Mr. Park City says farewell — or maybe not

In a world where government officials often don’t return calls, don’t answer questions or speak in legalese when they finally do, Jack Whitson is an exception.

The Park City administrator returns calls promptly — even providing his cellphone — answers questions and speaks like a normal human.

“If I have a question, he has an answer, and he’ll get me the answer if he doesn’t know,” said developer Lou Robelli, who owns Air Capitol Delivery & Warehouse.

“He helped me through . . . the hoops to get started in Park City,” Robelli said. “He’s done a lot for Park City.”

That includes helping incorporate the city in 1980.

Now, Whitson is retiring.

“I know I’ve had a lot of developers . . . wish I would leave,” he said.

However, he doesn’t exactly want to.

“Well, it’s kind of sad, but I have to be realistic,” said the 72-year-old.

Though he said his energy isn’t quite what it used to be, Whitson is already flirting with the idea of returning to the city in a part-time capacity if he’s needed.

If not, Whitson has a lifetime membership in the Park City Chamber of Commerce and will continue to work on the city’s behalf that way, perhaps with a bit of fishing on the side.

“If I just sit down and start watching TV, I probably won’t last very long.”

The Nashville, Tenn., native came to the area through the Air Force and couldn’t believe how affordable housing was in what was then the Park City Improvement District.

He and a couple of other members of the Jaycees club needed a project in 1979 and decided to take on incorporating the city due to how others in the county were treating the area.

Whitson said zoning requests that weren’t approved elsewhere seemed to be sent up to the district.

“The people up here were very upset,” he said. “We felt like if we became our own city, we could deal with those issues.”

Whitson said former Wichita Mayor Bob Knight wasn’t happy about it. Then Bel Aire “jumped on board and wanted to create a city of their own.”

“The city of Wichita said, ‘Whoa, now wait a minute. Enough’s enough.’ ”

Both became cities, though, and Whitson and his fellow Jaycees won a national award for their work.

Then came decades of work on Park City’s behalf as Whitson went on the first City Council, then the park board, then became mayor and then president of the Chamber.

Then in 1995 came his work on the city payroll, which included — simultaneously — being subdivision administrator, zoning administrator, economic development director, public works director and code enforcement director.

Finally, in 2005, Mayor Dee Stuart hired him as Park City’s first administrator, a role that’s called city manager in other places.

“I don’t think there’s ever been anyone who cared more about Park City than Jack,” she said.

Though Stuart vehemently opposed the first City Council’s decision to open the floodgates to tax abatements, she said Whitson was “the one who understood that that’s how you bring business into town.”

Stuart said residents always considered how I-35 divided the city to be a bad thing, but Whitson saw how it could be a literal driver for business.

“I always thought and still think that Jack was the one that opened the city’s eyes to that.”

Stuart calls Whitson an affable, easy-to-get-along-with guy who is smart, but that doesn’t mean the two always got along.

“We had some pretty good rows,” she said. “He had to learn not to yell at me in public meetings — or even private meetings.”

Whitson said he doesn’t remember ever yelling at Stuart, though he does recall a private meeting where “my voice was a little louder” when she told him she wanted to do something he felt was inappropriate. He said he can’t even remember the issue now.

In addition to building business and housing in the city, Whitson said improving its reputation was a major job, too.

“We really had some bad press early on,” he said.

There were all kinds of issues, such as crime at rental properties, flooding — though Whitson said it was overblown — and an incident with gasoline in the city’s drinking water.

For years, he said the city had to fight a reputation “that we had the worst water in the world.”

Whitson said there are some things that he won’t miss about his job, such as politics.

When people ask him what it’s like to work with the City Council, Whitson said, “I always kind of jokingly say, ‘Have you ever (seen) the show “Survivor?” ’ ”

The only difference, he said, is “you only can vote people off every four years.”

Whitson said it’s not actually that bad, but “sometimes cities can be awful bureaucratic.”

It’s a little easier to get things done in smaller cities, he said, and Whitson said he tried to make it be that way.

“He doesn’t let anything sit on his desk very long,” said Grant Tidemann, a broker at J.P. Weigand & Sons.

He said visiting Whitson at his office isn’t like visiting with some other officials, who might say they’ll get back with someone or check on something.

“That’s not Jack Whitson’s way. He’s for getting it done when you’re there or need that answer.”

Tidemann said he would instead expect someone with Whitson’s civil engineering background to have a more cautious, slow approach instead of being “somebody who says you can pull a building permit this afternoon.”

Whitson had planned to retire earlier, at age 66, and travel with his wife, Joyce, but then she got ovarian cancer. She died in July.

Though he’s less interested in traveling without her, Whitson said Park City has narrowed a list of candidates for his job.

“I think it’s too late to kind of back out.”

Stuart said she hopes her friend “goes into retirement with a smile on his face.”

“He deserves it,” she said. “He knows it’s a job well done.”