Third Top Executive

Resigns At City Hall

HR Director Kathy Wolverton Steps Aside

ONEONTA – Kathy Wolverton, personnel director, has become the third top executive to leave City Hall in recent months.

Mayor Gary Herzig and Common Council accepted Wolverton’s resignation yesterday afternoon.

“While we are sad to have Ms. Wolverton leave City Hall, we expect that her decision to pursue new challenges will prove rewarding,” Herzig and Common Council member Larry Malone, Human Resources Committee chair, said in a statement released a few minutes ago.

Wolverton’s decision comes three months after the forced resignation of City Manager Martin Murphy, and two months since City Clerk Douglas Kendall resigned to become director of Hartwick College’s Yager Museum.

Finance Director Meg Hungerford, who is acting city manager, may now have to shoulder personnel responsibilities as well.

In her seven-year tenure, Wolverton, who is also lawyer, served on the Charter Revision Commission that created the city manager form of government, providing key staff support and expertise.  She then participated in the searches for the city’s first and second city managers; the first – Mike Long – was forced out after 18 month, and the second after eight.

The Herzig-Malone statement said Wolverton “coordinated the hiring of every new city employee, participated in important labor negotiations, administered credentialing requirements and examinations, and oversaw payroll and benefits for a labor force of more than 100 employees.”

She served four mayors – Muller, Nader, Miller and Herzig – and “dozens of city council members,” the statement said.