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Politics & Government

A Patch Conversation With Outgoing Shoreline City Manager Robert Olander

Robert Olander talks about his artistic endeavors and recalls years of working to develop Shoreline's infrastructure

Shoreline City Manager Robert Olander will retire February 25 after more than three decades of public service.

Olander has worked for the City of Shoreline since 2002. Before Shoreline, he worked as city manager for Des Moines, Ocean Shores, Anacortes and city supervisor of Selah.

He attended the University of California Santa Barbara, receiving a bachelor’s in political science in 1969. In 1971, Olander moved to Seattle and received a master’s in public administration from the University of Washington.

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Olander grew up in a military family. His father was a military pilot, and the family spent time in Florida and California.

Olander was promoted from assistant city manager during a tumultuous time in the city’s history when a divided city council faced allegations and a lawsuit from members of the public that the council had illegally held secret meetings when they dismissed City Manager Steve Burkett and nearly hired a replacement whom critics said was unqualified for the position.

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I had a chance to sit down and chat with Olander about his years of public service and the time he spent working for Shoreline.

A retirement party is being held for Olander in the City Council chamber from 4-6 p.m. today.

What got you interested in public service?

Having grown of age in the 60s, I was very idealistic and wanted to contribute something to society. I took a couple classes in local government and realized that I wanted to be in the public sector, but I wanted to be close to what could be accomplished. I felt that the federal and the state levels were a little too far removed from your results.

I took a big undergraduate class with one of those make-believe labs where they assign people various roles and problems. Out of 300 kids in the class, I was designated city manager. I thought that would be a fascinating career.

It was also something where I could constantly learn. You deal with such a wide variety of problems—politics to dogs and cats to finance, to the legislature, public works projects, personnel projects, personnel issues.

What are some of the projects that you have been involved in that stand out in your mind?

Obviously Aurora has been a big one. I helped, with other folks, to bring the community together around the second and future miles of Aurora. There has been a lot of contention, but with our staff and our citizens committees and business community, I think we have really been able to change that so there was nearly unanimous support for mile two and mile three.

I think another thing was when there was a real tremendous uproar in the community with what happened [when the council dismissed] the previous city manager, and I feel good about being able to bring stability and direction during that process and helping staff move forward on projects. I felt I was the right person at the right time to calm things down and keep things moving.

Before you moved to Shoreline you worked for a number of smaller cities in Washington. What was it like transitioning to a bigger city, especially one that was relatively new at the time?

Shoreline was quite a bit bigger but a lot of the issues and problems you deal with are the same. It wasn’t a difficult transition.

When I was in Des Moines, I assisted some of the neighboring cities get established. By the time I had gotten here, things were already relatively well established.

How have you seen the city change during the time you have been here?

Looking back, the city has certainly changed a lot of physical aspects—the infrastructure, what the city has done with parks, flooding, city services. I think during the first 15 years, there has been a lot of catching up on neglected county infrastructure. The city really has spent a lot of time, energy and focus developing infrastructure and city services.

I don’t see that many changes in the community itself. It’s always been a very supportive involved citizenry. That is still one of the key assets of Shoreline. People are involved and supportive of their community—whether it’s their schools or their neighborhoods or the city.

Proposition 1 helped with some of the budget issues last year, but what do you think the city is up against in the near future?

Looking back, I think we have done a good job of bringing the infrastructure up to par, and I think that sets a good foundation for the future of the community, but the next challenges are growth, economic development and planning.

The city has a lot of advantages in terms of location, great neighborhoods and a great place to live. But how does that translate to future growth?

I see some of the future challenges revolving around planning and development issues—Point Wells being the immediate one, but even beyond that, where and how to increase density and how the community deals with them will be big issues.

City councils sort of come and go, but city staff tend to stay more long term. What has the relationship between the city council and the city staff been like?

I'm a strong believer in the council-manager form of government. The council sets the policy direction, and the manager and staff are responsible for implementing that policy. I think that has worked very well for Shoreline.

The councilmembers are democratically elected representatives. They do need to set the policy and direction. The staff needs to respect that. When you have both elements respect each other, it works very well.

If it's not clear, what I have done is go back to council and have them talk about it some more—pass a motion or pass a resolution. As long as a majority of city council agrees, and as long as it's legal and ethical, we have an obligation to follow that.

We have a very great folks on staff—very hard working, dedicated employees. I feel like I have been able to attract and maintain a great staff here at the City of Shoreline.

What is the next step for you?

One of the first things I’m doing is going to Italy for a month and working on a stone sculpture for a month in a small town near Carrara.

About 10 years ago, I was looking for a creative outlet. I have never done anything artistic in my life, but I’ve always collected rocks. I’ve been interested in geology since I was a little kid. I stumbled upon stone sculpture, so I took a few classes and found out I really enjoyed that and it was a real challenge. I haven’t had a lot of time to do it—I finish about three or four sculptures a year—some are abstract, some or representational. I’ve been selling them in galleries in California and Oregon.

Then my wife is going to retire and we are going to tour around Italy for another month. 

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