Edmonds Planning and Development Department Director Susan McLaughlin is leaving the city.
Appointed by former Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson and confirmed by the city council in October 2021, McLaughlin came to the city after serving as the urban design manager for the City of Seattle’s Department of Transportation.
In a statement, the city said that after discussion with McLaughlin, “and after careful consideration of the needs of the city, it has been decided that it will be mutually beneficial for Director McLaughlin and the city to part ways.” McLaughlin’s departure from the city “is without cause and was mutually agreed upon,” the statement said.
“We are currently working with Director McLaughlin on the details of her transition. During that time, she will be out of the office,” the statement continued. “The city is grateful for Director McLaughlin’s service and wishes to thank her for the important work she has done.”
According to the city, Shane Hope, Edmonds’ former director of development services, is joining the department to assist with their workload. Once the details of McLaughlin’s departure are finalized, Hope will be named acting director of planning and development while the search for a replacement is conducted.
Edmonds Senior Planner/Acting Planning Manager Michael Clugston will continue in his role with the city and he, along with Building Official Leif Bjorback, will manage the planning and building departments, the city said.
McLaughlin is the third Nelson-appointed department director who has left Edmonds since Mayor Mike Rosen took office in January. Administrative Services Director Dave Turley departed in April, with Rosen stating “it has been decided that it will be mutually beneficial for Director Turley and the city to part ways.” The city said Monday that Kim Dunscombe, the city’s deputy administrative services director, has been named Edmonds’ acting finance director. Dunscombe will serve in this role while the city conducts the recruitment for a new finance director.
Finally, while the city conducts its search for the public works director replacement for Oscar Antillon — another Nelson appointee who announced his resignation last month — the city will contract with former Edmonds Public Works and Utilities Director Phil Williams to serve as acting director. Williams has rejoined the city as of Monday morning
— By Teresa Wippel
Nice to see Shane & Phil back
Let’s all hope that these ‘temporary’ staff members [Shane Hope & Phil William] can be lured back to Edmonds on a more permanent basis; the City could sure utilize their knowledge and past experience
Very good moves. Three done and at least two more – HR and Police – to go.
Mayor Rosen quickly leveraged the management expertise and community insight of Shane Hope and Phil Williams to address the city’s needs. Considering the city’s critical financial state, it is highly unlikely that the incoming permanent Planning Director will also engage in city-funded trips to Japan.
Wow. Interesting. I liked Shane Hope. I was sorry to see her leave. I don’t know too much about Mr. Williams. I do like Kim Dunscombe. I think she is way efficient and very bright. I don’t know what goes on behind the curtain but I wish we could hire her as our permanent Financial Director. Good job Mayor Rosen looks like the public was heard and proper decisions were made. This info makes me feel hopeful for our city once again.
This is great news! I hope the city can go forward now and preserve our beautiful city. Thank you, Mayor Rosen for cleaning house.
I would say this is a step in the right direction but it is a little soon for dancing in the streets. We are soon going to be looking at ballot proposals to raise our property taxes substantially for both Public Safety (fire service, especially) and postponed and mishandled infrastructure needs (waste treatment and storm water management, eto.) If you own a 1 million $ value home in Edmonds you can just about count on your property taxes going up by $500 to $1000 if not more in the very near future. Lots of older folks in Edmonds are property wealthy with income moderate to low and these tax hikes are going to hit hard. I plan to vote against any more tax increases for anything but people like me are way outnumbered and the ballot requests will most likely pass. Our Mayor and Council need to start asking our department heads tougher questions about why it costs so much more to run Edmonds than other nearby towns? For example, we pay well over $100/person MORE for police than Shoreline, right next door. Our sewer and water are outrageously expensive and will probably just go up again sooner than later. Yet we pay management staff huge salaries that most of us could only dream about making. Our city government needs a complete overhaul.
Shoreline’s tax base also includes 17,000+ more people than our tax base and nearly 300 people more per square mile of improved land than us. We continue to maintain, or even take on more improvement liabilities yet our tax base remains near the same. I would think tax hikes are inevitable from here on out to cover the increasing expenditures of our liabilities and services if we were to continue to keep our tax base the same.
Could you explain to us Jeremy how the fact (I think) that Shoreline really doesn’t have its own police department but are sent police from the Seattle Police department is a good comparison. King County. Shoreline Parks listed are not really in Shoreline but are in Seattle and not within walking distance to “Shoreline” Shoreline does not have a traditional Town Square. It is 99 and a bit here and there. No waterfront really in Shoreline. There is Richmond Beach but that’s not Shoreline. Shoreline works with King County Sheriff’s office and since its 99 do they also use and welcome the WA State Patrol? I did a bunch of info on Shoreline as I didn’t think it had a DT area really so was curious. Lots of info. What more can ya tell us Jeremy. Thank you. Just curious of how we compare our needs with theirs.
The goal of maintaining low tax rates is to attract wealthy individuals who build expensive homes, thereby contributing substantial tax revenue. Paradoxically, the downside of building affordable housing is that the residents’ payments may not cover the costs of necessary infrastructure, leading to broader subsidies and increasing the overall tax burden. Under the current planning trajectory, it appears that an “It’s Edmonds kind of day” involves paying more for reduced government services.
When staff people leave positions, voluntarily or otherwise, and you immediately replace them with new or former employees at presumably similar pay scales, how have you “cleaned house” in any meaningful way? These re-hires aren’t bad people at all but they have promoted other administrations’ questionable agendas like the Connector and the state of the art(supposedly) waste management system that doesn’t work wasting thousands of dollars of tax payer money. These things were just as much money burning projects as the Landmark fiasco. To me “cleaning house” in a system that is seemingly dysfunctional and essentially going broke would be not filling these positions at all to save money and depending on your best currently on staff people to get just the basic absolutely needed jobs done at the lowest possible costs to the tax payers. I bet there are good line staff workers in all our departments that are just dying to present money saving ideas and want to do just the necessary stuff and get rid of the systemic cultural nonsense that gets in their way of getting their jobs done.