City officials have drafted a contract to promote Deputy City Manager Morgan Smith to the position of city manager.
The draft, 10-page agreement will be presented to the Bainbridge Island City Council at its meeting Tuesday.
“I appreciate being considered,” Smith said Saturday.
“I’m excited by the opportunity,” she added. “It continues to be a privilege to work for the community I live in.”
Under the terms of the contact, Smith would take over as city manager from Oct. 8 until Dec. 31, 2020.
She would be paid an initial base salary of $174,000, which would rise to $184,000 in six months “upon a determination by the city council that the
employee has successfully performed the functions of the city manager position.”
Bainbridge Island is currently without a city manager.
Bainbridge’s last city manager, Doug Schulze, put in his last day at city hall Friday and moved from the island Saturday.
Schulze accepted the job of city manager for the California town of Banning earlier this summer, and submitted his letter of resignation Aug. 3. He had been Bainbridge’s top employee at city hall since November 2012, and was paid an annual salary of $178,252 per year.
The idea of promoting Smith into the city manager’s position — which she had filled as an interim manager before Schulze was hired — was discussed in detail at the council’s Sept. 11 meeting. Smith had earlier proposed taking the job for a two-year term and then stepping aside after the city conducted a comprehensive search for a new manager during her second year in the post.
The council decided at that Sept. 11 meeting to authorize the mayor to begin negotiations over a possible employment contract.
Smith came to work for Bainbridge Island as deputy city manager in October 2010. Previously, she had been the executive director for the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council, and before that, she was the chief of strategic planning and director of fiscal policy for the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
The new contract was prepared by Mayor Kol Medina, Deputy Mayor Joe Deets and City Attorney Joe Levan.
The draft agreement also includes provisions for health, disability and life insurance benefits; vacation, sick and management leave; business expenses; and a $3,000 annual car allowance.
The city council can also terminate Smith’s employment “without cause” and “with cause” under the new contract.
The agreement also allows the city to move her into another position if it no longer wants to keep Smith in the city manager’s job.
That section was included in the contract as an alternative to severance for termination without cause, but the city and Smith must “identify a mutually acceptable role for the employee” if the council no longer wants Smith to continue as city manager during the term of the agreement.
