By Pauline Masson –
City Administrator Steve Roth resigned his position as Pacific city administrator effective August 11, according to an email Roth sent to Mayor Heather Filley and all members of the board of aldermen.
The city has yet to make an official announcement but three aldermen confirmed that they had received the email announcing the resignation.
The search for and selection of a new city mnager candidate falls to the city administrative committee, which includes fielding and interviewing applicants, and recommending their selected applicant. The full board of aldermen appoints the administrtor, with the mayor’s approval.
By city ordinance, the city administrator reports to the mayor, while the board of aldermen selects and appoints the city administrator, with the the mayor’s approval.
Roth has held the position since August 2016, working under four mayors, Jeff Palmore, Steve Myers, Herb Adams and Heather Filley. He previously worked as city administrator in New Haven, where he also worked as a journalist.
In April 2023, Mayor Heather Filley re-appointed Roth to the Pacific position in a term concurrent with her four-year term as mayor, through 2026.
Roth has yet to make a public comment about his reasons for leaving, but in accepting his reappointment by Mayor Filley, Roth said in a memo to aldermen that he had enjoyed working with each mayor.
Roth noted that his early time in Pacific was spent of Flood recovery as the city worked to recover from the 2015 and 2017 floods.
Among accomplishments during his management, Roth cited numerous economic development projects.
“Two of the largest the ADB Utilities and West Contracting projects, both rquired anneation, rezoning, water and sewer utility extensons, site development permitjs,” he said. “Both have had a very positive economic impact to the City.”
Roth also said one measure of his success was the number of vacancies in commercial and industrial properties.
“When I came here there were numerous vacancies throughtout the city.” he said. “Over the years we have seen most of these filled to the point that available space is now very limited.
Roth did not respond to a email request from Hometown Matters to comment on his resignation. And the City of Pacific did not respond to a request for a copy of the resignation emails.
Aldermen have yet to comment on their goal and method of searching for replacement. The item is likely to be addressed Tuesday evening at the July 18 board meeting.
Now they make a Ordinance that the Administrator has to be a Resident of Pacific not just rent a apartment here.
Caution “be careful what you wish for”.
Word of advice. Put him on paid leave, turn in his key card, restrict access to any City records or computers.
If he has any City business to ‘tidy up’ it should be done under strict supervision of the City Clerk and a witness. Don’t trust the devil.
While clearly many of us did not particularly agree with or support the manner in which Roth performed his job, I have to believe he was operating to the best of his ability. He didn’t steal from the city or otherwise intentionally harm anyone, to my knowledge. That being the case, I don’t see any reason to ridicule or mock him upon his resignation. I don’t mean that in response to this post or anyone specific, but to those who might show up in the comment section here.
Most, if not all of us, have made more than our fair share of regrettable decisions or missteps in our own professional careers, if our every move and comment was held up to public scrutiny we might not revel in the unwarranted wrath that would no doubt show up in our “inbox”.
Let’s be careful to avoid allowing ourselves to become the same force of negativity which we’ve strived to extricate from our city government for so long.
Well said!