Stark resigns from Boy Scouts

Tue., Sept. 12, 2006

By Jonathan Brunt jonathanb@spokesman.com (509) 459-5442

City Councilman Brad Stark, in the midst of a contentious campaign for county assessor, has resigned from his day job at the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts.

Stark was one of several district executives for the council, which serves Eastern Washington and North Idaho. He is challenging incumbent Assessor Ralph Baker in the Republican primary.

Stark said he and the council’s executive director, Tim McCandless, met last month and decided the race could cause conflict-of-interest problems for the organization.

“We made the joint decision that I would resign,” said Stark, whose last day at work was at the end of August.

McCandless said Stark had approached him about running before Stark began the campaign, but that was just before he left on a two-week trip and a final decision about Stark’s employment status while running for assessor wasn’t made until he got back.

Stark, 26, was working for the Boy Scouts when he ran for City Council in 2003. McCandless said the decision to allow Stark to run in that race while remaining a Scouts employee was made by his predecessor.

Stark said he felt it was best to resign given the negative tone to the campaign. McCandless, however, said the contentiousness of the race didn’t affect his support for Stark’s resignation. He added that Stark served the group well.

“He’s brought a lot of energy, enthusiasm and dedication to this job,” McCandless said.

Supporters of Baker have said that because of Stark’s youth and lack of experience, he isn’t adequately prepared to manage the assessor’s office. Stark has pointed to his work in the Scouts and on the City Council as part of his management experience.

“I kinda hearken back to my Boy Scouts experience, here, working with volunteers,” he said earlier this year when asked about his age in an interview. “Here I am working with volunteers, people that are volunteering their time and their passions and such and guiding those folks and achieving great things.”

Stark said Monday that he didn’t think the resignation was important to the race, noting that the media didn’t report a promotion he got this year. “If that promotion wasn’t a story,” Stark said, “this isn’t a story either.”

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