City of West Plains Mayor Jack Pahlmann has announced his intentions to retire at the end of April 2021. Pahlmann wrote the following letter explaining his decision:
Twenty five months ago I had a decision to make. In November of 2018, I was considering to not file for reelection for Mayor. After discussing my options with family and valued friends, I decided to file for the April 2019 election, but I had one condition if I was to run. I would remain in office until our City Administrator, Tom Stehn, retired. I didn’t want to break in a new City Administrator, and he didn’t want to break in a new Mayor.
As you know, Tom has set April 30, 2021 as his retirement from the City of West Plains. I will join Tom on April 30 with my retirement as Mayor.
Normally, this would end my letter to you, but recent unpleasantries within our city deserve some comment. Three of us on council voted for a masking ordinance to help stem the surge of new Covid-19 cases in our city. This upset several of our citizens who desired to remove me from office by using the recall provisions in our City Charter. It was apparent from the outset of this movement that the recall ballot would not be voted on until the April 2022 municipal election when hopefully the Covid-19 pandemic would be just a bad memory. I want to emphasize that this petition had no bearing whatsoever on my decision to leave on April 30, 2021. I was quite confident that I would be able to survive the recall, if it were to occur at all.
I’ve had a great 21 years representing the citizens of West Plains both as a council member and as your mayor. I have no doubt that the new mayor and city administrator will make it happen here!
Thank you for supporting me over the years. I wish you well.
Jack Pahlmann, Mayor
August 2012 – April 2021
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