In reprise, interim city administrator hopes to ‘be there’ for Gig Harbor employees
Tony Piasecki, who is returning for an encore as Gig Harbor’s interim city administrator, says he hopes to “be there” for the city’s 100-plus employees.
“I think it’s just about being there, being a good administrator, working well with the staff,” Piasecki said Wednesday. “My style is a very open style. I’d like to get to know the employees and work with them. If there are issues that need to be resolved, get them resolved.”
Piasecki, who was interim city administrator at the beginning of Mayor Kit Kuhn’s term in 2018, will also be in on the end. The mayor announced Monday that Piasecki will return to his old job in mid-July, when the current city administrator, Bob Larson, retires
A longtime city administrator and manager, Piasecki was also the temporary city manager for the city of Burien from 2016-2017 and city manager for Des Moines from 2002-2016. He is currently working as a consultant to city governments.
Counting Piasecki’s earlier stint, it will be the fifth turnover of city administrators in Kuhn’s single term. Before Larson, the post was held by Wade Farris, Paisecki, and Ron Williams, who had been administrator since 2014.
In an interview with The Gateway on Wednesday, Paisecki said he hopes to work well with the city’s 100-plus employees, who have had a rough ride the last three and a half years. More than 30 staff, including supervisors and department heads, have left, and an employee survey presented to the City Council in December was scathing, terming the mayor a “tyrant” and a “bully.”
Paisecki said it would be his goal to “make sure our employees understand that we appreciate everything that they do and make them feel valued.”
Kuhn, who announced in March that he would not run for re-election, made the announcement at a City Council meeting Monday. He shared the details and next steps in an email to The Gateway.
“Staff and council have been involved in interviews with several qualified candidates. I am happy to announce we have offered the interim city administrator job to Tony Piasecki,” Kuhn said. “Tony was our interim city admin back in 2018 shortly after I took office. He worked well with council, staff and me. I appreciated his help before and the help he will be giving us shortly.”
The selection is still not a done deal, as it will need to get approved by the council in an upcoming meeting.
“We have reached a mutual agreement with him but still will need council confirmation and his signed agreement as well,” Kuhn said. “I am planning to have this on the June 14th Council meeting.”
Not a permanent pick
Communications director Laura Pettitt confirmed that Piasecki won’t be in the job for the long haul.
“I do know that it is not a permanent appointment and he will not be pursuing the role for a permanent placement,” Pettitt said.
That means that incoming mayor and current council member Tracie Markley will have to pick a new city administrator when she takes office. Markley’s election as mayor is now all but certain after her sole opponent, John Skansi, dropped out of the mayoral race and instead filed to run for city council.
Piasecki told The Gateway he expects to remain as interim administrator only until a new council is seated in January.
“The thing to keep in mind, is that there are council elections. You could have a whole new slate of council members in there and we want to make sure they’re a part of the process, because ultimately whoever is seated on January 1 will have to be the ones to approve the mayor’s selection of a new city administrator,” Piasecki said.
“I’ll definitely be here through, say, the end of January, because if you do a recruitment, then you bring in folks to be interviewed and all that, it’s going to have to be with the new mayor and new council.”
He said he hopes to ensure there is a “sense of continuity” and make sure all projects underway keep moving forward.
“Just make sure that the projects don’t get stalled for some reason,” Piasecki said. “The budget process, which I think they’ve done some of the preliminary work already, just keep that moving along smoothly because that is something that has got to get done by the end of the year. I’m ready to jump in, roll up my sleeves, and make sure that happens.”
Markley said that will mean a “whole new interview process” and set of candidates she will help to choose from as mayor.
“The ultimate decision for the new city administrator will be made by the new mayor and council will approve the contract for that person,” Markley said.
Markley said there isn’t anyone lined up.
“I don’t have anybody in mind yet, it’s still really early so I guess we’ll see,” Markley said. “It’s too early to say right now for me.”
Rotation at Civic Center
According to his LinkedIn profile, Piasecki has a master’s degree in Public Administration from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Piasecki was first brought into City Hall in 2018, after the newly-elected Kuhn fired Williams, who was considered too closely connected to the previous administration of Mayor Jill Guernsey. For the first few months, he was co-administrator with Dave Rodenbach, the city’s financial director.
Piasecki turned over the keys in August, 2018 to Wade Farris, a retired Air Force general who was then the city administrator of the Eastern Washington city of Othello. But Farris lasted less than a year before he was placed on administrative leave and forced to resign, ostensibly because he was deemed condescending toward women.
Farris would never say much about his experience, except that the mayor was “a little difficult to deal with.”
Larson was hired in January of 2020, amid hopes he would ease some of the tension among city employees, about a third of whom left the city during the first three years of Kuhn’s term. But Larson announced May 3 that he would retire in mid-July.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
