After public pressure last summer, the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) Board decided that they would take input from the community in their search for a new CEO to lead the agency after the retirement of longtime CEO Susan Meyer. It was a departure from the original proposed process, in which the CEO search task force wanted to mint a new CEO with no public engagement.
That was almost a year ago. Since then, the hunt for a new CEO has gradually marched forward, with Meyer stepping down and the board appointing two interim co-CEOs — Karl Otterstrom and Brandon Rapez-Betty — to lead the agency until a permanent candidate could be selected.
But at a meeting of the board’s four-person CEO search task force last week, the group used a technicality in the outlined hiring process to forward just one candidate on to public consideration — a move that transit advocates and at least one member of the task force believe skirts the entire point of including the public in the hiring process.
While the number and names of the candidates still in the running as of last week was kept confidential in the task force’s executive session, minutes from the February 7 meeting said the task force was supposed to recommend four to six candidates to move forward, then interview and “further narrow the field to one to three finalists.” Finalists would then participate in a public engagement process with key stakeholder groups like employees and transit riders and appear before the full board for a vote.
Minutes from the task force meeting on May 30 show that County Commissioner Al French moved to advance only “candidate #2” to the Board for selection as CEO. French’s motion was seconded by Liberty Lake City Council Member Dan Dunne. According to the minutes, Spokane City Council Member Zack Zappone said the task force should “forward multiple candidates for a more full process.”
There were no additional comments and French’s recommendation to advance just one candidate passed three to one, with Zappone voting no.
“ I was a lone vote because I believe that my job on the task force was to vet candidates, to bring forward the highest quality candidates to the full board and the public to give options on ,” Zappone said. “ I believe that there were multiple candidates that should have been moved forward to the full board that warranted a full public process.”
Dunne believed the task force, in putting only one candidate up for public comment, was honoring the process approved by the STA Board.
“The process dictated very clearly that there would be one to three candidates,” Dunne told RANGE. “I really do feel that the task force executed the mission dictated by the STA Board. … If the board had felt differently I think they would have voted differently.”
Spokane City Council Member Kitty Klitzke, who sits on STA’s full board but not on the smaller task force, isn’t happy with the sole recommendation. Not only does it limit the scope of engagement that can be done with the public, it also ties the hands of the full STA board, which can only vote on candidates recommended by the four-member taskforce.
“It’s a pretty hard pill for me to swallow, that I’m just supposed to vote thumbs up or thumbs down on one person instead of having a menu of options,” Klitzke said. “My concern is that we don’t wanna just bring one person forward out of all of this process and all of this investment. We’re hoping to have a public process and robust participation from the board.”
Though she hadn’t been provided with resumes or information on other candidates, Klitzke said French told her more than 30 candidates had applied for the job. She’s “skeptical that there’s no other qualified candidates” who would warrant consideration by the full board.
Klitzke is pushing for Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley, the chair of the STA board, to call an emergency board meeting or hold an executive session with the full board to discuss the path forward.
Haley and French did not respond to requests for comment this afternoon. We will update this story if they do.
The engaged public doesn’t like the engagement process.
Though the task force’s decision was technically allowable in the process approved by the STA Board, it has left employees disappointed, said Chad Camandona, president of the union representing the transit workers in Spokane, Pullman and Moses Lake.
“ By forwarding only one candidate, they’re doing absolutely the bare minimum of what was promised to labor and the public. I think the public and labor deserve to have multiple candidates to express their opinions on,” Camandona said. “ It’s just disappointing. I think all of labor was looking for a change.”
Transit advocates also believe the move could have long-term consequences when it comes to public trust. Trust is especially important, they said, as STA needs to ask voters in the public transportation benefit area to renew a .02% sales tax that supports the agency before 2028.
Members of the grassroots organizing group Spokane Reimagined, who lobbied STA to include public input in the CEO selection process last year, said the decision to send only one candidate on to the public was against the spirit of the process.
“How do we know [candidate #2] is the best choice when they’re the only person we get to consider?” said Erik Lowe. “Not only is the CEO search task force doing a disservice to the board of directors and the voters in the public transportation benefit area, they are also kneecapping their preferred candidate by putting them forward as the result of a tainted process.”
Camandona, the union representative, expressed a similar sentiment, saying “the public will have no faith in any decision [candidate #2] makes,” because of the lack of input.
Lowe compared the move to a similar one in March where King County’s Sound Transit picked longtime board member Dow Constantine as their new CEO without public input, spurring pushback from transit riders.
“The insistence of some members of the STA Board to push through their preferred candidate, without public input or oversight, not only stains that candidate’s tenure as CEO, it also dramatically weakens the agency’s ability to ask voters for reauthorization of the voter-approved sales tax in the coming years,” Lowe said. “The actions of the CEO search task force show that this entire selection process has been a farce. Those in charge had a person in mind from the outset and they have tipped the scales from the beginning to ensure their candidate is the only option presented to the Board of Directors and the public.”
We have heard whispers that “candidate #2,” the sole candidate advanced, was an internal candidate, but no one on the CEO search task force would confirm.
Anton Henry, also a member of Spokane Reimagined, felt the process was “secretive,” and hard for the public to follow or engage with. “It’s extremely disappointing to see that our public officials don’t want to allow their constituents to be heard,” Henry said.
Sarah Rose, Spokane Reimagined member who fought for public involvement last year, took issue not just with the single candidate selection, but with the engagement process itself. According to the meeting minutes, after it was narrowed down to one candidate, Celia Kupersmith, the executive recruiting consultant hired by STA, suggested the process move like “a cabinet position with one person brought forward in front of the public. She suggested a public open house and invite the community as a whole to participate — to ask questions and build relationships.”
Rose described that version of public engagement as “like when a parent is introducing you to your new stepparent after they’re already married.”
“It’s like ‘this is the only candidate we’re putting forward, you can now ask questions and start to build your relationship because they’re not going anywhere, and you don’t have a say,’” Rose said.
For Rose, the stakes are high: “The new CEO could be in place for 20 years or more without public input. As a young person who has seen what 20 years of local elected leaders can do, that is really stressful.”
Reporting contributed by Aaron Hedge.
Editor’s Note: this story has been edited to reflect additional comments from a transit advocate, as well as comments received by Zappone after publication.
