The county last week formally approved splitting the Planning Department’s leadership, granting new titles and higher salaries to the two employees assuming the responsibilities formerly held by Dave Wechner.
Wechner was ousted as planning director by the Board of Commissioners, who indirectly asked him to resign.
The change reflects the preference of all three commissioners, though only two — still a quorum — were present at the meeting last week. It comes at a critical time, during the state-mandated revision of the Comprehensive Plan that will govern the county’s future development.
“I think both the community-development side and the long-range side will be better served throughout the coming year,” Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said at last Tuesday’s regular commissioners’ meeting.
This is not the first time the county has split the Planning Department, Budget Director Elaine Marlow said during the meeting. It was divided on an interim basis in 1998, during an earlier revision of the Comprehensive Plan. That split lasted through mid-2001, she said.
KEITH HIGMAN, a county employee since 1994, has become interim director of long-range planning, with the principal responsibility of overseeing completion of the revised Comprehensive Plan by June 30, 2016. He had been serving as Health Services Director and as Director of the Department of Natural Resources, both of which positions he will retain.
Higman, 52, will be supervising 44 people, 40 in those two departments and four in the Planning Department. His salary will increase to $104,400 from $92,400, or 13 percent.
The massive Comp Plan revision “is doable,” Higman said in an interview last week. “There’s a beginning, middle and end. We’re between the beginning and the middle. All the hard decisions are in front of us. But I sense the board appreciates being able to assign me a task that I can deliver across the finish line with sufficient quality and efficiency.”
This revision of the plan is the first time the county has undertaken the task using mainly its own staff, Higman said. The original adoption and 2005-06 revision were achieved “with lots of outside help,” he said.
UNDER THE restructuring, Higman will supervise the Planning Department’s four long-range planners helping to revise the plan. To help ensure that they stick around, the three already on staff got promotions and salary increases. Brad Johnson was promoted to principal planner, from senior planner. Nathan Howard and Meredith Penny were each promoted to associate planner, from assistant planner.
A new senior planner has accepted an offer of employment but has not yet been hired, HR Director Melanie Bacon said.
The Planning Department has been plagued by high turnover for some time, Price Johnson noted.
Higman said he will initially split his time equally between Public Health and Planning. He has alerted his managers that they will have to take on more responsibilities and has warned his two children at home, ages 12 and 17, that he will have far more evening meetings to attend.
THOUGH HE does hold a master’s degree in public health, he doesn’t claim to be a subject-matter expert in all the areas he heads, rather just a skilled administrator. He has headed the Planning, Public Health and Natural Resources departments simultaneously twice before, each time for a period of six months or less. At neither time was a Comp Plan revision going on, though both times he headed the entire Planning Department, not just long-term planning.
Higman’s first job with Island County, in 1994, was in critical-areas planning, protecting wetlands and issuing timber-harvest permits.
One of Higman’s concerns, he said, is whether his new interim position will end once the Comprehensive Plan is submitted.
That was his agreement with the commissioners, he said.
But, what if parts of the plan are appealed, as has happened in the past?
“That’s a big question mark,” Higman responded. “The board has to decide whether the split is something it wants to institutionalize or whether to revert to a single person overseeing everything.”
A single parent, Higman said he spends all his spare time with his children.
“My kids are my world.”
HILLER WEST, 60, is the new director of current-use planning and community development. Since being hired in February, he had served as current-use planning manager.
“I’m comfortable with the change,” he said during an interview last week. “I’m happy to help in this time of change.”
In his new role, West supervises 20 employees, up from five in his former position. He is responsible for the front-counter staff dealing with permits and questions, building inspectors/plans examiners, land-use and shoreline planners, code-compliance personnel and development coordinators.
West served as community-development director for the city of Monroe, Wash., from 2001 to 2010 and for Klatsop County, Ore., from 2011 through 2013, he said.
WEST SAID his initial challenge will be to ensure a smooth transition in leadership.
“We want employees to feel their work responsibilities remain in place and they have someone to go to if issues arise,” he said.
West’s annual salary will increase to $82,500 from $72,500, a hike of 14 percent.
In his spare time, West, who lives in Freeland with his wife, likes to travel the Northwest and scuba dive. As a hobby and fledgling side-business, he assembles emergency-preparedness kits.
WECHNER, WHO headed the Planning Department for nearly 2.5 years, unexpectedly left his office at around noon last Monday. His departure followed closed-door discussions between him and the commissioners that culminated in a session during which “we spoke with [him last] Friday suggesting his resignation,” Bacon said.
Wechner departed because “the Board of Island County Commissioners wishes to head in a different direction for the planning department,” Commissioner Jill Johnson wrote in an email to county staff that was forwarded to the News-Times.
