City Manager Takes Hits For Trying To Avoid Fights What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate, Critics Charge

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, May 3, 1996): Jan Polek’s name was spelled incorrectly in an April 28 story about City Manager Roger Crum.

Like a child’s plastic punching bag, Spokane City Manager Roger Crum takes hit after hit.

He rarely swings back or even blocks the blow. Time and again, he rolls back up, ready for the next shot from an irate taxpayer or council member.

These days, Crum faces a potential one-two punch. His performance is being evaluated by the council to see whether he should keep his job. There’s also a move to dump his position in favor of a strong mayor who would be the city’s top administrator.

Crum’s not standing still, waiting for a knockout blow.

He’s looking for a new job and is a finalist for the top spot in Evanston, Ill. Despite the job insecurity, he says his top priority is running the city.

“It’s always stressful,” Crum says. “But I’m in this business because I like this business. … I’m learning things every day, really learning things.”

For Spokane residents, Crum is at the narrow end of the funnel through which all city services flow.

Crum oversees day-to-day operations, from fixing potholes to plowing streets, issuing parking tickets to collecting garbage.

He’s the point man for policies set by the seven-member council, the chief executive officer to its board of directors. If the council tells Crum to get more cops on the street without raising taxes, it’s his job to find a way to do it.

Concerns about Crum’s performance may help push a strong-mayor initiative onto the ballot this year or next. Attorney Steve Eugster, who’s circulating the petition, says a city manager isn’t powerful enough because he or she is subject to the council’s whim.

A strong mayor would be responsible for running city business - hiring, firing and everything in between. Only an unhappy electorate could vote that mayor out of a job. Currently, it would take at least four council members to fire Crum.

Crum quietly sits alongside the council each Monday, absorbing flak from taxpayers upset about everything from property tax bills to a neighbor’s junky yard.

Critics chastise him for being weak and non-communicative. He doesn’t always keep the council informed. He stays in the background when he should be out front taking charge, they say.

“He’s a great lieutenant but he’s no general,” says attorney Eugster.

“I’d like to see more of an incharge attitude,” says one department head who requested anonymity.

Supporters say Crum’s an extremely bright, detail-minded person who can squeeze a size-12 budget into a size-2 pocketbook.

He’s fiercely loyal to employees, criticizing them only behind closed doors. He doesn’t try to micro-manage.

“I have to compliment him on the way he works with his managers,” says former Mayor Sheri Barnard. “He gives them authority and lets them carry out their job.”

Nearly everyone - fans and critics alike - say he’s a kindly man whose non-confrontational manner hurts his public image.

“He has a conciliatory manner … that may make him vulnerable,” says Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes.

“He’s not a confrontational man,” says Budget Manager Ken Stone. “He’s a calm, deliberative man. That can hurt sometimes.”

Crum doesn’t cut an imposing figure. He’s tall but seems small with a thin, lanky body and hunched shoulders. When attacked, his cheeks get red. For a moment, he may look down. But he doesn’t walk away.

He’s been under siege a lot these days.

He took heat in December for a surprise push to raise salaries for top management. Twice during the last year he’s been the finalist for city manager jobs in other cities. Neither time did his bosses know he was even looking for work.

“He just simply doesn’t communicate,” says Mayor Jack Geraghty.

“Having the mayor and the council learn of things in the paper is the last way any person in his position should carry forth business,” says Councilwoman Roberta Greene.

Crum also has drawn fire from those who say he’s taking too long to make a decision on whether to discipline Police Chief Terry Mangan.

Last month, Mangan was involved in an armed confrontation with three CB club members parked outside his Valley home.

The delay demonstrates weakness, they say.

“He’s doing everything he can to ignore and minimize the situation in hopes that it will go away,” says Pete Powell, an Indian Trail resident and frequent Crum critic.

“I think he should be showing more strength in dealing with the chief of police,” says Jan Pollack, a community activist.

Crum showed a rare flash of anger when pressed about Mangan during last week’s council meeting. He shut off council members’ questions about the investigation, saying the chief is “still entitled to a fair trial.”

He’s waiting to hear whether County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser files charges, Crum told them, adding he’ll make a decision then.

