Woodburn Independent Online

Muir is the choice

Mt. Angel City Council picks Susan Muir as the city’s top official

• By: Rachel Cavanaugh  
• Published: 3/5/2010 4:40:09 PM

Photo By: Rachel CavanaughSusan Muir
Susan Muir (left) talks with Michele Hall, who works at City Hall in Mt. Angel. Muir was chosen over two other finalists as Mt. Angel’s city administrator. She will begin April 10.

MT. ANGEL — The city of Mt. Angel has appointed Susan Muir as its permanent city administrator.
 
Muir, who currently works as the executive director of the planning and development department for the city of Eugene, said she is looking forward to meeting the community and working with city council.
 
“They seemed like a great team with a lot of new energy and ideas and I’m excited to work with them,” she said.
 
One of the first things she said she wants to do is get a clearer idea of what the community wants from her and how to best go about achieving it.
 
“I anticipate I’ll be doing a lot of listening and a lot of asking questions of everybody there to understand the situation at Mt. Angel and understand what the goals of the community are,” she said.
 
Muir is a former president of the Oregon County Planning Director’s Association and a board member of the Oregon City Planning Director’s Association.
 
The Colorado-born administrator grew up in Boulder and moved west in college to attend the University of Oregon’s landscape architecture program.
 
She said while there, one of her assignments was to sketch the library in the Mt. Angel Abbey.
 
She remembers enjoying the project, she said, learning about the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
 
Following that, Muir moved to Utah to take a job in Coalville, although she said she knew always knew she wanted to make it back to Oregon, eventually.
 
That opportunity arose when a position with Multnomah County opened up.
 
She jumped at the chance to put her skills to action and worked her way up through management, while also getting her master’s degree in public administration at Portland State University.
 
While working for the county, she focused on planning in regions outside the urban growth boundary, such as Corbett and Sauvie Island.
 
After completing her master’s program, she moved to Eugene to take a job with that city, where she has been for about six and a half years.
 
During that time, she said some mentors and colleagues plugged her into the International City-County Management Association.
 
“I was a part of a group that looked at the next generation of city administrators and city managers and I got to participate in that,” Muir said.
 
“It was a really great experience. It taught me a lot about what it would be like to be a city administrator or city manager, so I was thinking that would probably be the next thing I would want to look into. And then when the Mt. Angel opportunity came up and I had a chance to look into it I thought, ‘Wow, that would be a really great place to be.’”
 
She said she has missed the friends and other connections she has in Portland and is looking forward to being closer to them again.
 
She said many things about Mt. Angel convinced her it was the right fit.
 
“The quality of the town,” she said. “I like the idea of the Abbey being there, the small town. I like the agricultural aspects of the community right there.
 
“I think the distance between Portland and Salem and being close to a lot of great things was what made me initially look at it. And then once I got there and started meeting the people and hearing a little bit more about the town — Oktoberfest and the volunteerism in the town — just sort of rounded out the picture for me and made me think this would be a really great opportunity.”
 
Interim City Administrator Pete Wall said Muir seems to be just what they were looking for.
 
“She connected,” he said. “I think she’s a good match, a really good match for the community and I think she’ll fit in really well and that’s really important.
 
“When you get down to it, all of the people had the backgrounds and the capabilities to do the job, so you’re really looking for who you think will fit in best and be the best match, and I thought clearly she was the one and obviously the council did too.”
 
Wall said the choice overwhelmingly favored Muir, pointing to an exercise city councilors did after the interviews with each candidate. The administrator handed out ballots so they could order their ranking of the three top choices.
 
All seven members put Muir as No. 1, except for one ballot where she was tied for No. 1.
Mayor Rick Schiedler said he too was happy about the decision.
 
“We are extremely pleased to welcome Susan to the city of Mt. Angel,” said Schiedler. “She has very impressive professional credentials. But beyond that, her warm personality and the way she related to the city staff, citizens at the community reception and the city council during her interview convinced us she was an excellent match.”
 
Muir, an avid Oregon Ducks fan and bike rider, is currently looking for housing in Mt. Angel. She will be moving with her 3-year-old bulldog, Evey, whom she recently adopted from a rescue shelter.
 
Apart from holding Oregon football season tickets, she said she enjoys traveling. She has spent time recently on trips to both Paris and Scotland.
 
“Muir is actually a Scottish name so we got to go back and look at a lot of the family heritage stuff with my parents, and that was a really great experience,” she said.
 
Muir will assume full-time duties April 10 and her salary will be $80,000 a year.
 
“I’m really excited to get there and get started and meet people and talk to people and get to know the community,” she said.

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