Palmer City Council accepts the resignation of city manager

Update:

The Palmer City Council has accepted the resignation of now former Palmer City Manager Stephen Jellie.The council was unanimous in their decision that Jellie should resign. His resignation was effective immediately.

After the announcement was made, the meeting was opened up to audience comments, with most saying thank you to the council for taking the time to meet and address concerns, and coming to the decision that was made.

"Thank you all for taking the time. You all look like you've gone through a lot," said Cindy Rau, Chaplain with the Palmer Fire and Rescue after the meeting reconvened following an extended executive session. "We truly appreciate you and what you've done for our community."

This is a developing story. Continue to see frontiersman.com for more.

Original story:

The Palmer City Council is in executive session tonight, part of an emergency special meeting called late Tuesday night.

Mayor Steve Carrington gave recently-hired city manager Stephen Jellie an opportunity to make a statement at the beginning of Wednesday’s emergency meeting.

Jellie was the focal point of an emotional stretch of public testimony during Palmer City Council’s regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday. Dozens of residents voiced their concerns about Jellie, who has been with the city for about 50 days. Issues included consolidation of services with other city and borough agencies, and the surprise announcement of the suspension of Palmer Police Chief Dwayne Shelton.

Wednesday, Jellie voiced his frustration to the council.

“It’s interesting to me that the council has so many concerns, yet you’ve never discussed them with me. How would I possibly know what you did or didn't want me to do if you are not talking to me. It’s also interesting you’re holding me accountable for doing research and work on things that you asked me to do,” Jellie said, referring to the potential of moving Palmer dispatch services to Mat-com. “I’m not even sure why you didn't recommend holding off on the public discourse and the public comments until we took it to the budget, where we all discussed this should go, in the budget discussion.”

Jellie spoke for about 10 minutes.

Public testimony Tuesday was dominated by reaction to Jellie's early tenure in the city, and a number of policy changes, including the potential elimination of Palmer Police Dispatch and the police department’s home car program, which allows officers to keep police vehicles at their residence, and changes within the city’s human resources department.

Late in the Tuesday meeting during council comments, councilmember Carolina Anzilotti asked for support to place Jellie on administrative leave.

“I would like to ask for council support to place the city manager on administrative leave. I think it's time to evaluate the comments brought forth tonight and the comments that have brought to our attention in the past. This is to protect our staff during time of deliberation and investigation until this matter is brought before us again, and this is also to protect the safety of our residents for essential servicers being met and to mitigate potential significant liability for this city in terms of lawsuits, financial costs and reputation,” she said.

Mayor Steve Carrington called for due process. Anzilotti followed by calling for the emergency meeting, which was ultimately scheduled for Wednesday,