PORT TOWNSEND — The new general manager for Jefferson Transit is a 10-year veteran of the agency who began as a bus driver and holds the same job today — though with a four-month stint as a temporary general manager.

After a one-hour executive session Tuesday, the Jefferson Transit Board of Directors convened for a public meeting to vote unanimously to offer Mike Pollack the position, which became vacant when Peggy Hanson resigned in March.

The board authorized its chairwoman, Catharine Robinson, who is also a Port Townsend City Council member, to negotiate with Pollack about taking the position, which has a pay range of $63,397 to $85,773, depending on experience.

Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio, a retired Clallam Transit general manager, has been acting as general manager on an interim basis and will step down after negotiations with Pollack are completed.

Pollack was selected over Tammi Rubert and Lloyd Eisenman, two other Jefferson Transit employees who had applied for the job.

After conducting nationwide searches for the past few general managers, the board decided in May to promote from within.

Pollack has the most seniority of all the applicants, beginning as a permanent driver in August 2001 and serving as training and service supervisor from January 2006 to November 2009.

This was interrupted when he managed the Hood Canal project during the bridge’s closure from December 2008 to July 2009.

Pollack has been a driver since that time except when he served as temporary general manager for four months in 2010 before Hanson was hired.

Rubert also has served as interim general manager. That was for a little more than a week after Hanson resigned.

After the announcement, Robinson said Pollack’s work on the Hood Canal project as well as his stint as temporary general manager made him the best candidate for the permanent position.

On Tuesday, the board scheduled a public comment session prior to the executive session, but no comments were made at that time.

In documentation previously received by the board, Rubert had received support from the entire administrative staff, while four letters were received on Pollack’s behalf from drivers Burt Langsea, Eldon Burrow and Alice Lane, as well as dispatcher Karen Kautzman.

Burrow wrote that Pollack “has earned his stripes and his record speaks volumes,” while Langsea wrote that “Mike has done outstanding work at all levels of transit operations [and] is respected and liked by all JT employees (a rare quality in recent management).”

Pollack’s elevation to general manager would create a vacancy on the driver crew, Eisenman said.

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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.