City Manager spends first year on job getting to know Whitefish

Two experiences affirmed Adam Hammatt’s choice to live in Whitefish.

The first came when he visited town last winter to interview for Whitefish’s City Manager, a position he has now served in for roughly a year. In between interviews on a cold, snowy day in December 2016, Hammatt decided to take his two-wheel drive rental car for a drive East Edgewood Drive, but after pulling into a wide spot the car got stuck in the ice and snow. Wearing a suit, Hammatt gave it his best effort to get the car unstuck without any luck until the drivers of two vehicles came by and pushed him out.

“I’m not talking about 20 cars passed and then two helped,” he said recently sitting in his office at City Hall. “It was the first two cars that both stopped. I wasn’t late and I made my next interview. That’s Montana.”

The second came after he had been on the job in Whitefish about eight months. He attended the Whitefish Community Foundation’s celebration for the Great Fish Challenge observing more than $2 million be given to nonprofits.

“That means that the nonprofits here are doing good work and that the people here are willing to donate and sacrifice,” he said. “That’s the kind of community I like living in.”

Hammatt is a graduate of C. M. Russell High School in Great Falls and spent 30 years living in Montana before moving away seeking a job in city management.

He was a firefighter/paramedic for Great Falls Fire Rescue before an injury forced him to seek other career opportunities.

He returned to school earning his master of public administration from the University of Montana, juris doctor from the University of Montana, and a bachelor’s in political science from Montana State University. After earning his law degree he says a friend asked him to open a private law practice together, but Hammatt had always planned to return to city government.

“I feel the need to be a public servant,” he said.

A job took Hammatt out of state, and he was working as village administrator in Kimberly, Wisconsin, when he and his wife decided it was time to be closer to family. Not long after Hammatt attended a conference and noticed the man standing next to him was from Kalispell. The man turned out to be Kalispell’s City Manager Doug Russell, who when Hammatt told him he was looking for a job pointed out that Whitefish was looking to hire.

In February 2017, Hammatt joined the city of Whitefish in its top administrative position. He has spent the last year becoming acquainted with the city staff, talking at service club meetings and trying to get to know the community and the issues through a variety of ways including holding Coffee with the City Manger once a month.

“I wanted to give an avenue for people to sit and drink coffee and get to know me, and let me know about any issues,” he said of the monthly coffee get-together. “I want people to know that I’m approachable.”

The major issue Hammatt says he has been focused on since taking the job continues to be a large part of his day.

“Affordable housing,” he said. “We’ve been going full bore on this. The [Whitefish Chamber of Commerce] did an awesome job of getting us to where we are, but now we’re taking that final product and with the housing committee working on it.”

The city and the chamber worked to create a housing assessment and subsequent Whitefish Strategic Housing Plan to kick-off work on providing affordable workforce housing. The city’s Strategic Housing Plan Steering Committee began meeting earlier this year and is already beginning work on strategies outlined in the housing plan intent on creating affordable workforce housing.

Hammatt says the committee is already making headway and working alongside Senior Planning Wendy Compton-Ring on the issue, he’s optimistic that the strategies could lead to affordable housing units in the city by the end of the year. He noted that some potential developers have already contacted interested in creating housing even before the city implements any regulations requiring such housing.

During City Council workshops or walking around City Hall, Hammatt often has a smile on his face. He says it’s because he loves his job and working with the great staff at City Hall. He notes that as City Manager he gets to oversee many different fields of expertise that allows him to have variety in his job.

“I like having a problem, pulling the right people together and solving the problem,” he said.

Outside City Hall, Hammatt says his family — which includes three of five children still at home — likes going ice skating, bowling, camping, golfing and skiing. They spend summer days camping and visiting Whitefish Lake, and he says his son is talking him into trying snowboarding. While he says he can’t say anything for certain, this is the first place he’s lived where he plans to retire.