Sultan loses powerhouse public employee

As Sultan Public Works Department director, Mick Matheson accomplished more street improvement projects in nearly 6 ½ years than the city did over the 25 years before he arrived.

Matheson accepted a position with the city of Mukilteo in December, where he will have a larger budget and staff. The Sultan City Council sent him off with words of gratitude and remorse on Thursday, April 13. They said they were losing a good one.

Councilmember Jeffrey Beeler said a great source of knowledge and an employee with vital experience was exiting the city.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done, and answering the millions of questions I personally have asked you,” he said.

Matheson said the job duties proved to be eventful almost from the outset. Within three months he found himself assisting his boss Deborah Knight — former Sultan city administrator and now Stanwood city administrator — navigate the Lake 16 dam failure. 

“The damn failure was extremely challenging because it was uncharted water for both of us,” he said.

In 2011, a “big void opened beneath the dam’s foundation,” Matheson said. The lake impounded behind the dam in 1947 emptied through the opening in the earth — it was completely gone, he said.

Matheson said all it took was the turn of a valve to make sure water service to Sultan’s residents remained uninterrupted. However, tapping into the city of Everett’s supply in Spada Lake from spring through the fall months was costly, Matheson said.

Knight said the city would have gone without water for months if action wasn’t taken. The two lobbied for a legislative proviso, which “gave us $250,000 toward repair of the dam,” Matheson said. They were also able to secure a state loan, but ended up not needing it for the project, he said.

Matheson did not plan to enter this line of work, let alone the public sector. His initial aim was to major in general studies at the University of Idaho. A few months into the program, he said his father sat him down and directed him to pursue a specialized career.

“I chose civil engineering because the students studying civil engineering appeared to be more well rounded people than the mechanical, chemical or electrical engineering students,” he said.

After struggling to find a job in Idaho, he moved to Washington to live with his aunt and uncle after graduation. Within a few weeks he was hired by Whitacre Engineers, Inc., in Tacoma, where he stayed for two years, followed by another two-year stint at Barghausen Consulting Engineers. The next two decades were spent at Triad Associates near Kirkland. His position was then cut during the Great Recession.

That was where Matheson made the switch from the private to public sector. He was hired as a temp worker by the city of Seattle’s Public Utilities Combined Sewer Overflow Department. At the time he was living with his wife midway between Monroe and Sultan, and heard about an opening at the neighboring city.

Matheson’s experience in the private sector turned out to be an asset for his position at Sultan, Knight said. She said he was able to pick and choose the best projects that effectively progressed but did not overwhelm residential housing growth in the city. He was also able to maintain the morale of his employees, and keep small and large projects on track in addition to daily tasks, she said.

Matheson refers to Knight as his mentor. She said, “that’s actually very kind of him to say I was his mentor because he was a remarkably quick study,” later adding he “has to be one of the most productive (public works directors) I had the pleasure to work with,” in her 20-year career.

Once he signed on at Sultan, Matheson led multi-million dollar projects, including reconstruction of the city’s evacuation trail in 2011, which had been well overdue. The route had eroded, making it too narrow and unsafe. He also carried out the 2016 two-year, city-funded $2.2 million water booster pump replacement project.

Many major tasks hinged on closing significant funding gaps.

When he was hired in August 2010, Sultan Basin Road — the main line that connects the city and U.S. Highway 2 with Sultan’s industrial district — Phase 3 improvements along the southerly leg of the intersection of Sultan Basin Road and U.S. Highway 2 were already underway. Movement was hampered by a $250,000 shortfall.

Matheson said he was able to acquire that money by working with the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board to secure state funds to supplement procured federal dollars, which are always harder to corral.

“It is a lot more bureaucracy, a lot more red tape,” he said. “The reporting requirements are arduous and time consuming.”

Knight said it is a significant boost for a city with a budget as small as Sultan’s when an employee can secure grant money to carry out a variety of projects. Matheson’s work with the TIB helped connect the city with various competitive state grants that paid for improvement projects on nearly 10 of the city’s most heavily traveled arterials. The final segment to be constructed — on First Street from High Avenue to Trout Farm Road, and Eighth Street from High Avenue to the Sultan High School gate — will be completed in 2018.

Matheson said the need for the roadway work was apparent soon after he came to the city.

“It was just a serious neglect of city’s transportation system; it was pretty clear, there was lots of extremely dilapidated pavement,” he said. “Not only did we redo the pavement, the city was smart for replacing dilapidated utilities under those streets.”

Matheson said he will miss the connections he made with coworkers and community members, and the striking view of the Cascade Range. He said he is grateful to have learned the ropes in Sultan.

The city council will approve a hire for Matheson’s replacement at a future meeting.