberty Lake in 2006 and 2007. He also previously worked as a military affairs consultant to the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“I didn’t deliberately recruit two military people, but it turned out that way,” Verner said.

In a move that has been widely speculated for weeks at City Hall, Verner said she plans to move Adolfae back to his former position as community development director. Hession demoted Adolfae in April, saying he didn’t share his vision for the department. Adolfae was given a new job as a city planner – a role he served in before he was named director in 1981.

Hession replaced Adolfae with Teresa Brum as community development director in October. Verner, a city councilwoman, voted in favor of the appointment in a 6-0 vote.

“I was in a position in which I had no authority to change the outcome and saw no reason to pick a fight with the administration over that,” Verner said.

Brum said Verner has offered her a management position in a new business development department.

“I’m very pleased to serve the city in that role,” Brum said.

Other staff changes Verner hopes to make include naming Dave Mandyke the city’s public works director. Mandyke has served in the role in an acting capacity for more than a year.

She added that she plans to keep Chief Financial Officer Gavin Cooley, who has managed to keep his job under all four of the city’s strong mayors.

Verner said there will be a few more changes, but she plans to have the staff settled soon.

“I wanted to make all of my organizational changes and have those very clear by the first of the year so that everybody knows what to expect, there’s no more speculation and we can just get on with business.”