Stearns announces retirement as city manager
Whitefish City Manger Chuck Stearns has announced his intention to retire at the end of this year.
Stearns told the Pilot he feels he is leaving the city in good financial and organizational condition. He is retiring to spend more time biking and skiing.
“I will have been in local government finance and management for almost 33 years at that time, mostly in high workload and high stress situations, so I feel ready to retire,” he said. “Although I may work seasonally and part-time in the future, most of our summers will likely be spent being bicycle tourists throughout the country and world, while winters will be all about skiing.”
Chief executive officer for the city, Stearns began work at Whitefish City Hall in late 2008.
Stearns has seen the city through many changes during his tenure. He has led during difficult budgeting times in the aftermath of the Great Recession and in the following steady increase of commercial and residential growth in the city. He has carried out the direction of City Council through the construction of the Emergency Services Building along with the transition to 24/7 emergency services, and the move to bring the Whitefish Community Library under city control. The massive reconstruction of Central Avenue and other downtown streets were completed on his watch, along with closing of the Haskill Basin conservation easement.
The city is currently in the midst of a $16 million construction project that will create a new City Hall and attached parking structure.
Stearns says he will regret not moving into the new City Hall and ensuring that the transition goes well.
Before coming to Whitefish, Stearns served as town administrator in Georgetown, Colo., and town manager in Mount Crested Butte, Colo. Prior to that he served as finance director/city clerk and also fiscal analyst for the city of Missoula.
Stearns grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and earned a degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder before obtaining his master of public administration degree from the University of Montana.
Stearns previously spent time in Whitefish from 1980 to 1982 as a self-proclaimed “ski bum,” as he told the Pilot in 2008, learning to Telemark ski on Big Mountain.
Stearns, 59, said he has friends his age or younger who have succumb to illness in recent years, and while his health is excellent he has a number things that he would like to do before that changes.
“I remembered that I never wanted to work until my death,” he said. “One never knows when those things strike. I would be very disappointed to succumb to such a disease and not done some of the things that I want to do, including traveling extensively on a bike.”
Stearns informed the Mayor and City Council of his decision last week. He said he will assist in any way in selecting a successor in the transition.
“Working for the city of Whitefish for these eight years has been the ultimate capstone of my career and I thank you very much for your support and friendship,” he told them.
Stearns said while he has decided to retire effective Jan. 6, 2017 he is flexible and willing to stay on until a successor is selected.
He prefers a new City Manager be on board by early December to provide a month of transition overlap and provide time for his replacement to settle in before the high workload begins in January.