How To Revamp City Management Is The Question

Mayor Jack Geraghty probably won’t get many arguments from the City Council over his call to overhaul the city’s management and combine some services with the county.

But what can be combined, and how things will be overhauled, may generate more debate.

Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes suggested the city needs to develop a new concept of assigning jobs.

“We need to erase the lines that say this is your job, this is your title, this is your pay scale,” Holmes said. The biggest resistance to such a change would probably come from management, she said.

In his “State of the City” address to the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Geraghty said one of the challenges the city faces is a complete overhaul of its management structure.

But he said he couldn’t offer a specific plan on that yet. “The specifics are going to come when we sit down with the city manager,” Geraghty said.

Councilman Orville Barnes agreed an overhaul is in order.

“Now that total consolidation is out of the way, we need to sit down with the county and see what we can put together,” he said.

Holmes said some city and county services could be unified - a term she prefers over over consolidated - but disagrees with Geraghty on the proposed county takeover of the Health District.

“What we have now is good - representatives from the region with a specific interest and commitment to health issues,” said Holmes, who serves on the district board.

Newly elected councilman Jeff Colliton agreed with Geraghty that city-sponsored drug education programs need to be enhanced. But he thinks the DARE program deserves scrutiny.

“I’m not sure we’re getting value for the dollar on DARE,” he said.

, DataTimes