Many challenges lie ahead for Coeur d’Alene Mayor Dan Gookin as he settles into his new role.

Characterizing 2026 as a “Year in Transition,” Gookin said there will be a lot of things happening over the next six months. 

“We need to get a new city administrator, a new fire chief, a new police chief, a council person and a parks director,” he said. “You don't want to do a lot of crazy new things when you have new people coming on board because that's just going to create more chaos.” 

In an interview with The Press on Thursday, Gookin touched on some of the issues, including building bridges with various organizations, completing projects that have been gathering dust on the shelf, and tackling the budget.

He said he has met with leaders of North Idaho College, the University of Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene School District. 

“I told them even though there's different political divisions in Kootenai County — we're basically one big city — one big community and we should all work together and do what's right for everyone," he said.

Gookin added that oftentimes you don't find out what you may have in common or how you can help each other until you get together and have those meetings. He plans to meet with the county commissioners as well. 

Gookin, who served on the City Council before being elected mayor in November, hopes to see the sidewalks along City Beach repaired; new trees planted and wants to add picnic benches and sunshades at McEuen Park. The funding will most likely have to come from grants. 

"The county has actually a grants department, but we’ve never really had anyone who could write grants,” Gookin said. “It’s been mentioned by council before. I'm working on scheduling a strategic planning meeting with the City Council in April and maybe that'll come up.” 

He said the city has a few assets he sees as surplus that could be sold.

"But of course, I need permission from the City Council to do that," he said.

Touching on the city's deficit, Gookin said it was close to $2 million in 2025. 

“That figure has changed a little bit,” Gookin said. “I don't have the latest budget numbers, but I hear some things have come in under budget, which is always good.” 

He said balancing the budget is no easy task. 

“It’s challenging trying to save money without cutting back on services,” Gookin said. “I've only been here a week, so I've not had time to do a deep dive into the budget. But I'm looking at things and trying to figure out where it is we can save money, where we can find more money.” 

Regarding growth, Gookin said, “We need to figure out where to put the density, that it can be accommodated well.”  

"That is one of the areas that I want to focus on, which I told the builders when I was running for office. There needs to be a little bit better communication,” Gookin said. “I've heard from builders who want to provide affordable housing and who want to accommodate growth in an attractive manner."