Jim Couch doesn’t plan on a retirement recliner

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OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s really no reason that Jim Couch, in good health at 62, supported by the Oklahoma City Council and City Hall staff, and working in an economic upturn, should retire as city manager.

And that’s exactly why he needs to retire, Couch said. It simply makes sense.

“I just thought it was a good time for transition,” Couch said Thursday. “I probably have more options to do something else at 62 than I do at 65.

“And, yeah, there’s the accumulative levels of stress,” he said. “I’m healthy and my wife wants to make sure I stay healthy. It does wear on you from time to time.”

Couch recently announced that, after 18 years as city manager, he’s ready to quit. He also plans to take advantage of unspent, accrued leave for at least a month before that to spend more time with his family during the holidays. By Jan. 2, Couch said, he’ll be looking for something else to fill his days.

That might be contract work for the city in some other capacity or another leadership position in nonprofits – Couch is now chairman-elect of the United Way of Central Oklahoma board of directors and Downtown OKC has asked that continue to serve on its board – he’s not sure yet. But for the sake of his mental health, Couch said, he can’t afford to not work.

Playing saxophone, Sudoku number puzzles and riding his bicycle just aren’t enough.

“I’ve still got some fuel in the tank to do something. … It’s just that I haven’t been able to think about,” he said. “You can’t pursue other opportunities as city manager. It undermines everything else you do.”

“I was told there will be opportunities, and it will be like a smorgasbord,” he said, loosely quoting friend and civic leader Ronnie Irani. “Don’t take the first thing that appears because you don’t know what’s around the corner, and you have to eat whatever you put on your plate.”

Couch is the longest-serving city manager in the city’s history. In addition to 18 years in that position, he worked in the municipal sector for 11 years as the city’s assistant city manager, director of the Metropolitan Area Projects tax program, and water and wastewater utilities director. Before that, Couch was Edmond’s assistant city manager. He also worked for the city of Casper, Wyoming.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not have data specific to city managers; according to an agency spokeswoman, the closest match is found in a supplemental report to the current national population survey. In management occupations for the community and social service sector, the median length of employment is about five years. Couch is an outlier in any case, as the BLS reported the median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.2 years as of January.

The trick is loving the job, Couch said. Planning a task, researching materials, identifying capable people to realize the goal, watching projects evolve and looking back on the process is simply fun, he said.

Yes, fun. Even with oversight by eight City Council members, a mayor and the news media, Couch enjoys himself.

“Look, I knew that was the job when I applied for it. I chose to do this,” he said. “And the media has been incredibly fair to me. … Transparency is always important. Hopefully, I frame issues and get information to council so they can make intelligent decisions.

“I’ve had a chance to do some really cool things, even before I was city manager. I got to negotiate some cool water deals. I helped finish the first MAPS. I got to be involved in bringing back the Skirvin (hotel) … a lot of economic development deals,” he said.

In addition to the Skirvin redevelopment in downtown, Couch led negotiations with the state and Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes that secured the city’s water rights to Sardis Lake and Canton Lake. He also worked closely with other city leaders to make Oklahoma City attractive to the NBA Thunder team and the Hornets before that.

According to research by political science professor Bonnie G. Mani at East Carolina University in North Carolina, the city managers’ tenures are shortened when they are lured to other cities by offers of higher salaries or the desire to serve and build experience in a larger municipality – Couch’s annual salary this year was about $252,000, set by the City Council. Tenure is also shortened when city managers are pushed from office due to political instability or competition for control of city resources, Mani found.

“Although, in principle, city managers are not policymakers, they inevitably become involved in the policymaking process as they choose issues for council agendas, provide analyses of policy alternatives, and lead city employees who implement public policy,” Mani wrote in 2014.

Mayor David Holt, who worked under Couch as the previous mayor’s chief of staff, had nothing but praise for his former boss.

“Simply stated, Jim Couch is the best city manager in the country,” Holt said in a prepared statement. “And he is absolutely one of the top five most important figures in this successful chapter of Oklahoma City’s history. … I speak for the City Council when I say that it is with the greatest regret that we hear this news, but we wish Jim only the best, and we look forward to the next few months we still have together.”

His predecessor, Mayor Mick Cornett, said much the same. Couch has served under just four mayors, and he said all of them have been reasonable people working toward a common goal, as have those who sit in the other eight council seats. Oklahoma City has been fortunate.

“The business community has been very special to me,” Couch said. “They’ve been pulling with us instead of against us, and you don’t see that everywhere. A lot of places, you see a lot of friction. … We don’t take orders from the chamber, but we do work with them and with the individual businesses.

The City Council is expected to call for a nationwide search to replace Couch. Current employees are encouraged to apply; they will go through the full evaluation and interview process with the rest of the candidate field. Couch said City Hall is filled with highly qualified people.

Couch also serves or has served as a trustee or general manager of the Airport Trust, Zoological Trust, Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority, Metropolitan Area Schools Trust, Riverfront Redevelopment Authority, Economic Development Trust, and McGee Creek Authority. Whoever is chosen as his successor will likely be involved with some or all of those positions as well.

“We have a great team here. We don’t always agree on everything, and my staff is free to tell me what they think,” he said. “They don’t always agree with my decisions, but we’re all in agreement that we need to do whatever is best for the future of the city.

In the city’s council-manager form of government, City Council members develops policy and make decisions as a body once a week on matters ranging from eminent domain to marathon permits. The city manager implements those positions as he oversees day-to-day operations of a 4,800-employee workforce with an annual budget of nearly $1.6 billion. The relationship is akin to a CEO and board of directors, Couch said.

“I think there are important segments of business practice that we need adopt,” he said. “But this is government.”