Palmer set to hire new manager

PALMER — If all goes according to plan, the city won't have more than a couple of weeks between the departure of its current manager and the arrival of its next one.

Palmer City Manager Bill Allen said he plans to be gone probably by Thursday. Palmer Mayor John Combs said the city council Monday night authorized the city clerk and city attorney put together a contract agreement with Doug Griffin.

Griffin is city manager of St. Mary's and formerly headed up the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board, which is the body that oversees, among other things, liquor licenses.

The council voted in April not to renew Allen's contract. His tenure with the city lasted for around two and a half years.

Griffin was one of three finalists selected for the position. The other two were a city government consultant and former Ketchikan-Gateway Borough Manager Roy Eckert, III, and Stephen Giesbrecht, city manager of Electra, Texas.

“I think it will be two weeks at the very most,” Combs said of the lag time between Griffin and Allen. “Mr. Allen created a position of deputy city manager and so that's Sara Jansen and she can hold the desk down for a couple of weeks. It'll be just like if Bill went on vacation.”