In brief: Mayor’s chief of staff resigns after 4 months
After only four months on the job, Mayor Mary Verner’s chief of staff has resigned.
Mark Earley’s last day will be April 11, city spokeswoman Marlene Feist announced Thursday in a press release.
City Administrator Ted Danek will assume Earley’s duties.
Earley and Verner could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
Reached on vacation, Danek said Earley left on his own.
“There’s no performance issues,” Danek said. “He was not asked to resign.”
Feist’s statement said Earley “intends to pursue new opportunities in the private sector.”
“Mark Earley is a fine man and a proven leader, and I’m sorry to see him leave the city,” Verner said in the press release.
Earley, a retired Army colonel, came to the city after working at SprayCool, a cooling systems company in Liberty Lake, in 2006 and 2007, according to his resume.
– Jonathan Brunt
Spokane valley
Man hasn’t said how he was shot
A man was shot in the leg Thursday in Spokane Valley, but he didn’t tell police how it happened.
The man, who has not been identified and was thought to be intoxicated, was treated at a local hospital, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.
Deputies responded to the 500 block of South Carnahan Road about 8 a.m. after a couple reported a bleeding man on their doorstep. The man wouldn’t cooperate with police, and Reagan said investigators are unsure whether the shooting was accidental, self-inflicted or an assault.
Two people at the man’s house at 414 S. Carnahan said that the man argued with a 15-year-old resident of the home but that they didn’t hear gunshots or see weapons, police said.
One of those people, 47-year-old Kelvin W. Veazie, was arrested and booked into the Spokane County Jail on an escape from community custody warrant.
– Staff reports
Coeur d’Alene
Wienermobile gets tagged with markers
Parked outside a Coeur d’Alene hotel, the celebrated Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was too tasty a target for one hooligan.
A boy in a white shirt, apparently relishing his chance to tag an icon of the American road, struck the roving hotdog Wednesday evening, using markers.
Employees of the Hampton Inn and Suites helped remove some of the graffiti, but a little on a side window remained, like a stubborn mustard stain.
An Oscar Mayer “hotdogger” – one of the goodwill ambassadors who pilot the Wienermobiles around the country – estimated the damage at $1,100. Everything on the vehicle is custom-made, he told a Coeur d’Alene police officer.
A hotel video camera caught the offense on tape. But the boy vanished before police could ketchup with him.
– Scott Maben