Carson City Executive Resigns After Contract Tiff : Government: A controversial revamping of the parks department is blamed for his strained relations with the City Council.

Carson City Administrator Jack Smith, considered the principal architect of the recent controversial revamping of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, has decided to resign from his $84,900-a-year post.

Smith said he submitted his resignation last week, after an impasse with the City Council on a new contract. His resignation will take effect Feb. 28.

Smith was offered a month-to-month extension by the City Council when his two-year contract expired Dec. 1. However, he was said by city insiders to have been seeking a longer-term contract.

“Obviously, that had something to do with it,” Smith said Wednesday, referring to his decision to resign. “But when I took the job it was for a certain period of time, and I think now it’s time to move on.”

Smith, 57, first came to Carson as acting city administrator in September, 1988, and was appointed to the permanent position two months later. He is considered the primary backer of the ongoing restructuring of the Parks and Recreation Department, which has earned him the wrath of the city’s powerful parks constituency.

In the last several months, the city has laid off eight full-time Parks and Recreation employees and cut the department’s budget. Officials have been considering a number of proposals, including contracting out some park services, combining the parks and Community Services departments and removing maintenance responsibilities from the parks department and assigning them to the Public Works Department.

Smith is also acting parks director and is believed by many to have been instrumental in the ouster of popular former Parks Director Howard Homan.

Said one high-level official who asked not to be named: “I think definitely a council member was pushing for Jack’s head because of Howard Homan’s situation.”

However, Councilman Michael Mitoma, a Homan ally, said that Smith lacked leadership and that his administration was characterized by poor communication and incomplete staff reports.

“A lot of things weren’t going right,” Mitoma said. “It has not been a good marriage. . . . It’s just been a disaster.”

Smith would not comment directly on such criticism, saying only that “a city manager’s role is a reflection of the council. Whatever you say of the individual, it’s only fair to say of the council.”

Mayor Vera Robles DeWitt said she supported Smith’s ideas on restructuring the parks department but conceded that it may have been his undoing.

Smith said he plans to take a long vacation and weigh offers from the private sector for work as a consultant on municipal issues.

Among the lingering problems Carson faces, Smith said, is a long-term solution to the city’s financial difficulties. In addition, he said, the city must address problems in retaining high-level supervisors.

Since his own arrival, Smith said, there have been five new department heads and a new deputy city administrator.

Smith is Carson’s fourth city administrator in five years.

The council was scheduled Wednesday to consider procedures for recruiting a new city administrator.