Palmer to let city manager go

PALMER — The Palmer City Council has voted unanimously to let its contract with City Manager Bill Allen expire.

Built into his contract was an executive session six months before its termination, Allen said. At this time, he would let the council know if he wanted an extension.

Behind closed doors on Tuesday, Allen requested to remain with the city for two more years.

Back in open forum, a motion by Councilman Kevin Brown to extend Allen’s contract by two years failed on 4-3 vote, with council members Richard Best, Brad Hanson, Kathrine Vanover and Mayor John Combs voting against the extension. Council members Brown, Michael Chmielewski and Ken Erbey voted to keep Allen on.

After that motion failed, the council voted 7-0 to let the contract expire rather than holding off on the decision until after Allen’s next performance evaluation in July. The council will begin advertising for a new city manager to take over when Allen’s contract ends Sept. 27.

Allen faced questions in December about charges to his city credit card and employee raises that seemed to exceed city guidelines. After review by the city council, Allen received a unanimous vote of confidence.

Not allowed to discuss what happened in Tuesday’s performance evaluation, Councilman Best said his reasons for voting against the contract extension did not come from the expenditures or employee practices. His reasons had more to do with how the administration has operated under Allen’s two and a half years of leadership

The administration before Allen had the perception of being difficult to work with and very slow-moving, Best said. Under Allen, the perception is the city is still hard to work with, but things are moving too fast.

“I don’t think we have been fully engaged with the business folks and the people of Palmer,” Best said. “I would like to see a better vision that would be embraced by the general public.”

In particular, Best pointed to the downtown revitalization plan. Crafting the plan was a group effort that included representatives of the stakeholder groups. But now, that plan is getting held up because of changes made after the public process, like ripping up the railroad tracks through downtown.

“I think we are focusing too much on the rail tracks. What do we envision the community becoming in the next 10 to 20 years, not just the railroad aspect,” Best said.

Councilman Chmielewski said Allen’s critics are taking a fundamentally wrong approach to evaluating what he has done for the city. Instead of focusing on the positives and identifying ways to improve the negatives, critics are blowing by the good to get to the bad.

“What we saw there was a look at what was wrong and not evaluating what was right,” Chmielewski.

People get behind the idea of growth, but the reality is another thing, he said. Walking the line between progress and the implications of that progress is a balancing act. Things did move more quickly under Allen, and communication could have been improved. However, that is a frustration that is easily worked out.

Councilwoman Kathrine Vanover said the council hired Allen to get the city moving, something he did very well. However, “I think it’s time now we are going to take a new direction driven more by the council, and the council is going to take more direction from the people.”

Allen said he accepts the criticism that the city is moving fast because that’s what the council hired him to do. The first direction he received was to make things happen.

“By God, they got what they wanted,” Allen said.

City managers don’t have a long life in one place, he said, as there are so many people to please. He likened his job to sitting on the fence with both ears to the ground.

Now, as he gets ready for the golf course clubhouse next summer, Allen said he will leave city hall with a very clear conscious.

“I’ve done everything the council has asked me do, plus some,” he said. “It’s probably the plus that got me in trouble.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.