Crum doesn’t take his battles public - and he’s certainly not going to debate an employee’s future in a crowd. “I don’t believe that’s the right style,” he says.

Pollack and other critics complain that he doesn’t push for change.

He balked at a plan to increase citizen review of the Police Department. And he’s neglected minority and women’s issues, some say.

“He has a lack of commitment and passion,” Pollack says. “It’s not that he’s anti-feminist. It’s just benign neglect.”

Crum admits he’s not a “community crusader,” or “loud leader.” But, he’s quick to add, he helped hire Spokane’s first African-American department heads.

Also, Crum says, he’s been married for nearly 30 years to a woman he describes as a “modern feminist.” He has two grown daughters. “I’m surrounded by three women,” he says, adding it’s impossible for him to be insensitive to women’s issues.

Crum’s life away from City Hall focuses on his family - and his golf. He’s teed off at least once a month for over three years. His most recent resume, written in his characteristically self-effacing style, says he’s an “avid, but unskilled, golfer.”

He also takes private - and professional - comfort in reading books from the “Captain Horatio Hornblower” series. Set during the Napoleonic wars, the 1930s novels by British author C.S. Forester detail the life of a sea captain struggling to keep his crew together in troubled waters.

“He goes through the trials and tribulations of being a leader,” says Crum, 57.

He laughs when asked about any parallels. “I’m not as good at swordplay as he is,” he says.

Like Hornblower, Crum’s background is in mathematics. He’s known for his ability to turn an impossibly imbalanced budget into a balanced one.

“He’s brilliant with the budget,” says former Councilman Joel Crosby.

Crum, who has four engineering degrees, spent six years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He finished first among 600 candidates on an officer training test, but “almost flunked out” because he couldn’t master marching.

After the Air Force, he spent eight years in the aerospace industry. In 1974, he came to Spokane as part of the National Science Foundation. He was one of 27 people chosen from a field of 2,000 applicants to help cities use new technologies.

Three years later, he was hired as a management assistant to City Manager Sylvin Fulwiler. He took over as deputy city manager under Terry Novak in 1980.

City officials and staff say Novak and Crum made a good team. Novak was out in the community, talking about issues and looking 10 years down the road. Crum took care of details, keeping things together.

Novak left in 1991 to take a job as vice president for business and finance at Eastern Washington University. After a national search, Crum was chosen to replace him.

Crum says he’s accomplished a lot in five years. He designed a program where city employees serve as liaisons to neighborhoods. He also talks about helping put the arena project together, as well as a private-public effort to resuscitate downtown.

He says his career low point was the recent flap about the pay raises.

He’s proud of the staff he helped put together that keeps the city running smoothly, he says. “Frankly, the thing I’m proudest of is the organization. It takes more work than it looks like. … I think I’ve done that.”

Many in his staff return the praise.

“He allows me to do my job,” says Affirmative Action Director Dorothy Webster. “He doesn’t try to interfere in my investigations.”

“He’s the type of person who hires the right person and gets the heck out of their way,” says Molly Myers, director of neighborhood services.

Many employees say he’s known - and appreciated - for his quick wit. But, they add, it’s been known to cause him trouble.

A flip remark made during a job interview in Ann Arbor, Mich., last fall may have cost him that job. One of that city’s council members claimed he asked Crum how he dealt with stress and Crum responded that he went home and beat his wife.

An apologetic Crum later recalled saying, “I don’t go home and beat my wife,” but admitted his comment was “inappropriate.”

Anyone who knows Crum knows the remark was a failed attempt at humor, Myers says. “He has that wit about him, but he’s not always politically correct.”

He’s relies on humor and his supportive wife, Cathy, to get through the rough times, he says.

Considering all he’s facing, the fact the city still runs smoothly is a tribute to Crum’s leadership, says Councilwoman Greene.

“If there is a strength to look to in these times, it’s his ability to carry on in the light of some strong adversity.” Regardless of the outcome, says longtime friend Novak, “he’ll land on his feet.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CITY MANAGERS Spokane has had four city managers since it switched from a commissioner form of government form in 1960: Henry B. Nabers, 1960-1963 F. Sylvin Fulwiler, 1963-1977 Terry L. Novak, 1978-1991 Roger D. Crum, 1991-present