Immediate search for new city manager would help Longview heal council conflict
There is no justification for delay or hiring Jim Duscha as city's permanent top executive
It’s time for healing, not delaying.
Why on earth should the Longview City Council put off launching the search for a new permanent city manager for up to seven months? That time frame means that the new manager would not be selected for at least a year.
The chaotic and hostile state of city government demands swifter action.
This city has a myriad of challenges ahead of it. To address them, it needs a top, qualified executive untainted by the conflicts surrounding the unwarranted firing of Kris Swanson and the hiring of former police Chief Jim Duscha as a temporary replacement.
The sooner, the better.
I don’t consider Duscha qualified to run the city. He lacks related experience. He has been less than forthcoming about how the new council majority hired him. He already is playing politics on the job, as he did last month with his so-called “discovery” of the city’s 2020 misuse of federal funds to build the Highlands neighborhood police station. And he has a history of making unfair personnel decisions during his police career, including the light penalty he dished out to an officer who asked out a high school sophomore by posing as another student.
But whether he is qualified or not, Duscha got the job without a search, evaluation of his credentials or even needing to submit a formal application or resume.
Duscha will never have the respect — or trust — of the council minority, many city employees or a significant portion of the public.
The council’s majority bloc clearly hired him because he is a long-time ally of Councilwoman Kalei LaFave. One could argue that there is a shortage of a job-related talent in this small rural community, but that pales in comparison to the political ties at work here. And the council bypassed the obvious choice for an interim, Assistant City Manager Ann Rivers, because she is at odds with state Sen. Jeff Wilson, Longview, an ally of the four-council majority.
In addition, Duscha’s appointment is clouded by allegations that the council majority violated the state Open Meetings Act in the process of hiring and negotiating with him. Those allegations are scheduled to get their first hearing Wednesday in Cowlitz Superior Court.
For its own harmony and the good of the city, the council needs to move on. City workers already are leaving due to the council’s conflict and the lack of leadership (this is a story for next week). Duscha will never have the respect — or trust — of the council minority, many city employees or a significant portion of the public.
Holding an open, professionally driven process guided by an executive recruitment agency would help heal the fractures that opened over the last four months between the old and new members of the council and restore confidence in the city’s governance. An executive recruitment firm would make the first two “cuts” from the applicant pool, and an independent review at least takes some of the politics out of the process.
Councilman Erik Halvorson said at the last week’s council meeting that he’d prefer to start the formal search process using an executive recruitment firm after the city adopts its new budget in December.
True, it makes no sense to thrust a new manager into the middle of budget development — which, by the way, is being handled by Rivers, not Duscha. Even if the search process started immediately, though, a new manager likely would not be aboard before the budget was nearly or completely ready. Delaying the start of the search process until December would push a hiring decision back to next spring or summer, at the earliest.
The hunt for a new manager can go on while city staff develops the city’s next two-year budget. It is, after all, ultimately the council’s budget, not the city manager’s.
Halvorson also expressed concern that it will be hard to attract good applicants now because the council, he acknowledged, “is in chaos.” Leaving aside the fact that the new majority caused the “chaos” — and was warned about it — waiting to address this key point of conflict is like leaving an open wound to fester.
Collaborating on finding a new manager can — and should — be a healing process.
The longer the council waits to start the process, the more it will look like the four-member majority wants to hire Duscha as the permanent manager.
Without openly saying so, Councilwoman LaFave at the April 25 council meeting made it obvious that she is leaning in that direction. She said the interim manager should get at least a year to learn the ropes; that Longview has a history of hiring city managers from within its own ranks; and that former police chiefs are serving as interim or permanent city managers in 14 Washington cities. (I could not immediately verify this, but the point is irrelevant without knowing the circumstances.)
Running the city should not be an on-the job-training position. The city has big challenges ahead that should not be left to an apprentice.
Several things need stating here:
One objection the four-member majority had to Swanson was that she was promoted to the job in 2023 (she’d been assistant city manager) without an official search by an executive recruitment firm. It would be duplicitous to now hire Duscha as permanent manager without such a search. Duscha, who does not return my calls, apparently has not indicated whether he will seek the permanent post. If he does, he should be vetted with the same level of scrutiny as other candidates.
It’s true that Swanson and her immediate predecessor, Kurt Sacha, were hired from within the city staff without an executive search. But LaFave is suggesting a false equity here: Swanson had decades of auditing, budgeting and administrative experience under her belt when the council overwhelmingly named her city manager in 2022. Sacha, too, had more than 30 years with the city in finance and administration, including as assistant city manager, when he was promoted to the top job to replace Dave Campbell. What we know of Duscha’s background — he has never replied to my request for his resume — simply does not match up. (The other two city managers who were appointed from within are Bob Gregory and Campbell, but both were hired after a search firm conducted a formal search and review process.)
Running the city should not be an on-the job-training position. The city has big challenges ahead that should not be left to an apprentice.
LaFave appears biased in this matter and has enough conflicts that she should recuse herself from the discussion and voting. Her wearisome — and dubious — insistence that voters elected a new majority in November because it wanted change misses the point here. All voters should want the best manager the city can find. And I doubt they wanted “chaos.”
It appears for now that a majority of the council support the need for an independent, professional candidate search. Both Mayor Spencer Boudreau and Halvorson (despite his request to wait) say they support one. The three-member council minority, Angie Wean, Ruth Kendall and MaryAlice Wallis, all support calls for an immediate search to begin.
Swanson was a solid and hardworking city manager, despite the hateful and distorted campaign right-wing critics waged a gainst her.. But the way she was appointed — clearly the council’s fault, not hers — undercut her credibility for some people. In such cases, critics start to find fault and nitpick.
Council members Wean and Kendall were and remain Swanson supporters but acknowledged at the April 25 meeting that she, too, should have been put through a rigorous search process before the council hired her in 2022. There’s an element of politics in this nod to the majority bloc’s concerns, but it also expresses good policy.
Sometimes, the most qualified workers already are in your shop. They are known quantities. They have easily verifiable track records. It doesn’t cost anything to relocate them. They already know many of the people, issues and challenges.
Hiring outsiders is certainly no guarantee of success. But it pays to look outside, just in case there’s a better person available and to boost credibility and confidence in the new hire. Doing so is a no brainer if this council is to restore order and competency in city government..
You nailed it, Andre. The council majority has already royally screwed up in its short tenure. The LEAST it could do to begin making up for its stupid, unforced errors and nauseating hubris is to immediately begin a nationwide search for a permanent city manager and put an end to this embarrassing streak that will forever be a stain on the city.
I’m getting tired of hearing the Gang of Four talk about being elected by a majority. Only 37% of Longview voters voted in last fall’s election. They won by a majority of a minority. That doesn’t give them the mandate they think they have.