Langley’s top admin job gets a new emphasis

Published 2:00 pm Saturday, February 14, 2004

Communication, not management, is the new emphasis Langley is placing in the office of its new city administrator.

This month, Langley resident Walt Blackford — who has worked for the past 20 years as a consultant — was hired to be the city’s third city administrator. He takes over the job from, Lynn Hicks who served as the city’s administrator and attorney until late last year.

Blackford will fill the position perfectly, according to Mayor Neil Colburn.

“Walt seemed to be a really good fit for the position,” he said.

Blackford was officially hired by Colburn, and began his new position in early February. The Langley City Council is expected to make a decision at their meeting Wednesday to authorize Colburn to sign a contract with Blackford.

Blackford has never worked for a municipality or in any level of government. He comes to the city with 25 years of experience in communications, according to Colburn.

“The hardest part I always saw the mayor having was with communication,” Colburn said. “Internal and external communication were the cornerstones on what I wanted to build my administration on.”

Blackford is also president of Whidbey Communications, Inc., and has been a communication and management consultant since 1984. His most recent project was creating a prototype for This Island magazine — a publication that has not as yet gone on the market. He also developed of a community report for Whidbey General Hospital, and volunteers for over a dozen local nonprofit and community organizations.

“My strongest qualities comes in the area of communications,” Blackford said in an interview this week. “This came along at a good time for me.”

Blackford will work approximately 20 hours a week, and according to the contract to be signed Wednesday, will earn $500 a week, but no more than $20,500 per year.

He will be responsible for improving communication with city employees and city residents, for finding solutions to administrative problems, and will represent the mayor on an as-needed basis.

Previous city administrators have been involved in policy making and the management of city staff. These aspects of the job will be de-emphasized with Blackford in the administrator’s job.

“It’s a completely different position,” Colburn said. “(Blackford) brings something that I don’t bring. I think that between us we can cover a much larger portion that makes up Langley.”

Former Mayor Lloyd Furman hired Lynn Hicks as city administrator in April 2002. She and her predecessor, Eric Lucas, had worked in a combined attorney and administrator position. Colburn made the decision to separate the two positions this year. Dale Roundy was hired in December as the city’s attorney.

Both Colburn and Blackford said some of the administrator’s duties have not yet been determined.

“We’re not sure what the other elements will be yet,” Blackford said.