Bangor’s assistant city manager, who is leaving her position later this fall, plans to start her own consulting business to help municipalities and nonprofits.
Courtney O’Donnell has been with the city for five years and wants to use her experience to advise on topics like human resources, labor, investigations and executive searches, she told the Bangor Daily News.
She oversaw a plethora of city operations during her tenure, which began in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and spanned several leadership changes at the city manager level.
O’Donnell will still be based in the Bangor area after she departs city government at the end of November.
“It seemed like a great transition period in terms of where the city is at and also my own experience and desires for the next chapter,” she said.
When first entering in the role in April 2021, managing the city’s workforce amid the COVID pandemic took up a lot of her time, O’Donnell said. She noted that support from her coworkers was essential for the projects she considers her proudest accomplishments in five years with the city.
Those include keeping Bangor running through transitions between three different city managers, helping to hire several new department heads, enhancing the city’s human resources support for employees and rolling out a new city website and mass notification system.
O’Donnell also oversaw several moves during City Hall renovations, the naming of Gerald Talbot Park, and the installation of the Wabanaki canoe sculpture on the waterfront.
Perhaps one of her most significant contributions, she said, was her work to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the city’s many unions.
“I had never negotiated before I took this job, and I have worked hard to build relationships with the many different unions of the city,” O’Donnell said, adding that she “successfully negotiated more than 20 contracts in just five and a half years, which is way more than pretty much any other municipality in Maine.”
O’Donnell also said she’s proud of the work she’s done supporting the City Council and some of its committees, including the Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights.
That’s a vast array of projects, and O’Donnell reported that City Manager Carollynn Lear is working to narrow the focus of her position before a new person takes it on.
In her five plus years as assistant city manager, O’Donnell has observed significant changes within Bangor’s city government.
“I think we’ve definitely created a more robust economic and development presence and support for businesses and organizations within the city, and I think that’s had a pretty positive impact,” she said.
O’Donnell also celebrated the Community Connector bus system’s progress in recent years, which included acquiring a new fleet of buses, increasing staff wages and opening a downtown transit hub.
Before beginning her consulting venture, O’Donnell said she hopes to wrap up a project with the Bangor Historical Society which will add information and artifacts about the city’s history to the back wall of the council chambers.
“I feel very proud of my time with the city and I care a lot about Bangor, and so I hope to still have a presence and keep those relationships active,” she said.