SANDPOINT — The City Council plans to discuss bringing back the city administrator position at its next meeting Wednesday.  

The discussion item on the city administrator was placed on the agenda and briefly discussed by Council President Deb Ruehle at the council’s Nov. 19 meeting. Ruehle said she added it onto the agenda because of an email sent by Mayor Jeremy Grimm to the City Council and select city staff June 12. 

"There are no requirements in state code and state law, that require the mayor to be here any time at all,” Ruehle said. “So, to make the argument to simply pay the mayor more, I don’t think is a great argument, so that’s why we are back to the city administrator question.” 

Ruehle acknowledged the public’s unhappiness with the previous city administrator structure. She said that, if brought back, the position would have more guardrails and checks and balances. 

In the e-mail, Grimm said he was working three days a week or more as mayor and that it was “no longer feasible” to continue that level of work in addition to his job as the head of Whiskey Rock Planning and Consulting. Grimm said he expected to be available on Wednesdays and then “as needed for emergency or related special meetings.” 

“Seeing few alternatives, effective July 1, 2025, I will adjust to a part-time mayoral role aligned with the current salary level,” Grimm wrote in the email. “This shift will help me refocus on professional obligations while still remaining accessible for key city initiatives. 

The idea of raising Grimm’s salary was briefly discussed by the council during budget discussions throughout July and August. At the July 9 meeting, former Sandpoint Mayor Carrie Logan testified in favor of raising both the council and mayoral wages. 

At the council’s July 30 meeting, during a discussion of roles and responsibilities in the city, councilor Justin Dick said he worried the mayoral position could become a popularity contest in the future. He said he wanted to look into setting criteria about the mayor’s office hours in code.  

“I think ultimately where I'm going with this is we either have a full-time mayor, or we have a city administrator,” Dick said at the meeting. “I would tend to let the system play out, but I am fearful... if we don't put a few things in place, that we have the ability for failures down the line.” 

During the meeting, Grimm said there are benefits to having a city administrator or someone who can steady the vision for the city during council and mayoral turnover. However, he stated that he loves the level of engagement the current council has with city issues and asked the council to continue their faith in the department head model. 

“It's something I haven't seen in many years, at least publicly, asking great questions, having great discussions like this,” Grimm said of the council’s engagement. "I would encourage you to at least until 2028 to continue with what we've built here and continue refining it, making it better." 

Grimm ran on a platform of eliminating the city administrator position in 2023 and former city administrator Jennifer Stapleton resigned from the position shortly after his election to the mayoral seat. The council reorganized the city’s administrative structure in July 2024, which eliminated the role and added three new department heads. 

During that meeting in 2024, both Dick and Ruehle voted against the ordinance change in separate votes. Dick voted against the change during the title-only reading, while Ruehle was the lone dissenting vote on the ordinance’s final adoption. 

“I would support not budgeting for the [city administrator] position in this fiscal year, but I feel you as the mayor need to prove that the system is going to work first,” Ruehle said in 2024.  

The council will take no action on the city administrator position at its next meeting, only discuss the future of potentially bringing it back. That meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 5:30 p.m. 

    The e-mail sent from Mayor Jeremy Grimm to the Sandpoint City Council on June 12, that detailed Grimm would be reducing his time in the mayoral role if the position did not receive a salary increase.