By Kate Reardon
Herald Writer
OAK HARBOR — Thom Myers, who has been a top administrator in several Snohomish County cities, will serve as Oak Harbor’s interim city administrator, city officials announced.
The 57-year-old will be the city’s third interim director since Mayor Patricia Cohen took office in 2000.
In the early 1980s, Myers worked for Lake Stevens as city administrator. He held the top job in Arlington for 14 years. And most recently, he has been interim administrator for Monroe since October.
Myers applied for the Monroe job, but leaders there selected Jim Southworth, city manager in Toppenish.
Oak Harbor will pay Myers $59 an hour based on a contract with Waldron Resources of Seattle, a human resource firm that works to connect city administrators with cities. He should be working with the city full time by early April, said Krista Blackburn, administrative assistant to the mayor. City leaders could later decide to bring him on as a permanent employee, she said.
The city of Oak Harbor, population 20,000, employs 129 people and has a budget of $34.49 million a year.
While Myers served as administrator of Arlington, the city’s population grew from 3,330 to 10,349. During that time, city staff grew from 32 full-time employees to 90.
Myers earned a degree in sociology from the University of Washington and holds a masters in city and regional planning from Ohio State University. He said he plans to live in Oak Harbor while working there. He and his wife Susan have five children.
Oak Harbor had been looking for an administrator since September, when city finance director Doug Merriman picked up the administrative duties, Blackburn said.
Before that Ken Nyberg, who retired from the city of Federal Way, served as interim administrator but had to leave due to health reasons, Blackburn said.
Before that, E.T. Silvers served as the city supervisor. The position has since been changed to city administrator and is appointed by the mayor.
Silvers’ contract with the city was discontinued in late January 2000 because Cohen and he did not share philosophical beliefs as far as the direction of the city was concerned, Blackburn said.
You can call Herald Writer Kate Reardon at 425-339-3455
or send e-mail to reardon@heraldnet.com.
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