After learning mayor won’t run, City Council shelves idea of consultant on morale

Given that Mayor Kit Kuhn is not going to run for re-election, the Gig Harbor City Council decided last week not to hire an outside consultant to improve employee morale, at least not immediately.

It then spent the next two hours arguing about what to do next.

The long discussion centered on whether to name a committee to decide on a consultant, and exactly who should sit on it. Each faction on the council put forward their own list of three names.

In the end, the council voted 4-3, on a motion of Council Member Jeni Woock, to instruct the city administrator, Bob Larson, to form a committee consisting of city supervisors, directors, “some employees” and three council members of his own choosing, and report back to the council by May 24 on the wisdom of hiring a consultant.

The council split on whether they had supported or opposed an employee survey last December that disclosed deep distrust and anger among city employees.

Mayor Kit Kuhn and Council Member Jim Franich maintained the the ad-hoc committee that helped design the survey was stacked.

“The people who were for the survey got on the committee,” Franich said. “It’s more than fair to have some of the people on the losing end get put on this one.”

There was a long tug-of-war of amendments during which the “pro-survey” and “anti-survey” council members each nominated their own slate for the committee. So many amendments and sub-amendments were offered that members lost track and had to call on the city attorney to unravel the thread.

Council Member Bob Himes maintained that there shouldn’t be any council members on the committee at all.

“We have no business sticking our nose in the administrative side,” he said. “We’re in their knickers and we shouldn’t be.”

In other business, the City Council:

▪ Heard a report by Larson, the city administrator, that he was looking into bringing employees back to the Civic Center, “projecting May 3 to start the process.” He said this would only happen if it could be done safely and in line with state guidelines, and that the city was considering options such as staggered shifts or allowing some employees to continue to work at home.

▪ Gave a first reading to an ordinance that would absorb the Gig Harbor Transportation Benefit District into the City of Gig Harbor. The two are already contiguous and share elected officials. The TBD exists mainly to channel transportation dollars from the state into city road projects.

▪ Heard the first reading of a revised ordinance that would set rules for commercial fishermen using the historic Ancich Net Shed and Pier on the waterfront. The rules were described in an article in the March 18 Gateway.

This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 5:30 AM.