Palmer close to hiring manager

PALMER — Palmer City Council has selected a front-runner in its search for a new manager. Councilman Richard Best said the city directed its attorney to start negotiations with that candidate.

“The quality of individuals that made it to the final five were pretty impressive,” he said.

Best declined to name the candidate because he wasn’t sure the selection had been made in a public session. Attempts to clear that up with the city’s clerk were unsuccessful as of press time.

By the time the council started interviews last week, there were only five names on the city list:

• Rick Koch, city manager for Kenai.

• Carey Meyer, public works director for the city of Homer.

• Jon Owen, Palmer’s director of public safety.

• Scott Hahn, a city manager living in Salida, Colo.

• Joseph Hannan is between jobs, having declined to renew his contract as a city manager in Washington state.

Palmer City Manager Doug Griffin announced at the end of last year that he wouldn’t seek a renewal of his contract with the city.

Griffin said he wants to spend more time with his family in Anchorage and possibly retire. He seems to be leaving on good terms with city council. May 1 will be his last day on the job. That means that it’s possible, though unlikely, his replacement could be on the ground by the time he leaves.

The city did the search on its own rather than hiring an out-of-state headhunting firm like the one Mat-Su Borough used when it hired current borough manger John Moosey.

Best said there was some trepidation about setting out on their own to find a new chief administrator, but the depth and the quality of the applicants was very encouraging.

“I think we had 32 applicants. We had a group that culled it down to five and that group was past city attorney Jack Snodgrass, the mayor, deputy mayor city clerk and the human resources director,” Best said. “I think they did an excellent job.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.