City council members sent out a rare joint statement expressing their collective disappointment at the departure of city finance director Dwight Dively this afternoon. Dively, who worked under four different mayors over 22 years, is widely credited with keeping the city financially stable over the years, even during recessions.
In December, Mayor Mike McGinn replaced Dively with King County’s former budget director, Beth Goldberg, whose position at the perennially cash-strapped county Dively will be taking over.
As finance director, the letter says, Dively
expertly steered the City through the financial highs and lows of the past 16 years. Dwight’s contributions to the City are innumerable and the City will continue to benefit from them for years to come. The City’s ability to navigate the current economic conditions is directly related to his prudent management of the City’s financial resources, his forward-looking approach to potential fiscal challenges, his constructive relationships with department directors and the administrative leadership of the City and the trust he earned from this and previous City Councils.
In the letter, council budget chair Jean Godden called this “a sad day for the City of Seattle”; Sally Clark said she was “very disappointed by the City’s loss of Dwight”; and Bruce Harrell said the city “is losing an individual with vast institutional knowledge who has kept us afloat in downtimes and steered an efficient course in the good times.”
