Woodward hires new Spokane city administrator from San Diego

Mayor Nadine Woodward has hired a top official from the city of San Diego to serve as Spokane’s next city administrator.

Woodward announced Tuesday that she has selected Johnnie Perkins to serve as her top deputy.

Perkins was the city of San Diego’s deputy chief operating officer from 2018 to 2021, and has most recently been with its environmental services department.

“What an exciting community,” Perkins told The Spokesman-Review by phone on Tuesday. “I’m certainly blessed and honored to be selected as the city administrator.”

Perkins’ appointment does not require confirmation by the Spokane City Council, and he will begin on April 12 at an annual salary of $159,600. The city administrator is the top nonelected position in city government.

“Johnnie’s combination of executive-level experience with large organizations and reputation for establishing and growing relationships set him apart,” Woodward said in a news release on Tuesday. “Those are important qualities I was searching for in our chief administrative officer.”

Perkins will replace Wes Crago, who was Woodward’s first major hire after winning election in 2019. Crago resigned abruptly last September and said little about the reasons for his departure.

Since Crago resigned, his post had been filled on an interim basis by Public Works Director Scott Simmons. But Simmons is also departing at the end of the month after landing a job as Spokane County’s new CEO.

Unlike Crago, whose professional experience was rooted in the small Eastern Washington town of Ephrata, Perkins has worked in a major city.

In San Diego, Perkins oversaw public utilities, transportation and environmental services – which carry a total annual budget of $1.4 billion and account for more than 2,500 employees, according to Woodward’s news release.

For comparison, Spokane has an annual budget of about $1 billion and 2,000 employees.

Perkins said he researched the background of the City Council and mayor, whose initiatives he said garnered his respect. He also praised the mayor’s experience and style of collaboration, saying her vision “was really in line with mine” on key issues, including the prioritization of public safety.

But it was something Woodward said last fall that persuaded Perkins to apply for the job.

“She talked about balancing community health with economic health, and I think that’s a really key statement that attracted me to Spokane,” Perkins said.

Perkins was also lured to Spokane by the presence of family. His nephew works at Whitworth Church and other family members live on the west side of the state.

Prior to his work for the city of San Diego, Perkins worked as an executive for two different solid waste disposal companies. In its news release, the city touted Perkins’ experience working with labor unions.

Perkins told The Spokesman-Review he’s worked with unions in both the private and public sector. Last year, he helped negotiate San Diego’s first project labor agreement with the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council to jumpstart a $1.4 billion water recycling infrastructure project.

Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs said he didn’t previously know Perkins, but has met with him and was happy that Woodward is filling a top position in her cabinet. He noted that Simmons had been burdened with dual roles as interim city administrator and public works director.

“Not that Scott Simmons hasn’t been doing a good job, but he has two jobs and it was clear he wasn’t going to be the person, so I feel like we have been missing having a full-time permanent person with the city,” Beggs said.

Crago was well-liked by City Council members for facilitating a strong relationship between the City Council and administration, which had disintegrated between the previous council and Mayor David Condon’s administration.

Beggs expects Perkins will be tasked with building a similar bond with the council.

“(Woodward) tends to be a delegator, and I have substantive conversations (with people) high in her administration, so I’d imagine that will continue,” Beggs said.

Perkins has already met with five of the seven City Council members.

“I’m really big on communication and collaboration, and it’s not lost on me that there will be a little bit of a learning curve when I get there,” Perkins said.

More than two dozen people, some from as far away as Florida, applied for the job, according to city spokesman Brain Coddington. Perkins was selected from seven finalists.