Verner eliminates top staff position

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner will no longer have a chief of staff.

The decision to eliminate one of the two main appointed positions in her office came in response to last month’s resignation of chief of staff Mark Earley.

“I might want to restore the chief of staff at some point down the line, but for the changes that have occurred in 2008, I just want to get on with business,” Verner said last week.

To fill the vacancy, Verner created a position of senior executive assistant, which has fewer oversight responsibilities than Earley’s, and promoted Reagan Oliver to the job.

Oliver, 43, served as former Mayor Dennis Hession’s executive assistant and kept the job after Verner’s election.

“She has a wealth of knowledge about the organization and tremendous organizational skills,” Verner said.

Oliver said her new role is aimed at helping Verner and City Administrator Ted Danek track ongoing projects and issues.

Verner started office with two administrators who had significant oversight responsibilities: Earley and Danek.

Last month, after Earley’s resignation, Verner said Danek and Earley “had difficulties resolving their approaches to their roles.”

The new structure is similar to Hession’s, with one appointee clearly defined as the lead administrator.

The change will save the city money. Earley’s salary was about $102,000. Oliver’s new pay is almost $57,000.

Verner also announced that she will not replace Danek’s assistant, who recently left the city for a new job.

Oliver, a graduate of Lewis and Clark High School and the University of Idaho, worked at City Hall from 1998 to 2002 as the assistant to the Spokane mayor and city manager and later as an assistant to the Spokane City Council. Before joining Hession’s staff, Oliver worked as the assistant to the Transportation Security Administration’s federal security director in Spokane.