Columbia Falls city manager set to retire

After a 40-year career in government, including more than 25 years in Columbia Falls, City Manager Susan Nicosia has tendered her resignation to City Council.

Her last day is June 30.

“I have been serving in local government one way or another for 40 years,” she said. “… And this is my 25th year with the city.”

Nicosia, 62, noted this was her 13th year as city manager and she recalled Mayor Don Barnhart mentioning that one plans their life around meetings — in her case the first and third Mondays and second Tuesdays of the month.

She said she tried to convince her grown children that an outdoor wedding in October would be fine, but they didn’t listen — one is in the first week of August, the other the last week of July.

That’s also the thick of the city’s budget and so it became apparent now was a good time to retire and spend time with her children and grandchildren. 

Her husband, Mike, was the longtime superintendent of schools for Columbia Falls and has been retired for a few years now.

Nicosia said it was a difficult decision. She can count the number of times she’s missed a meeting in her 25-year tenure.

“I’m very passionate about the city,” she said. “I’m blessed to have served this community.”

She said she enjoyed working with Council.

“This is an exceptional Council,” she told them.

The City Council has begun the process of finding someone to fill the post immediately. Council was set to hold a special meeting last week to go over the specifications for the post, noting that Nicosia has done duties that went above and beyond the city manager position.

“Boy are you going to be missed,” Mayor Don Barnhart said.

Councilor John Piper jokingly offered up a motion to reject her resignation.

Before serving as city manager, Nicosia was appointed to fill then-councilor Doug Karper’s vacant seat in November 1998 and then ran successfully for re-election in 1999. She was appointed to fill the mayor vacancy — when Gary Hall left to be county commissioner — in January 2003. She was then elected for the remaining term until December 2005. She didn’t run for election for a term beginning 2006, as she was raising three young children. 

She was appointed as city finance director on Sept. 1, 2006 and was hired as city manager on June 1, 2011, after filling in as the interim city manager after Bill Shaw left to become the public works director for the city of Kalispell.