City administrator position eliminated in Liberty Lake

Liberty Lake will start 2006 without a city administrator.

The position is being phased out in the city of just over 5,000 residents and beginning in January, department heads will report directly to Mayor Steve Peterson.

Lewis Griffin declined to comment on losing his position, but said he was told about the move in August, adding, “It was a complete surprise.”

The city asked Griffin to stay on part-time to help draft and promote the city’s legislative agenda – a position he has yet to accept.

Peterson, a full-time pharmaceutical representative for Sanofi-Aventis who works 20 hours a week as mayor, said the restructuring doesn’t reflect poorly on Griffin’s job performance.

The move was intended to save money and eliminate an extra layer of bureaucracy in city government, Peterson said.

Department heads were reporting to Griffin who reported to the mayor and then relayed information from the mayor back to the department heads, Peterson said.

“It’s too much filtering in a small city, from my standpoint.”

The restructure saves the city $71,949 in annual salary. While Peterson is adding city administrator duties to his mayoral position, he doesn’t foresee inheriting Griffin’s salary.

He plans to continue working about 20 hours a week as mayor and keep his day job.

City councilwoman Judi Owens said the mayor has always been the “top go-to person,” so the change shouldn’t present many challenges.

“I think this is a good move for the city and it certainly isn’t meant as a negative in any way shape or form,” Owens said.

Owens doesn’t anticipate challenges in the new system and said the department heads and mayor can handle the workload.

“We feel like we pretty much have our feet under us now.”