At the City of SeaTac’s April 12th Regular Council Meeting, the City Council removed the ‘Interim’ from Interim City Manager Todd Cutts job title, giving him a bit more job security.
Cutts has been serving as Interim City Manager since October, 2009. He has also served as assistant city manager and economic development manager.
“Todd Cutts has served the City of SeaTac with distinction in a variety of leadership capacities over the past six years,” said Mayor Terry Anderson. “He has demonstrated that he is more than capable of working diligently on behalf of the citizens and businesses within our community.”
Prior to his work with the City of SeaTac, Cutts served as the economic development manager from 2000 to 2005 for Downtown Long Beach (Calif.) Associates. Previously, he was the business development and transportation coordinator for Downtown Denver Partnership, research assistant for the Department of Research and Development with the International City/County Management Association in Washington, D.C. and an administrative Intern in the Community Relations Department in the City of La Miranda, Calif.
“I appreciate the City Council’s confidence in my abilities and look forward to continuing to serve the citizens and stakeholders of the SeaTac community,” Cutts said. “With so many great opportunities presenting themselves in this community, we look forward to continuing the recent economic growth and on-going progress in making the city a more attractive place to live, work, visit and recreate.”
According to the city’s website:
The City of SeaTac has a Council-Manager form of government. The City Council appoints a full-time City Manager to oversee the daily operations of the City, and to advise, implement and administer the policies adopted by the City Council.
Functions:
The City Manager prepares a proposed budget for the City Council’s review and adoption, and ensures that the various departments of the City attain the policy goals and direction set by the City Council. Other functions staffed by the City Manager’s Office include: administrative support to the Council, community relations, contract negotiations, economic development, human services, inter-governmental and inter-agency relations with the Airport and Sound Transit, legislative issues, pipeline safety, research on regional issues, and coordination of the annual volunteer appreciation event. The City Manager’s office also prepares the City Manager’s Weekly Update, the City’s quarterly newsletter the SeaTac Report, and schedules the programming for the City’s government access Channel 21 SeaTV.
SeaTac Manager Todd Cutts’s contract is inappropriate. I am the sponsor of the initiative to Elect the Mayor/Executive of SeaTac versus having a non-resident City Manager run the show with no accountability to the 25,000 electorate but to a majority of the Council (4 members are residents of Angle Lake, 3 of which are members of the ~70 member exclusive Angle Lake Shore Club).
Clauses were written into the contract specifically giving a windfall to Manager Cutts should the City Citizens vote for an Elected Mayor/Executive. On a 144K salary, who gets a 6 month severance AND their medical insurance paid for by the City for the same time period (COBRA)? Mr. Cutts needs to compete for the job of City Administrator should the Elected Mayor measure pass and not be given a $72,000 “walk away fee” if he doesn’t meet the requirements and is not selected. The potential change of government to an Elected Mayor should not even be part of the contract and should be based on his skills/performance alone. Having read the contract and his performance review, that is definitely not the case.
Checks and balances in the City of SeaTac government have been denied to its Citizens since its inception with the City Manager-Council form of government. We now find a very small cluster of people are controlling this City, the executive, and with no recourse by the Citizens. This would have been fine had they done a good job. Looking around at the City’s progression, they have not done a good job and the residency requirement that goes with an Elected Mayor/Executive is needed to turn this around. It does not matter where in SeaTac we find this person but it does matter we select from our own population of ~25,000 and get the best person possible who is accountable to all of us not just one exclusive neighborhood as the City Manager/Executive is now.
Earl Gipson
SeaTac Citizens For Elected Mayor