After nearly 40 years in Pottstown, Flanders calls it a career
With the 2018 budget wrapped up, Borough Manager Mark Flanders is also wrapping up a career.
It is a career spent entirely in Pottstown.
As The Mercur y reported in September, Flanders put in his retirement papers and will retire making a salary of roughly $124,000.
“Pottstown is my home,” he told The Mercury at the time. “I have spent my entire career here and I have loved every minute of it and all the opportunities I have been afforded here,” he told The Mercury.
Flanders will retire just shy of 40 years of employment with the borough.
He was first hired as a patrolman for the police department and was promoted to patrol sergeant in 1992. For four years, he was a police captain and in 2001 was promoted to Pottstown police chief.
He had already announced his intention to retire from that post when in May, 2012, his predecessor as borough manager, Jason Bobst, announced we was leaving to take another job. Council asked Flanders to fill in as interim borough manager while a search was conducted to find Bobst’s replacement.
That search was conducted by David Woglom, a former Quakertown borough manager and now executive director of the Meyner Center for Local Government at Lafayette College.
He narrowed the field and eventually, in December 2012, council chose Flanders from among sev- eral candidates.
Until April 2013, when his retirement as police chief became official, Flanders did both jobs for one salary.
At one point last year, another attorney for Flanders threatened a defamation lawsuit against a Stowe woman circulating an online petition calling on council to “Fire Flanders,” the words which were pasted on lawn signs strewn about the borough for several months.
Flanders also expanded the cooperation between the borough and school district, forging a strong working relationship with former schools Superintendent Jeff Sparagana, who retired last year.
Four times a year, the two arranged for joint meetings between borough council and the school board, although attendance by the borough’s elected officials was often spotty.
Flanders also oversaw technical i mprovements in borough hall, allowing for online and credit card bill paying. As authority manager, he implemented the board’s charge to create and obtain a capital budget and five-year capital plan to allow the water and sewer systems to make repairs and improvements without borrowing money.
As for the borough’s finances, he oversaw the creation of budgets that saw two straight years of no tax increases, although he warned council about the eventual consequences of drawing down reserves — a practice which earlier this month he said has left the borough with a $1.5 million gap in the general fund it could take a 23 percent tax hike to fill.
Flanders told The Mercury he considers Pottstown’s three greatest assets to be its people, the diversity of those people and the borough’s bones and location.
“I plan on enjoying retirement with my wife and children and my dog” he said.
In the meantime, council has appointed Assistant Borough Manager Justin Keller to fill in for Flanders until a replacement is found. There has been discussion of a broad search but it is unclear of the budget approved Dec. 19 includes money to pay for such an effort.
That budget also eliminated the position of assistant borough manager, so if someone is found to replace Keller, he will be out of a job.
It is perhaps relevant to note here, however, that Flanders’ tenure began with a temporary appointment and the once in the post permanently, he reinstated the position of assistant borough manager.