Palmer city manager resigns

PALMER — City manager Joe Hannan will resign Sept. 1.

The resignation comes after several months of closed-door executive sessions constituting Hannan’s annual evaluation, several city council members said.

Hannan told city employees in an email distributed Wednesday he is leaving to pursue other professional opportunities.

Mayor DeLena Johnson said the council hasn’t yet officially accepted Hannan’s resignation, but that’s a formality.

“It’s a done deal,” she said. “But the council hasn’t taken action yet. We have to go through an official acceptance of his resignation letter.”

Johnson declined to offer specific details, but said Hannan’s intent to resign had become apparent during the evaluation.

“When we take official action, then I can comment on it,” the mayor said.

She did say Hannan is leaving before the end of his contractual term.

Palmer City Council members planned to work on hiring a replacement in the coming days, weeks and months, Johnson said. The council has not yet decided whether they will manage the search in-house, or hire a consulting firm to conduct the search for them, she said.

Hannan, a fixture at local ceremonial activities like business openings and ribbon cuttings, declined further comment until a city council meeting set for Tuesday evening, which may involve another executive session.

City council members generally said the departure was amiable, though unexpected. Several council members alluded to Hannan’s “fit” with the city, but wished Hannan well and praised his performance as the city’s chief administrator.

Hannan’s energy and public presence were remarkable, said councilwoman Linda Combs.

“He dove right into the community,” she said. “He’s a familiar figure out in the community. He learned about the history and that sort of thing.”

At the same time, Hannan’s managerial style, honed in larger communities in the Lower 48, was something of a mismatch with rural Palmer, Combs said.

“He comes from a background of larger concerns, larger cities, larger projects, etc.,” she said. “There (were) some parts that fit and some that weren’t quite as good a fit, I don’t believe, for him. There’s certainly a lot of opportunity here in the state for him, so it was pretty much just a mutual agreement that there’s quite a bit he can apply all of that background from California and Oregon to a great deal of what’s going on in the state right now, and we just agreed that he could pursue that.”

While others may characterize the departure as unexpected, Combs said she thought the departure was par for the course.

“City managers move on,” she said, quoting a borough official. “Sometimes it’s after a short period of time, and sometimes it’s after a long period of time. A turnover in that office is just usually not really anything to be surprised at.”

But Hannan’s pending resignation is “one of the tougher ones to talk about,” Combs said.

Hannan, a former intern for then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan and press officer for President Bill Clinton — as well as a city manager in Fife, Washington, and Redmond, Oregon — started in the Palmer city manager position May 14, 2014. Under Hannan’s tenure, the city has eliminated the public safety director position, hired an airport manager, and completed an audit of the city finances, to name a few changes.

Hannan’s tenure is somewhat shorter than his immediate predecessors’. The manager before him, Doug Griffin, left May 1, 2014, after about three and a half years. Griffin cited personal reasons for his departure. Prior to that, Bill Allen, a former borough assembly member, held the job between 2007 and 2010.

For the moment, details about Hannan’s departure remain in short supply because of employee confidentiality, Combs said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.