Assistant city manager Barry Crook resigns
Assistant city manager Barry Crook resigned from his position Friday, marking the end to his 13-year stint with the city of Aspen.
“I am retiring a little sooner than I intended to,” Crook said via email Saturday. “I am doing so because it is clear — between SHIFT and the APCHA demand regarding our affordable-housing project — that I am no longer effective as a voice to the (Aspen) City Council. That is something the council certainly deserves from my position.
“This retirement will permit the city manager to find the voice the council deserves.”
In an email sent to city employees, Crook wrote that working for the city “has been the best experience of his life.”
He praised his fellow employees for their dedication to the community and wrote that living in Aspen is something he will always cherish.
“(City manager Steve Barwick) and I will work out a transition plan that meets the needs of the organization, so I will be around for a bit longer before departing,” Crook wrote.
Crook oversees the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority and its executive director, Mike Kosdrosky. Crook also is behind the city’s multi-million dollar SHIFT transportation mobility experiment to be launched in June.
Several sources this week said Crook was visibly upset and vocal about the APCHA board’s decision to table a request from his office to have the housing authority become a partner in a public-private affordable-housing development.
“Time to see if, at 67, retirement will work and if I can reacclimate to Texas summers,” Crook said in a text message Saturday.
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