Lynnwood names its own Bill Franz for public works head

LYNNWOOD — Bill Franz has been appointed by Lynnwood Mayor Mike McKinnon as the city’s new public works director and he has hit the ground running.

The City Council confirmed the move unanimously on May 10.

“Ever since I started working here I saw myself at some point stepping into this position, but it is a little sooner than I thought and I’m happy it worked out,” Franz said.

According to Lynnwood human resources officials, Franz is a licensed professional engineer and has worked for the city of Lynnwood for 13 years. He was most recently the interim public works director. Previous positions with the city include engineering services manager, plans reviewer, project manager and environmental engineer.

Franz has served as interim director since December 2003. He succeeds Bill Vlcek, who left the city to become Assistant Regional Administrator with the Washington State Department of Transportation.

“This is great news for the city of Lynnwood. Bill Franz has done an excellent job as interim director,” McKinnon said. “We discovered during our search for this position that the best person was already in Lynnwood. I am very pleased he has agreed to serve as director.”

City administrator Steve Nolen added, “Bill’s a very good engineer and manager and we think he’ll be a good team leader for his department.”

Franz said there are many public works projects that have been activated in the last few months. One of his short term goals, he said, is to start the plan for the City Center Project.

The public works department will also continue implementing and adding to its Intelligent Transportation System, which coordinates traffic signals throughout the city.

In addition, construction for the final phase of the I-5/196th Street project, the pedestrian bridge, is planned to start the end of this summer.

As director, Franz will manage a department with 72 employees and an annual budget of $15 million. Prior to his employment at the city, Franz worked for several years as an engineer with King County’s Building and Land Development Division and with the Washington State Department of Transportation.