The Centralia City Council held a special meeting on Thursday to formally approve a contract with Galen Mahle to become Centralia’s new city manager starting January 21, 2025. Mahle will the vacancy left by current city manager Kory Smith, who announced his resignation at Monday night’s regular council meeting. Smith’s resignation will be effective January 3. City Clerk Kim Enke will perform the duties of city manager during the time between Smith’s resignation and the start of Mahle’s employment.
Mahle, who was named to head the new department of recreation in October, has been named as city manager before having the chance to start as a department head. While the change is sudden, Mahle says he is prepared for it.
“My current role is village administrator for the village of New Baden, which is a smaller community and a different format,” Mahle said, “but the role I have there is pretty much the same as the role here, so I feel prepared. All of the duties of the city manager I’ve done as far as leading departments, leading teams, tax levies, budgets, TIF Districts, and all the different departments that go along with it. It will be different, obviously a different, larger community, but also a community that I know and understand.”
According to Mahle, the terms of his employment were finalized on Tuesday after a few weeks of discussion.
“We’ve been in discussion for a few weeks now, but it really didn’t come into effect until Tuesday when we really got into the nuts and bolts of an agreement,” Mahle said. “The council had some questions and wanted to make sure that there was a good plan moving forward after city manager Smith gave his resignation… A few weeks of talks, and then two days from Tuesday to now that made it official.”
Mahle says his first goals as city manager are to familiarize himself with the city’s new comprehensive plan and help find a new head of the recreation department now that the position is open again.
