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05/31/2006: "The Final Four Selected"

Interviews Scheduled For County Administrator

(Lloyd Halverson, Pete Rose, Mark Weinberg -No Photo for Dick Grout)

The County Council met behind closed doors to select their final four applicants to be considered for County Administrator, and their choices are:

Lloyd Halverson, City Administrator of Camas, Wa.
Pete Rose, City Administrator of Woodinville, Wa.
Mark Weinberg, past City Administrator of Inglewood Ca.
And Richard Grout, Director of the Bellingham Field Office Department of Ecology, and a former Planning Director of SJ County.

The announcement of the final list of names took a number of people by surprise when Richard Grout's name showed up on the list. There was immediate speculation that the name could not have come from the normal process of Waldron & Company forwarding his name to the Council as one of their choices, for the simple reason that Mr. Grout does not have the experience or formal training as a city or county manager as the other applicants. Mr. Grout is a longtime resident and home owner on San Juan, and is no stranger to county government; and having served for a number of years as the Director of Planning in the county, he is also no stranger to controversy. His inclusion on the list has raised additional concerns about the selection process (Previous story), not the least of which is, as one Court House insider asked: "Why is his name on the list?".

Based on the superficial information that is available on the other three candidates (no information was supplied by the Council about the applicants, not even where they came from), their inclusion is nonetheless obvious, since all three are mature professionals with years of experience as managers and administrators of large -and very large- cities; and each of them has some specific experience in their current, or past professions, dealing with issues that are important and relevant to those of San Juan County.

Mr. Weinberg was with Englewood when it went into a partnership with Los Angeles County to build a joint-use City Hall and Civic Center; a concept that the County and the Town of FH are discussing. Mr. Rose has experience in controversy, for it was Woodinville that was in the news when a local church and citizens group wanted to build a tent city for the homeless. As for Mr. Halverson, he has been at the helm as Camas has evolved from a mill town to a fast growing city that has attracted international companies, but still works to retain the values, traditions and lifestyle of a small town.

The Council had retained Waldron and Company to advertise the County opening for a professional County Administrator, and also to both solicit and "weed-out" the applicants. Once the list was complete, they would present the list to the Council, and then advise and assist the Council in making the final list of candidates to be interviewed by the Council.

This has now been done, and now that the Council has decided who the final four are, the process has opened up somewhat, at least to the extent we now know who the candidates are, and a part of the final selection process will be open to the public next Wednesday (June 7) when a County Staff and a citizen panel are allowed to ask some questions in a public forum, and then report their impressions of the candidates back to Waldron and Company. The members of the citizen panel are: Lynn Bahrych, Charles Bodenstab, Lisa Byers, Stephen Garrison, Larry Hendel, Lovel Pratt, and Brent Snow.

On Thursday the Council will once meet behind closed doors to decide who will be the County Administrator, and it is expected a final decision will be made on Thursday.