Mayor Lisa Brown has finished building her administration’s cabinet and has promoted Alexander Scott to serve as city administrator for Spokane. 

Scott, 34, served as Brown’s chief of staff since her term as mayor started at the beginning of the year. In his new role, Scott will carry duties held as the chief of staff into the city administrator role.

Previously, Scott served as the special assistant for federal policy for the Washington state Department of Commerce, where he also worked under Brown, who was the agency’s director for four years before stepping down in 2023. Before that, he was the Eastern Washington director for outreach under U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and a legislative assistant for the city of Spokane.

When he was 18 years old, he ran for a city council position in College Place, Washington, a city neighboring Walla Walla that has a population of just under 10,000. Scott won and was sworn in when he was a college sophomore and served for nearly four years. 

Scott holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Walla Walla University and a law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law. 

The Journal recently met with Scott to discuss his drive to pursue politics and his new role for the city of Spokane. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in politics at such a young age? 

The first presidential election I could vote in was in 2008, and I was really fired up by it. I, with a group of friends, went to the (Barack Obama) inauguration in January of 2009. Coming back from that, I felt like, anyone can get fired up by the glitz and glamour of national politics. The real test for myself and my interest in the area, is if I was still interested in the much less glamourous aspects, the meat and potatoes, of local government service. 

In the spring of 2009, there was a position on the (College Place) City Council that did not have an elected incumbent. That seemed like a decent opportunity, even for someone as young as I was. I went ahead and paid the filing fee, and didn’t know what I didn’t know, but just kind of took a leap. 

It was an absolutely fantastic experience. Looking back, if I knew more, I might not have done it, but thank goodness I did because I learned so much. It really catalyzed my interest in the segment, my commitment to what local nonpartisan governance looks like. I absolutely loved that piece of it. And I just learned a ton from my fellow council members and the mayor at the time. 

How did the transition from chief of staff to city administrator come about? 

It wasn’t my idea, but an idea that originated from several of my colleagues on the cabinet, which I’m incredibly humbled by. We had launched a search for a city administrator, had a job posting out there, but ultimately, several people worked on me and worked on Mayor Brown, and the decision was made to pull back the search and officially put me in that role. 

It’s more just a collective vote of confidence in the continuity of the team we have. It’s more about what doesn’t change than about what does change. I don’t claim to know the mayor’s entire thought process, but I got the sense she was thinking in terms of what was she looking to buy in hiring a new person and felt the team was so great and so solid that we probably could do a little reshuffling instead of hiring.  

What is the role of the city administrator? 

The excellent city administrators that I’ve been able to work closely with and see in action over the years, like Pat Ray in College Place or Theresa Sanders when I worked over on the council side in Spokane, they act mainly as a fourth multiplier. It’s not like they are being asked to originate a ton of ideas; you’ve got people all over the city that are subject-matter experts. The city administrator is trying to provide support where it’s needed, making sure that internally, people’s needs are being met and are being placed in positions where they can succeed so that we can all collectively deliver on a vision and commitment to our voters.  

In the terms of day-to-day, there’s a lot of personnel management. There’s a lot of signing of contracts, which takes time but is straightforward. I think the bigger journey for me is going to be continuing to build relationships across all of our city’s facilities and figuring out what teams and people need and then working to meet those needs.  

What are some specific issues that are top of mind that you’ll be focused on? 

I think everybody is pretty clear on the issues the city is facing right now. We will roll out our proposed budget, which accounts for almost a year of intensive work. 

Housing and homelessness are always going to be top-of-mind issues. Spokane’s area median income is quite a bit lower than the state average and is a huge challenge that we face that has ripple effects on everything. It strains not just city resources, but it strains county resources, school district resources, and every agency that is trying to provide services. Trying to figure out housing policy and economic development policy (are) levers that the city is able to pull that can help be that rising tide that helps all Spokanites get ahead. 

We also always have to work as a leadership team to balance the short-term emergency needs with the long term. What is the next 20, 50, 100 years going to look like for the city and the region? I am always trying to have that in the back of my mind. How does it play now, and how will it play decades from now? Is this setting us up for success? 

What are some changes the city and its leaders have done so far in its first year in office?  

The really hard work has been projections for future budgets. We moved from a single-year budget to a biennial budget. Budgeting never sleeps and is a 24/7, 365-day endeavor. But by having a biennial budget, we feel that that it gives us a more stable glide path for everything. 

We’ve had to be really creative about allocating constrained resources. We’ve done that with the police, where we have done emphasis patrols in multiple different hot spots around the community.

Getting an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney had never been done before. It will be a city position but within the Department of Justice within the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring federal drug prosecutions that would not otherwise happen. 

Those are just a few things. We do not let the grass grow around here; we try to move quick.