Tangeman Offered Position in Massachusetts; Contract Negotiations Underway
~ by Trevor Phipps ~
Last week, city officials and local residents were shocked when they heard the news that Woodland Park City Manager Darrin Tangeman may have found a new head managerial job in Massachusetts. As a result, he could be leaving his post as the top boss of the “City Above the Clouds.”
The Cape Code Times recently reported that Tangeman was offered a job as the town manager in Truro, Massachusetts.
According to the publication, the town’s Select Board narrowed down their pick to four finalists and named Tangeman as one of them, even though he previously dropped out before the public interview process started about a month ago. The town initially offered the job to another candidate out of Texas but the contract negotiations failed. The board then chose Tangeman as their top pick, out of the four remaining candidates.
However, city contracts like this often take several weeks to finalize, so no final deal has been secured yet. There still is a chance that a final agreement with the east coast town may not occur, or that Tangeman may decide to stay in Woodland Park.
Tangeman last week declined to comment on the situation because it was not yet set in stone. “No comment at this time,” the city manager said in an email. “I don’t have a contract in hand so all is a little premature. Business as usual right now.”
And regardless of what outcome occurs with the negotiations, Tangeman did say that he will for sure be around for the budget talks that will take place soon. He also said that his contract requires him to stay at his position for 60 days, after choosing to resign for a new job.
Even though Tangeman’s new job offer was a surprise to most Woodland Park city council members, they agreed that nothing will change in the immediate future. “Tangeman’s contract is not final,” Woodland Park Mayor Val Carr said. “So, we will be conducting business as usual until his resignation is official.”
City council member Kellie Case also agreed with these views. “We are doing nothing different,” Case said. “People have career paths, things they strive for and want to do, so we always have our eyes and ears open looking for new opportunities. And if that is Darrin’s plan, then I wish him the best. But at this point we are not making any changes. Darrin is still our city manager. We are still working towards doing the budget and it is really just business as usual.”
Case said that Tangeman has been making efforts to keep the city council informed about his decision to possibly relocate. “He has been fair and keeping us informed,” Case said. “But we are just moving forward with no bumps in the road at this point.”
Carr and Case did not speculate about any actions by the city, if Tangeman did end up leaving his post. No discussion has been made between council members at this point because it is still too early.
If Tangeman does leave after only serving as the city’s head boss for several years, the move will be yet another case of revolving chairs among top city and government managers in the Pikes Peak region. Cripple Creek currently has Ray White as their interim City Administrator, after parting ways with Mark Campbell, who only held the position there for a little more than a year. Talks about finding a new administrator in Cripple Creek have been put on hold since the coronavirus pandemic struck and sliced the city’s budget by more than $2.2 million.
Green Mountain Falls also struggled extensively to find a town manager and held various meet and greet with top picks, only to have them turn down the offer by the GMF Trustees. They now have settled on Angie Sprague, who came to the area from Carbondale. Other towns in the area including Monument and Manitou Springs have also exhibited a failure to keep their city bosses.
