City may pay Lynch $90,000

Spokane’s recently fired deputy mayor could get almost $90,000 for severance and unused sick and vacation time, city officials said Wednesday. That’s on top of his city retirement package that nears $1,200 a month.

Jack Lynch was fired in February by Mayor Dennis Hession, who said he needed someone in the post who could perform at “a higher level than Jack was.”

Lynch will get $40,459 in severance and $25,630 for unused sick and vacation time, said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

He also may get $23,692 as a result of a memorandum that then-Mayor John Powers wrote in 2002. It allowed Lynch and three other members of his staff to save unused vacation beyond normal limits. The extra payout is scheduled for a vote on April 9.

City code allows departing employees to be paid for unused vacation equaling up to 200 hours or twice the amount of their annual vacation time, whichever is greater. The code indicates that increasing his payout for saved vacation needs City Council approval.

Feist said the action generally is used to prevent employees who are working long hours from losing vacation. But those agreements usually stipulate that the extra vacation must be used for time off – not for a payout if they leave their jobs. She said it is unclear if the lack of that stipulation in the memo was an oversight. No remaining city employees have agreements allowing them to collect money for vacation beyond normal limits, she said.

“The idea is to not penalize someone who is working on a big project,” Feist said.

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Powers said he couldn’t remember if he intended Lynch to be eligible for the extra pay.

“I really don’t have any specific recall,” said Powers, who recently was named the senior managing director for Washington at Colliers International.

The other three employees affected by Power’s memo no longer work for the city. When Power’s chief of staff Randy Withrow left his job, he was paid for 200 hours of unused vacation. City Council turned down the extra 336 hours he accrued as a result of the memo. Withrow’s attorney later negotiated a settlement. Withrow declined Wednesday evening to say what he received.

“If you’re able to take the time off, that’s wonderful,” Withrow said. “But in many cases you’re not.”

Saying he disagreed with The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of his client, Lynch’s attorney, Jim King, declined to comment on the severance package.

Also Wednesday, the Spokane Employees Retirement System board approved Lynch’s retirement package. He will get $1,197 a month, said Diana Hart, Spokane’s assistant retirement director.

City employees are eligible for retirement at age 50 as long as they have worked at least five years. He was eligible to receive up to $1,419 a month. Lynch selected an option that pays a lower amount but lets his wife collect the money in the event of his death.

Lynch, the former chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow County in Montana, was hired by Powers in March 2001 to be the city’s first city administrator under Spokane’s new strong mayor system.

He later was retained and given the title of deputy mayor by Mayor Jim West. Lynch earned $102,000 a year when he started and about $138,000 when he left.

The title of the office changed to chief operating officer after Hession replaced Lynch with the city’s former economic development director John Pilcher.