Bangor City Manager Debbie Laurie will retire in May.
The city revealed Laurie will retire from the top administrative position in an announcement on the city’s website.
Laurie joined the city in 1992 and served as Bangor’s finance director before becoming city manager in February 2022, according to the announcement.
Though Laurie has been in the manager role for only two years, the city’s announcement noted she rose to the position in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and faced a series of other challenges. For example, Laurie helped the council determine how it would distribute the more than $20 million in federal funding Bangor received from the American Rescue Plan Act to various organizations across the region.
Aside from those challenges, Laurie has been tasked with working with city department leaders and councilors to address skyrocketing housing prices, a dearth of affordable housing, rising homelessness and rampant opioid use, according to the announcement.
“Debbie introduced several initiatives to the council that have set Bangor on a better path,” Cara Pelletier, Bangor’s city council chairperson, wrote in a statement last week. “For instance, with housing alone, there have been dozens of changes – from amending zoning rules and building out infrastructure to the approval of accessory dwelling units and reorganizing city staff – that over time will be of great benefit to the city.”
Bangor city councilors will search for a new city manager in the months before Laurie retires in May.
