PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 30, 2021
MANAGER,
Continued from page A1
enjoyed working with their staff and their
council.”
After serving as the city administrator
in Oakridge, OR for seven years, Hare
moved to La Grande, where he worked as
the town's city manager from 1995- 2005
before becoming the city manager in
Albany for 12 years. He said that being a
city manager in a place like Keizer isn't as
challenging as being in a smaller town.
“In some ways, being the city manager
in a small town is a more demanding
kind of role than being a city manager in
a bigger place, and the reason for that is
because you have far more resources in
larger organizations,” Hare said.
Hare also said the interviewing pro-
cess with his interim job in Toledo was
much diff erent than the one he had in
Keizer.
“There was quite the contrast with the
process. I was asked to attend a Toledo
city council meeting and they inter-
viewed me and then asked if I could
be there Monday,” Hare said. “It wasn't
exactly a competitive process.”
Along with his local managerial experi-
ence, Hare has served as an international
development consultant and has gone
to places such as Japan, Indonesia, Iraq,
Croatia, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Pakistan,
Ethiopia, Morocco and Afghanistan on
more than a dozen occasions. Hare said
that his time serving in other countries
helped him come back home and be a
better city manager.
“I believe that the work that I was able
to do internationally really helped me as a
city manager. It really broadened my per-
spective on how to make things work and
how to be a better city manager,” Hare
said. “I was often doing the kind of work
that I do as a city manager, where you're
sitting down, listening to people, hearing
what it is that they are looking for, trying
to fi gure out ways to solve problems and
help make their lives better.”
Hare said that his most powerful
international experience came when he
traveled to Iraq for a seven-month trip in
2003 when he worked to try and establish
local government within communities
where the main need was access to clean
water.
“There are some lessons that really
get reinforced with direct experience. It
helped me appreciate a lot of things that
FILE PHOTO, Keizertimes
Wes Hare responds
to questions from city
councilors Monday, June 14.
we take for granted in the United States,”
Hare said. “You know you're not going
to go in there and suddenly turn things
around or make a big splash and fi x
everything. But what I resolved to do is
look for an opportunity to do something
good for somebody every day,” Hare said.
Hare did the majority of his interna-
tional work pro-bono, but did require
payment when heading to countries that
were considered less safe.
“My rule was that if I was going to get
shot at, or if there was a high risk of that
happening, I really thought I needed to
be paid,” Hare said.
When it comes to the search for a new
Keizer city manager, Hare will serve in an
advisory role, but the fi nal decision will
be up to the city council.
“It may be the most important decision
that the council makes, because you are
entrusting your organization to some-
one and you don't want them to mess it
up. There is nothing worse than paying
someone to screw up,” Hare said.
Hare doesn't have specifi c goals and
expectations with this position, his only
focus is serving the people of Keizer in
the best way he knows how.
“I didn't come here with an agenda.
I think it would be presumptuous to do
that ... There are things I know that I can
help with and be of service. That is the
agenda that I have brought to every job
that I have ever had,” Hare said. “The city
is paying me well. I want to earn that pay-
check and the best way I can do that is
being of service to the residents here.”
Hare's salary is $14,153 per month,
approximately $81.65 per hour.
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