Oro Valley's town manager of 13 years has resigned, saying his future is undecided.
Chuck Sweet, who led Oro Valley through a tremendous amount of growth — the town's population quadrupled during his tenure — called a staff meeting Tuesday morning to announce his plans to resign. He later turned in a letter of resignation, according to David Andrews, assistant town manager.
"Both personally and career-wise it's time for a change," said Sweet, 57, noting that he does not intend to retire. "As to what that will be — the slate is blank."
Sweet's last working day, according to the letter, will be Sept. 1. Until then, Sweet said, he plans to wrap up what work he can, possibly transitioning projects to a new town manager and continuing to assist the Town Council as needed.
"To any job there are always pluses and minuses, and obviously I wouldn't have stayed in this position this long if the pluses didn't outweigh the minuses," Sweet said, noting that one of the few things he won't miss about the job are late town meetings — which have gone as late as 1 a.m. and regularly run past 10 or 11 p.m.
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Last November during Sweet's annual performance evaluation, the Town Council voted to retain him as town manager until January 2007 and give him a 2.5 percent raise.
The vote was four to three, with council members Helen Dankwerth, Barry Gillaspie and Conny Culver against.
Sweet requested that the annual performance evaluation, originally scheduled for executive session, be a public meeting, said Roxana Garrity, deputy town clerk.
Meeting minutes show that Dankwerth called the decision to retain Sweet a "serious error" and although she thought Sweet had done a lot for the town, she thought Oro Valley would benefit from "a fresh set of eyes and ears at the helm."
During the meeting, town residents, business leaders and small-business owners called Sweet an experienced and stable leader.
Vice Mayor Terry Parish voted in favor of keeping Sweet along with KC Carter, Paula Abbott and Mayor Paul Loomis.
"He's always had my support and has always done a great job for Oro Valley," Parish said Tuesday morning.
During his time as town manager, Sweet noted in the letter of resignation, he had a hand in bringing reclaimed water to local golf courses, diversifying the town's tax base to include more commercial development and luring more jobs to Oro Valley.
Sweet said it "was like playing the Game of Life" as the town's population grew and it increased in size to more than 34 square miles.
"When he started, the population was about 7,000 people and now it's up to over 40,000 people," said Andrews, the assistant town manager, who has worked with Sweet all 13 years.
"We've been able to build a sense of community," Sweet said. "I'm really proud of serving the citizens of Oro Valley."
Several town staffers and council members expressed shock and sadness at Sweet's resignation.
Councilman Carter said he is sad to see Sweet go but is pleased he is staying on until September.
"This will be a loss to the town, and I'm glad he's staying as long as he is so we can make a transition to a new manager," Carter said.
"I was surprised and saddened by the news," said Vice Mayor Parish. "It will be difficult to replace someone as dedicated to the town as him."
Sweet's resignation makes the town's May 16 election for three Town Council seats even more important because the council will select a new manager, Parish said.
"Some people are going to say that change is good, but when you've got somebody who knows the community and has invested so much in the community, change is not necessarily a good thing," Parish said. "I hope I'm wrong, but it's really going to be a task to find somebody to replace Chuck."
Hiring a new town manager could be done many ways, said Bob Kovitz, town spokesman.
The council may choose to have town staff or a firm recruit candidates, Kovitz said. A series of interviews is most likely, Parish said.
"It's premature to talk about the process; it will be up to the council," Kovitz said.
