A Washington city employee who has racked up a nearly 10-year tenure is soon leaving for another government position.

City Administrator Brent Hinson is spending his last week at Washington City Hall before he and his family move to Mason City this weekend where he will be the community’s deputy city administrator/finance director. Washington City Council members including Millie Youngquist expressed well wishes to Hinson at their most recent meeting, “I’ve been on the council for six years and it’s always been with you and I’ve really appreciated your guidance and information and you’ve taught me so many things about city government and I really appreciate it. We’re going to miss you and I wish you the best of luck.”

Hinson says his final tasks to wrap up for Washington include matters related to tax increment financing certification, a 28E agreement with the county for a West 5th Street paving project, and looking over capital projects and funding sources.

Hinson says it’s been great to be a part of the progress Washington has made in the last decade, “It’s a community that really I think has come together and decided that it wants to be a progressive community, and that process was started before I became city administrator here. But it hadn’t been going that long and I feel like really this last almost 10 years has been an era of tremendous progress for Washington just kind of carrying that forward and hopefully my successor can do the same.”

Hinson’s last official day as city administrator is August 6th, and he plans to attend the August 3rd council meeting through Zoom. The council appointed Finance Director Kelsey Brown and City Clerk Sally Hart as co-interim city administrators and has hired Midwest Municipal Consulting to assist in the search for Hinson’s successor.