It took nearly 10 months and $22,000, but Oak Harbor Mayor Patty Cohen finally has found a new city administrator.

Paul Schmidt has been the city administrator for the small Eastern Washington town of Cheney for the last seven years. Before that, he was the public works director there.

Cohen said she was impressed with Schmidt’s down-to-earth style, his “result-oriented work ethic” and his fiscal management ability. She realizes the key to his success will be his ability to work with a sometimes-divided city council.

“He clearly understands the value of working with council and the mayor,” she said, “and bringing groups together, especially when there is a conflict of opinion.”

At the same time she said he’s not a guy who will mollycoddle.

“He recognizes he has a responsibility to stand up for what he believes would be the right thing for the community,” she said.

Schmidt said last week that he’s excited about taking on new challenges in Oak Harbor after 20 years in Cheney.

“It’s a career move on my part and I am impressed with the leadership I see in Oak Harbor,” he said. “It looks like I would be a good fit and vice versa.”

Schmidt’s salary will be $126,000 a year, including a car allowance, plus about $31,000 worth of benefits.

It’s not an easy thing to impress Cohen. She fired former City Supervisor Thom Myers last September in a move that did not sit well with several council members. She didn’t start looking for his replacement until after the holiday season.

She hired Waters-Oldani Executive Recruitment to help find a suitable candidate. It’s a national firm with a Web site at www.watersconsulting.com/servprod/execsrch.asp.

Cohen said the firm conducted an “exhaustive national search.” They narrowed 42 applicants to 12. After a couple of rounds of calls, the number was reduced to three. Those three went through interviews with city department heads and council members.

“We clearly didn’t have one candidate who met all the requirements for the job,” she said.

As a result, Cohen rejected all three. The search had cost the city $22,000, so Cohen decided to put the effort on hold for awhile. In the meantime, she worked with the Association of Washington Cities to advertise the position.

Cohen feels that it’s vital to find the right person for the job.

“Much of the responsibility for developing a responsive and economical organization rests with that person,” she said. “The city administrator needs to be an individual who can balance and sort out a myriad of tasks.”

During the long interim, Public Works Superintendent Cathy Rosen has filled in as a interim city administrator. She’s worked both jobs with a salary increase of $500 a week, which has saved the city a lot of money.

“Cathy Rosen has done a stellar job of filling in as interim administrator,” Cohen said.

Cohen said Schmidt called her about the job in September and she was immediately interested in him. Originally from North Dakota, he has a public works background. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science from the University of North Dakota and a master’s in public administration from Eastern Washington University, which is in Cheney.

“He’s very down to earth, very basic, very what you-see-is-what-you-get,” she said. “But he has a sense of demonstrated boldness and courage. … He thinks of himself as an idea man, but he’s also a realist.”

Both Cohen and Schmidt see a lot a lot of parallels between Cheney and Oak Harbor. They both have similar challenges, most notably the large amount of non-taxable government land. Cheney is a town of 10,000 that swells to 20,000 when the university is in session.

“We have a lot of young people, which I think is similar to Oak Harbor with the military presence,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt went through a long interview process with the city, meeting with the department heads, the city council and the mayor. Everybody gave him the thumbs up.

Schmidt will have his work cut out for him. Beyond the day-to-day administration and dealing with eight outspoken elected officials, his job will be to help city leaders sort through and implement about $92 million worth of high-profile plans, from the marina, to the pier, to downtown development, to highway widening.