Serving residents well

POST FALLS – After Eric Keck was on the job about three weeks last fall, Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin asked himself, “Has he lived here all his life?”

“He just fell into place,” Larkin said of Keck, the city’s new administrator. “Even though he hasn’t lived here his entire life, he just understands. He serves the residents of this city very well, and we hope to have him a long time.”

Keck, who began work Sept. 18, has won support for his can-do attitude, professional approach, straightforward communication style – and even his weakness for the popular TV show “Lost,” his colleagues say.

He replaced Jim Hammond, who resigned to run for the state Legislature.

Now six months into the job, Keck has taken on another role, filling in as community development director after Gary Young was fired from the city in December.

Keck has tackled the controversial proposed City Hall project, which has been redesigned and sent out for bid. And he is expected to help guide Post Falls through a continued upsurge in residential and commercial growth.

“We put him in the fire when he came to us because of the City Hall and everything else that is going on,” city Councilman Joe Bodman said. “He came to bat for us.”

Keck’s background as a city administrator in Draper, Utah, an area with exponential growth, and time spent in the private development sector are a two-punch combination, city officials said.

“He came from an area larger in population. He built a city hall. He had growth issues that we’re in the middle of or just starting into,” Larkin said. “And his expertise will bring us to the next level.”

Keck, 36, grew up on a farm northwest of Dayton, Ohio. After high school, he went into the Air Force Reserve for officer training and studied electrical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz. He returned to Dayton and the University of Dayton, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1994 and a master’s degree in public administration in 1995.

Afterward, he traveled up the ranks of city government, first as an operations manager for the Franklin County Emergency Management Agency in Columbus, Ohio. He later became an assistant city manager for Huber Heights, Ohio.

In 1999, he was recruited to Draper, where he served as an assistant city manager and community and economic development director before ending up as city manager.

In Draper, he watched the city grow from 19,000 residents to 35,000, Keck said.

“I see Post Falls (as being in the same relative place) as Draper was when I started,” said Keck, who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter. “The market is hot. Residential development has gone wild.”

In Draper, he helped construct a new city hall, public works facility, fire station and parks and recreation facility, Keck said.

He also became a “deal junkie,” Keck said, ushering in developments such as a Kohl’s department store and IKEA, the popular Sweden-based home-furnishings warehouse.

That led him to a yearlong position as a private development consultant for Wadsworth Development Group in the Salt Lake City area.

“I felt like I had good rapport with the development sector. I thought I could do well in real estate,” Keck said. But “I underestimated the passion I had for developing communities. I really liked helping people and helping build a community.”

Last September, the city of Post Falls hired Keck as city administrator after a nationwide search by a head-hunting company.

“And here I am now,” said Keck, who earns an annual salary of $115,482. “I feel really blessed to be back in the public sector.”

In Post Falls, Keck said, he hopes to bring a new professionalism and fresh perspective to managing the municipality.

He said he strives for citizen-based governance in which residents’ viewpoints are a priority.

Keck said he wants residents to see more tangibles of city service, such as better roads. His goal is to improve the aesthetics of the community, dressing up city entrances with new signage and landscaping and giving businesses incentives to clean up the area.

“People drive through and don’t even know they’re in Post Falls,” Keck said.

He advocates managed growth, such as the city’s current development of a smart code, which focuses on creating neighborhoods with commercial centers and walking paths.

“We need to embrace development. I’m a firm believer in if we’re not growing, it’s dying,” he said. “But the question is the quality of that development.”

Keck wants a balanced mix of commercial and residential growth and a variety of types of housing.

The city is “not going to be in the position of giving a green light to every development that wants to come to town,” said Keck, pointing to the City Council’s recent denial of annexation of the proposed Foxtail development, which would have brought 649 homes and 249 multifamily units into city limits.

The timing wasn’t good for the city, Keck said.

“Let’s take a step back and let’s look at it first,” he said. “Let’s do it right.”