The City of Poulsbo signed a resolution of intent to hire a City Administrator in 2022.

Last April the city began looking into possibly creating a city administrator position to assist a future mayor of Poulsbo.

“The city administrator is basically … one way to look at it is a super department head, if you will,” councilmember Ken Thomas said of the future position.

This position will have no impact on council governance or oversight obligations as it would be a position directly under the direction of the mayor.

The declaration of intent does not bind the city to anything, but announces in an official capacity that the City of Poulsbo intends to move forward on its path to creating this position.

Councilmember Gary Nystul noted that cities across the state, many of which are smaller than Poulsbo have adopted city administrator positions.

“If we look at our neighboring jurisdictions and those around the area, around the state, cities with populations greater and a lot less than us are able to afford a city administrator, so you know conceptually it should work,” Nystul said.

When it came time for the council to vote it was only one member abstained. Newcomer Gary McVey, opted out due to unfamiliarity with the work the council has done on this topic.

“I do plan to abstain on this vote because it is memorializing two years of work, I have not been part of … so I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be voting on this,” McVey said.