{"id":26175,"date":"2025-05-09T12:44:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=26175"},"modified":"2025-05-09T12:44:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:44:57","slug":"kevin-hackmans-city-rise-was-a-big-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/kevin-hackmans-city-rise-was-a-big-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Hackman’s city rise was a big one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one thought anyone could replace Phyllis, but Kevin has done a tremendous job \u2013 thanks, Kevin,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickord was referring to Kevin Hackman, whose final city council meeting as Decatur’s clerk-treasurer was Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackman was in his second year in the post, having replaced Phyllis Whitright, whose tenure covered a remarkable 26 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hackman’s rise to the city position was remarkable in itself, having started his city employment riding on the back of a city garbage truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeh, it’s been quite a rise,\u201d the mayor said with a smile and half a chuckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackman had been employed by H&R Block in Decatur for six years and became the owner\/franchisee. He was hired by the city in May of 2015, joining the sanitation department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was riding the back the truck shortly before being appointed utilities director in May of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, Hackman replaced Rickord, who had held the utilities job for seven and a half years before resigning in June of 2017 to take another position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackman was elected in November of 2022 to replace Whitright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickord is in his second term as mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Hackman, a Decatur native, exits Friday, having accepted a position as the Fort Wayne division manager with EJ Prescott Inc., a water, wastewater, & stormwater distributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Republican caucus recently selected Eran Hackman to take over the clerk-treasurer post. Eran Hackman, who attended the Tuesday meeting, has been working with Kevin in recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She officially assumes the post on Monday, May 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eran Hackman, who has a Bachelor’s degree in business from Ball State, was serving as chief deputy recorder for Adams County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She joins Wendi Gephart and Cherie Bienz, deputy clerk-treasurers, in the City Hall office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com \u201cNo one thought anyone could replace Phyllis, but Kevin has done a tremendous job<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,21],"class_list":["post-26175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26177,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175\/revisions\/26177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}