Jennifer Stapleton will resign as Sandpoint city administrator

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Among the biggest news to come out of Sandpoint City Hall in a year filled with hefty headlines was the pre-holiday announcement by City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton that she would resign her position effective at the end of the working day, Wednesday, Jan. 3.

In a letter to Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad and members of the City Council dated Dec. 21, Stapleton wrote, “It has been my greatest honor and privilege to work for and with you and former councilors since 2016 to serve the Sandpoint community. I deeply respect every one of you and admire your commitment and dedication to our community and staff. 

“My decision to resign has been made with deep sadness; however, our incoming mayor ran on a clear platform to serve without a city administrator and remove me from my position. That would take a majority vote of the council,” she added, referring to Mayor-elect Jeremy Grimm, who will take office in the first part of January. “Rather than allow this to be a distraction to the business and success of the city, I have chosen to resign and wish him success in his term.”

In an email to the Reader on Dec. 27, Grimm wrote to wish Stapleton “the very best in her future endeavors and thank her for her service to the city of Sandpoint.” 

However, he added, “I believe the present situation further illustrates the shortcomings of running a small town under a city administrator structure. The decision to eliminate department heads and consolidate administrative duties and management of critical tasks to one individual is now our greatest weakness in the absence of such an individual.”

Jennifer Stapleton. Courtesy photo.

In her resignation letter to the current mayor and council, Stapleton expressed her gratitude to city staff.

“I have enjoyed working with each of you and am proud of the many accomplishments we have achieved together over the past eight years,” she wrote. “I have no doubt that you will continue to serve Sandpoint citizens, businesses and visitors well moving forward due to your deep commitment to this community.”

Mayor Shelby Rognstad wrote in a statement to the Reader on Dec. 26 that, “Jennifer’s service to the city of Sandpoint is immeasurable. She has consistently demonstrated herself to be one of the most dedicated, hard working, intelligent and professional people I have ever met.”

Rognstad will leave office in January after two terms — during both of which Stapleton served as city administrator — and added that, “What the city has accomplished with her leadership over the last eight years is beyond impressive. The city is far better positioned to respond to changes internally and externally, to manage growth and build a prosperous future for Sandpoint residents. I know I speak for council and city staff when I say that it has truly been an honor and pleasure to work with her.”

Stapleton also highlighted a number of the biggest projects undertaken, issues addressed and challenges confronted during her time at City Hall, noting in her Dec. 21 letter that elected officials and staff “leaned in and embraced strategic planning” that “broke down the silos that existed in our organization and created a culture and structure centered around teamwork, collaboration, accountability, professionalism and performance.”

In his statement to the Reader, Grimm took specific aim at the organization of City Hall during Stapleton’s tenure. 

“This structure has created a single point of failure for the city and I welcome the opportunity to revert Sandpoint back to the stable and balanced department head structure that served us so well for decades,” wrote Grimm, a former Sandpoint city planner and development consultant who repeated that theme throughout his mayoral campaign.

Among the other accomplishments Stapleton cited in her letter were increasing transparency and citizen engagement via the city’s online financial tool/checkbook and Engage Sandpoint online platform, which since its launch has enabled the city to address more than 1,800 citizens’ requests, as well as running 29 surveys conducted over the past eight years garnering more than 5,300 responses. That transparency and accessibility continued — and was improved by facilities upgrades — throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-’21 and to the present day.

In addition, Stapleton wrote that the city “tackled some of the toughest long-standing issues that took away our credibility with the community,” such as absorbing some elements of the unpopular Business Improvement District, doing away with the contract with a private parking enforcement company, restructuring the downtown parking plan and implementing a community resource officer program. 

Stapleton wrote that a facility plan is now in place for a new wastewater treatment plant that will undergo its final design and initial construction in 2024, and the successful implementation of an increased visitor tax has boosted the budget for street reconstruction from $250,000 to $1 million each year, and annual sidewalk investment from $25,000 to $250,000. 

Finally, referring to some of the largest undertakings in recent Sandpoint history, Stapleton touched on construction of the Cotton Barlow Grandstands and changes to War Memorial Field — which included the conversion from natural to artificial grass and drew deeply divided opinions from the community — as well as Phases I and II of a downtown revitalization project, which has also prompted differing assessments, especially related to parking and traffic flow. 

Then there was the land swap at City Beach, which opened the way for a new hotel to be constructed on the site of the Best Western and expanded public parking and boat facilities on the southern portion of the beach, as well as a bevy of master planning documents covering everything from transportation to the Little Sand Creek watershed; parks and recreation; arts, culture and historic preservation; and urban forestry. 

“Ms. Stapleton has overseen the development, adoption and implementation of several master plans that have laid the groundwork for a future that protects what its residents value most about Sandpoint,” Councilor Jason Welker told the Reader in an email Dec. 24. “Our infrastructure, from sidewalks and streets to the wastewater plant and parks, are seeing more investment today than ever before.”

Councilors Joel Aispuro, Justin Dick, Kate McAlister and Deb Ruehle — the latter whom won reelection in the November election — did not respond with a statement by press time.

Coming closer to the present day, Stapleton referred in her letter to the ongoing reconstruction work at Travers Park, which will include the indoor tennis and pickleball James E. Russell Sports Center, as well as an expanded skate park, bike skills park, all-inclusive playground renovation and expansion, and splash pad. Those projects are being paid for with $9.5 million in mostly grants and donations — notably from the Russell family, which gifted the city $7.5 million for the facility.

“Outside of the utility treatment plants, this is the largest capital improvement project the city has undertaken,” Stapleton wrote. “It will benefit the broader community and generations to come for decades.” 

That said, the process of approving the site for the facility and subsequent removal of a number of mature shade trees earlier in 2023 spurred vigorous opposition among many, including protests at the park and vocal criticism of the city’s perceived refusal to listen to citizens’ concerns.

Coming as it did near the November election, the furor over the Travers Park projects — as well as other issues related to downtown redesign and more — contributed to the mood in the electorate that delivered Grimm a victory of 1,176 votes over outgoing City Council President McAlister, who drew 781 votes for the mayor’s office. The election also saw new Councilors Pam Duquette and Kyle Schreiber elected to office, both of whom joined Grimm in the opinion that the city would be better off without a city administrator position. 

“While the election results showed that not everyone in Sandpoint is for the progress our city administrator was overseeing, I am confident that with the right person in that position we will continue to succeed in advancing Sandpoint’s community-informed strategic plan,” Welker told the Reader in his Dec. 24 email, “and I’m looking forward to working with the new council and mayor to recruit and hire the next Sandpoint city administrator.”

In the meantime, Grimm wrote that he has “planned for and will be working full-time at City Hall to fill the administrative responsibilities resulting from this news, and in the coming weeks I will be coordinating with the council to review both interim and permanent solutions. 

“We have very well-qualified staff who are passionate about their work and I have no doubt that residents and businesses will feel minimal if any interruption to the services provided by the city of Sandpoint,” he added.

Stapleton concluded her letter to city officials by thanking them for choosing her to serve as city administrator, “and for the trust and confidence you have placed in me over the past eight years.” 

“What I treasure most in my time with the city are the relationships I have developed with you and the city staff, business owners and the many community members I have come to know and call friends,” she added.