Outgoing city manager Blair King was recognized for his service to the city as part of the Bainbridge Island City Council’s Jan. 27 meeting.
King retired Jan. 30, bringing to a close over four years of service on BI and 45 years working in local government in both California and Washington. Deputy city manager Ellen Schroer will serve in an acting capacity until an interim city manager is selected, per the city’s website. For the permanent city manager position, council is in the process of selecting a recruitment firm to help find King’s successor.
Notable accomplishments during King’s tenure include the completion of the Ted Spearman Justice Center and infrastructure improvements to Madison Avenue, Eagle Harbor Drive and Wyatt Way. King reflected on his time working for COBI.
“I want to express my admiration for the city council. You are good people doing a hard job. You’re doing the best you can. I wish the public actually would give you more credit for how difficult your job is and how hard you work at that. It’s difficult to make group decisions. It’s difficult to make them in public,” he said. “People talk about things being done behind closed doors. Nothing is done behind closed doors. It’s all done in the open.”
King said he felt privileged to have worked in local government, adding, “I think it’s the secret of our democracy. I can tell you I’m a naturalized citizen, I’m an immigrant. It’s a conversation about immigration that’s of interest to me, in this day and age. The United States is the greatest country in the world. Its greatness is because of local government and the work that we collectively do, you and staff together, honoring democracy, providing service to the public, working in the open,” he said.
Community member and former BI councilmember Ron Peltier shared his appreciation for King as part of public comment. “Not everybody gets to be on the city council, work with city managers, but some of us have, and I think you’ve set a new standard for city managers on Bainbridge Island,” he said.
King also provided the council with an update about Highway 305 and Winslow Way ferry line cutting with the city hoping to have modifications made at the intersection for a bike lane carve out ahead of the World Cup this summer. King said the city had to wait for the state Department of Transportation’s approval because it intersects with their right of way.
“The physical change we’d like to make is that there is a right-turn pocket eastbound on Winslow Way. You cannot make a right-hand turn (onto) the ferry there, and so that contributes to the problem of line cutting that we have. Public Works has developed a reasonably low-cost applied technology to cut that lane off. We’ll keep the green striped lane there for the bike path,” he said.
