S pokane Mayor Nadine Woodward's first city administrator, hired away from the tiny Central Washington town of Ephrata, resigned after less than a year. But Woodward says the scale of experience of her new city administrator, Johnnie Perkins, is on an entirely different level. Perkins has been a school board candidate, a trash company lobbyist and, just last year, a deputy chief operating officer for the city of San Diego. In a city of 1.5 million — nearly seven times Spokane's population and 188 times Ephrata's — Perkins oversaw infrastructure, public works and utilities. Woodward says that Perkins' references were "absolutely incredible" across the board, with two decades' worth of colleagues from the public and private sectors raving about his record of collaboration and problem-solving.