Retired city manager from northwest named interim animal services chief

A retired city manager from the Northwest will lead Carson City Animal Services the next three or four months, Deputy City Manager Marena Works said Tuesday.

William H. Brandon, 68, of Fircrest, Wash., took over Tuesday and said his experience dealing with the public should help during his 90- to 120-day role as interim manager at the animal shelter, where he’ll oversee staff and field personnel. City government is paying him $40 an hour and providing temporary housing for Brandon and his spouse.

Brandon, who goes by Bill, said he won’t be a candidate for the permanent job that opened when Gail Radtke and city government parted ways in the aftermath of a dog’s euthanasia. He most recently served as city manager in Fircrest, a town of 7,000 near Tacoma, and before that he held similar posts at two other cities in the Northwest.

“I’m kind of used to it,” he said of public controversy and being on the firing line with some citizens. He also said that after the interim period runs out, he will return to Fircrest and perhaps seek similar short-term consulting or interim roles during retirement.

He acknowledged that he knew some about what he called the “misunderstanding” that developed when an unlicensed shih tzu dog was put down after the owner couldn’t come up with the necessary funds to recover it. He had little other comment regarding it. He said he arrived over the weekend, beginning work Tuesday morning.

Brandon’s time as the city manager of Fircrest spanned the spring 2005 to January 2011, when the Fircrest City Council terminated his contract. Before that, he was city manager at Carnation, Wash., from spring 2003 to spring 2006. He was city manager of Happy Valley, Ore., from summer 1990 until September 2002.

Saying his goals include trying “to heal some things,” Brandon noted Tuesday afternoon he was so early in his interim tenure that he hadn’t met with Lisa Schuette, head of the Carson Animal Services Initiative that is spearheading fundraising for a proposed new animal shelter.

Schuette wrote in a Tuesday commentary in the Nevada Appeal about some “terrible decisions” in the past at the shelter, but asked people “to channel your frustration and sadness toward the goal of helping our city and CASI change the current situation.”

Efforts to find a permanent replacement to head Animal Services will continue, Works said.