GM Ann Freeman-Manzanares announces retirement from Intercity Transit
Ann Freeman-Manzanares, who spent 30 years at Intercity Transit, including 10 years as general manager, will retire from the organization at the end of the month, she told The Olympian on Wednesday.
She recently informed IT staff about her decision, and at Wednesday’s meeting of IT’s authority, the board appointed an interim general manager and a GM selection committee.
IT’s operations director Emily Bergkamp will serve as interim general manager, and receive a “10 percent out-of-class pay increase.” She begins her new role April 1 and is expected to serve until IT finds a new general manager, which is expected to take eight months.
To help with that process, the authority appointed a selection committee consisting of authority members Don Melnick, Debbie Sullivan, Robin Vazquez and Justin Belk. Melnick and Belk are citizen representatives to the authority, while Sullivan is mayor of Tumwater and Vazquez is a Lacey City Council member.
Freeman-Manzanares called the moment bittersweet and said it has been an honor to serve the organization. In retirement she plans to spend more time with her husband and son.
“I want to visit family and friends and hopefully travel the world and try all those other public transportation systems in the world,” she said. “I look forward to continue living in this community and hopefully providing other ways to help improve the place we work, live and play.”
Authority members had nothing but praise for her work at IT.
“I’m going to miss you a whole lot, but I respect your decision to retire and have a life of your own that doesn’t involve doing something 24 hours a day,” Melnick said. “Thank you very much.”
Vazquez acknowledged she has been on the authority for only a year, but before that she was well aware of the transformational things IT accomplished. Among them was the decision to begin offering bus service free to riders in 2020.
“I knew somebody was at the helm of the organization that really knew what they were doing,” she said.
Justin Belk said it will be hard to lose Freeman-Manzanares, but the organization is prepared because of what she created.
“I think you built a culture and team around you that is really well-equipped to keep doing the great things IT has been doing,” he said.
Clark Gilman called her a “friend, a colleague and a co-conspirator,” and picked up where Melnick left off, saying his comment about Ann working 24 hours a day wasn’t far off the mark.
“There’s some truth in that 24-hour leadership,” Gilman said, recalling phone calls and texts that he thought covered 20 hours out of the day.
This story was originally published March 2, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
