Mielke lacks French’s support for Spokane County CEO, will abandon candidacy

Todd Mielke said Monday his bid for county chief executive is finished after his fellow county commissioners deadlocked on his hiring. “I don’t believe it would come to a different outcome,” Mielke said, after Commissioner Al French did not support a motion from Commissioner Shelly O’Quinn to name Mielke the new CEO at a meeting Monday morning. French said he believed voting Mielke into office as the last standing candidate for the job was “unfair.” Richard L. Davis, who was also interviewed by French and O’Quinn last month, withdrew his name a few days later, French said. “I don’t think it’s fair to Todd, or fair to the county, that we end up with him by default and not by design,” French said. O’Quinn said she was disappointed by the lack of a decision. “I feel like we’ve wasted the last six months,” she said. French said he didn’t see the time as a waste. He said he approached several officials statewide after the search began who told him most governments were hiring headhunters for their positions, a choice Spokane County did not make back in January. “As I talked to other people in the industry, they were telling me that the good ones, they don’t go looking for jobs, the jobs come find them,” French said. The standoff occurs a full month after county officials originally intended to announce a replacement for Marshall Farnell, the longtime county budget head who officially announced his retirement earlier this year. Mielke recused himself from the hiring process, announcing his intentions to seek the $160,000 a year position. French and O’Quinn put together a panel of business luminaries in the community to review applications and forward their top picks. Those committee members included:

• Jeff Phillips, president and CEO of Rosauers
• Kris Mikkelsen, retired CEO of Inland Power and Light
• Elaine Couture, regional CEO of Providence Healthcare
• Christine Johnson, chancellor of the Community Colleges of Spokane
• Doug Cochran, chief of staff of the Washington Auditor’s Office
• Rob Higgins, executive officer of the Spokane Association of Realtors
• Kevin Person, CEO of Wagstaff, Inc.

In April, that panel announced Mielke, a longtime state legislator and Spokane County commissioner since 2004, as their top choice. The second pick was Davis, a former city administrator in Utah. The selection prompted an outcry by some, including former Spokane County Commissioner Bonnie Mager, who said the process was rigged in Mielke’s favor. A petition she circulated online included allegations forwarded to Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell of ethics and open public meeting law violations. The petition has 257 signatures as of Monday. O’Quinn said those complaints came from people who didn’t closely follow the county’s hiring process, which included the panel’s review of resumes and public interviews of Mielke and Davis in May. “It’s easy to lob grenades,” she said Monday. French, too, said he was not swayed by Mager’s argument, but the opinions of other government officials who were themselves hiring for administrative jobs. Mielke said he approached French twice before putting an application together for CEO, asking his fellow Republican commissioner if he’d support Mielke’s application if he proved to be the top candidate in the job search. Mielke said he received confirmation that he would have French’s vote if that were the case. “If he said no, I would never have applied,” Mielke said. Both Mielke and O’Quinn said Monday they’d need to meet with Farnell, who’d agreed to stay on while the new CEO was selected in an advisory role, about the timeline for a new hiring process. The county’s Human Resources Department originally announced the new hire would start work June 15. Mielke said he’d run for re-election when his seat comes up in Fall 2016. But he’s abandoned any desire to seek the CEO position with O’Quinn and French making the decision. “My chapter is done with the current makeup of the board,” Mielke said. French said the decision was not about Mielke’s qualifications, but a desire to make sure the right candidate is put forward for the job. “I would rather get it done right than get it done fast,” French said.