by Geoff Fox
Hancock lost a councilman on Tuesday night and gained a town manager within minutes of each other during the July town meeting in Hancock’s town hall.
Michael Faith resigned his seat from the town council just a few months after being appointed to replace Misty Cubbage, who herself resigned after moving out of town limits.
Faith’s resignation on Tuesday, July 12 was accepted by the Hancock council and took effect immediately.
“I am thankful for the time I have served on the Council and look forward to your continued work to improve the town,” Faith said in his resignation letter. The letter was dated July 12, 2022.
But Faith didn’t leave the council table as he accepted the town manager position prior to the resignation.
He fills a position that has been vacant for just over 13 months. Former Town Manager Joe Gilbert was fired during the June 8, 2021 town meeting. Consultant Bill Valentine has been acting as the town’s advisor while officials decided how they wanted to replace Gilbert.
Mayor Tim Smith said Faith came to him and did everything the proper way, so he accepted the resignation.
Smith then moved on to appoint Faith as town manager.
The town took a number of applications and ran through them, three of which stood out and were considered, said town officials. One of those was Faith’s application.
When it came down to the interviews, Smith said the applicants were from out of the area a “pretty far distance” and were from larger municipalities.
“At that time it wasn’t a matter of like their experience, they were way out of our budget for what we could afford,” Smith said.
In going back through the applications, he couldn’t find any that stood out with the experience, knowledge, “or anything” that could handle the position.
This brought him back to Faith’s application.
Smith met with Faith and interviewed him, letting him know what was expected of the position, he said.
Smith added that when people call him about something, he’s going to tell them to contact Faith instead.
“You’ll be the new guy getting all the phone calls,” Smith said.
Town officials have 14 days to appoint someone to fill Faith’s seat on town council.
