Cd'A to hire new deputy city administrator

The city of Coeur d’Alene is about to hire a deputy city administrator after leaving the position vacant since 2013.

The job has been detailed in the city’s Classification Plan since the plan was adopted by the city council in 2002. The deputy city administrator is responsible for handling questions and problems and will eventually oversee some of the city department heads.

City officials decided to re-staff the position to relieve Jim Hammond, the city’s administrator, of some of his short-term obligations.

“It kind of opens up the city administrator’s schedule so he can focus on the bigger, long-range and more detailed duties,” said Melissa Tosi, Coeur d’Alene’s human resources director. “The city administrator is that first line of communication to the mayor, whereas the

deputy city administrator would be the person the staff would go to with the day-to-day questions within their departments.”

In 2013, when Jon Ingalls retired from the deputy city administrator position, city officials decided not to fill the vacated position and instead brought on a communications coordinator, Keith Erickson, to disseminate information to the public and media. Erickson resigned from the position last November.

Some of the communications and social media responsibilities of the communications coordinator will be added to the new deputy city administrator’s responsibilities. “The deputy city administrator is the person people would go to for that day-to-day information anyway, so it makes sense for that person to work as a public information officer, too,” Tosi said.

There were 122 applicants for the job. The selection committee was focused on finding someone with community relations skills and decision-making abilities who also has a good understanding of the organizational structure of a city like Coeur d’Alene.

After a series of interviews with three finalist candidates, a potential hire was selected and city officials have extended a job offer to that person.

“Our final step in the process is a background check and a full reference check and we’re almost done with that,” Tosi told The Press Wednesday evening.

Tosi said the city will release additional information about the new candidate once everything is finalized, likely sometime this week.

City officials hope to have the new deputy administrator on the job by mid-June. The starting annual salary for the position is $94,632.