Myles Rademan, City Hall’s longtime Public Affairs director and an architect of modern-day Park City, with his imprint on the likes of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the city’s heralded open-space program, quietly left his full-time position with the local government recently.
Officials did not announce his move to contract-employee status in July. He spends an undetermined number of hours on City Hall business each week. He keeps his third-floor office at City Hall, but he spends some of his working hours at home.
“My idea was to gradually shift those responsibilities to my team members,” Rademan said in an interview.
He relinquished many of his duties to staffers like Pat Putt, Alison Butz and Phyllis Robinson but continues to handle the Leadership Park City training program and the open-space efforts. Rademan also continues to give tours to familiarize people with Park City and organize City Hall’s annual ‘City Tour’ to other communities in the West.
Rademan, who is 62 years old, agreed to an 18-month contract with City Hall, with a renewal option after the initial term. Officials refuse to release financial terms of the agreement. In his position as the Public Affairs director, he earned in the low $80,000s.
Rademan arrived at City Hall as Park City’s boom years of the 1990s approached, becoming the Planning director in 1987. He switched to the Public Affairs assignment in 1989, spending 18 years as a member of City Hall’s brain trust.
With people like former Mayor Brad Olch and ex-City Manager Toby Ross, Rademan is seen as a pivotal figure as Park City moved from a mid-1980s economic downturn toward its present-day standing as one of North America’s elite mountain resorts.
He has managed the city’s open-space program for years, helping negotiate deals for some of the prime parcels along the entryways, and was the city’s No. 2 Olympic planner, partnering with Frank Bell, who directed City Hall’s efforts in 2002.
“Myles has been an incredible part of Park City and our success,” Park City Manager Tom Bakaly says.
The city manager notes Rademan’s role in boosting Main Street’s economy in the 1980s and 1990s, mentioning his role in creating small pocket parks along the street, and his connections to the resort industry. Rademan worked in the government in Crested Butte, Colo., another community dominated by the ski industry, before his arrival in Park City. His public-sector career spans 37 years.
“We hope we can continue to learn from him over the next 18 months,” Bakaly says. “His resort experience and connection to the resort community is something that will be difficult to replace.”
Rademan says he started talking with Bakaly about the move to contract-employee status about a year ago. He says he is approaching retirement and suffers from asthma.
Leaving the full-time job allows him to perform more consulting work and arrange to give talks, he says. Rademan, more so than anyone else at City Hall, is recognized in the region as a New West theorist, delivering speeches about the challenges in the fast-growing West.
“I wasn’t asked to leave,” he says. “This was my own doing.”