Palmer council approves expanded library plan despite former manager's unauthorized updates

What you need to know:

• The Palmer City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a larger floor plan and budget increase for the city's new public library after significant design updates requested by former City Manager Stephen Jellie without council approval.
• The changes bump the project to $16 million for a 20,000-square-foot facility, up from the previously approved $15 million for an 18,000-square-foot design. The decision is the latest in a contentious library planning process marked by disagreements over budget and community needs.
• The council approved the additional space but limited it to unfinished storage to avoid further cost increases. Construction bids are expected by March, with completion targeted for 2026. Jellie resigned as city manager earlier this month after allegations that his personnel practices placed the city at "imminent threat" of lawsuits.

PALMER -- The Palmer City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a larger floor plan and budget increase for the city's new public library, prompted by significant design updates requested by now-former City Manager Stephen Jellie without council approval.

The update expands the new two-story library to more than 20,000 square feet and raises the cost to $16 million, up from about 18,000 square feet and $15 million approved earlier this year. It adds about 2,000 square feet of unfinished area for library storage, officials said; the previous design included that space only as a roof.

The ongoing project will replace the Palmer Public Library, which closed after its roof collapsed under heavy snow early last year. The new library is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.

The library's floor plan and budget increase are the latest in a series of controversies involving Jellie, who was removed as city manager earlier this month following complaints from city employees about his personnel practices, proposed department cuts and warnings from City Attorney Sarah Heath that he was putting Palmer at "imminent threat" of lawsuits. Jellie received a $75,000 severance package after 53 days on the job. It was his third resignation from a similar position in less than two years.

Long the source of heated debate, fueled largely by disagreements over the budget and the needs of the community, the initial $15 million design for the library received preliminary approval from the city council in April, months before Jellie was hired. Demolition of the old library was set to begin this month, with architect Gary Wolf expected to present a near-final design as part of the city's current budget process.

But work on the design took a sharp turn earlier this fall during a closed-door meeting in Wolf's office, where Jellie requested Wolf add additional space for offices to accommodate about six community development staff members, Wolf told the council Tuesday. That addition would have increased the cost to $17.5 million because adding office space requires other updates, such as a new fire exit, Wolf said.

Council member Carolina Anzilotti was originally scheduled to attend the meeting with Jellie and Wolf, but Jellie instead asked her to skip it because he "wanted to familiarize himself with the design and other details," she said during Tuesday's meeting. Jellie later told Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington he was working on library changes to be presented with the upcoming city budget but did not provide details, Carrington said.

Wolf said he was surprised no city officials attended the design meeting, but that the change request did not seem unreasonable and was allowed under his contract. While Jellie did not ask him to withhold information from the council, he did ask that he avoid discussing the additions, Wolf said.

“He requested that we not mention that, and he’s our boss, so we did that,” Wolf said.

The changes were not meant to be a secret, Jellie said in an interview Wednesday. He instructed Wolf not to share the updates with individual council members, including Anzilotti, so he could streamline the council's involvement in operational decisions, he said. Jellie said his goal for the updates was to leverage a major community project to both provide a new library and address office space issues for the city's community planning staff, currently housed about a mile outside Palmer's downtown area.

Instead of returning to the April design, the council opted Tuesday to keep the added space but downgrade it to a less costly unfinished storage area, in part to avoid further project delays.

The additions took "substantial time" to integrate and required other structural and electrical updates, Wolf said. Undoing them would cost time and money, he said.

“It’s not as easy as hitting ‘undo, undo, undo’ and getting it back,” Wolf told the council. “Mechanically and electrically, it’s not a huge deal to back it out. Structurally, it’s significant. Architecturally, we’ve altered the exterior and changed it quite a bit.”

Wolf said he expects to present a near-complete design to the council late next month and have the project ready for construction bids in March.

The new library will be funded through grants, donations and a $10 million bond approved by voters last year that will raise property taxes by 0.135%.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at abushatz@matsusentinel.com