Swansen resigns Village post
By Lauren Heaton
Village Manager Eric Swansen resigned his position last week after taking
a job as city manager of Sunnyside, Wash. Though he did not return calls
for comment, Swansen was quoted in an article published in the Yakima
Herald last week saying that the position in Sunnyside offered “more
salary and more responsibility than his current job.” Swansen
and his wife Shelley also own property near Sunnyside, which they might
use for retirement, the article said.
Though his contract requires that he give the Village 60 days resignation
notice, Swansen requested in an executive session at Village Council’s
meeting Monday, May 19, that he be released earlier, Council President
Judith Hempfling said this week. Council members agreed, allowing Swansen
to give 30 days notice. His last day is June 18, according to the Yakima
Herald, but he agreed to be available by phone up to 30 days after his
departure to help his successor make a smooth transition, according
to Hempfling.
The Village plans to hire an interim manager for at least six months
and hopefully up to a year, to allow ample time for a deliberate search
for a new Village manager, Hempfling said. Council members plan to work
with Village Solicitor John Chambers, who is the former manager of Springboro,
and the International City/County Management Association, which has
a pool of candidates who are willing to serve as interim managers, to
find a temporary replacement for Swansen.
“I feel very confident that we’ll be able to get a good
person in as interim manager,” Hempfling said. “We don’t
want to rush the search process for a [permanent] manager, and this
will give us time to be thoughtful about the replacement process.”
Swansen came to Yellow Springs from Jackson Hole, Wyo. in January 2005
to replace former Village Manager Rob Hillard. He was selected from
a pool of 120 candidates partly due to his experience as the city manager
of Farmersville, Calif., from 2003 to 2004 and his previous jobs as
a senior management analyst with the city of Shoreline, Wash., and Deschutes
County, Ore., beginning in 1994.
Last month Council renewed a two-year contract for Swansen that was
scheduled to expire in December 2010. According to Village Clerk of
Council Deborah Benning, the Village manager is currently compensated
at $81,900.
Over Swansen’s two-year tenure, he stabilized the Village’s
finances, and the 2007 budget ended with more than a $1 million surplus,
the highest in many years.
Swansen also initiated several pieces of somewhat controversial legislation.
Two months after stepping into office, he recommended an $8.4-mill property
tax levy to raise $740,000 to balance the Village budget, which passed
by just one vote in 2006. The following year Swansen recommended that
the Village purchase a $3.5 million utility substation and sign a 50-year
contract with a new coal plant in Meigs County, neither of which were
approved by Village Council.
But Hempfling said on Tuesday that Swansen had worked hard for the Village
to raise revenues and to cut spending by eliminating positions, including
a Village planner and a manager’s assistant, which has increased
the manager’s workload.
“I know Eric has worked really hard, and I’m sure it’s
quite a challenging job,” she said. “We’ll miss him,
and we wish him well.”
Swansen was chosen out of a pool of four other candidates for the position
in Sunnyside, a city of 15,000 located in the Yakima Valley of eastern
Washington about two and a half hours from both Seattle and Portland.
The city’s $22 million budget is allotting its manager a $95,000
salary, plus $12,000 in moving costs, a $350 monthly vehicle allowance
and a severance package with six months pay, according to the Yakima
Herald.
Swansen was also one of five candidates for city manager of Ontario,
Ore., a city of 11,000 that hoped to double its population in the next
20 years, according to the Argus Observer.
Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com