In Major League Baseball, it’s generally accepted that managers are hired to be fired.

When a team falls short of expectations, as the Philadelphia Phillies did over their first 27 games, it’s far easier to replace the manager than half the roster.

Most managers depart with at least a year left on their guaranteed contracts — lending credence to the opener of this column.

In municipal government, the dynamic isn’t all that different. A manager serves at the will of an elected board — a many‑headed boss — and a shift in political composition can mean an administrator is suddenly on the outs. The abrupt departures of longtime managers in Cumru Township and Wyomissing underscore the point.

But not all municipal managers exit under pressure. Some actually get to retire on their own terms.

Two veteran administrators — Bern Township’s Brian Potts and Sinking Spring’s Michael Hart — have informed their respective boards that they will retire at year’s end.

Brian Potts will retire at the end of the year after 20 years as Bern Township manager. (STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE)

STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE

Brian Potts will retire at the end of the year after 20 years as Bern Township manager. (STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE)

Potts has served as manager for 20 years (for 16 of those years he also served as road crew foreman), bringing a construction‑industry project management background to the job.

“When I took the job,” he told me this week, “I felt it was appealing because I would work for the people and not put money in a couple of owners’ pockets.”

Over two decades, Potts helped modernize communication with residents, strengthened long‑term financial and road‑improvement planning, oversaw major infrastructure fixes, improved communication with residents, guided the municipal building and police department renovation, and improved emergency readiness.

His successor is already in place. The township supervisors hired Jessica Seiders, Schuylkill Haven’s borough administrator for the past five years. She starts Monday, giving the township a four‑month transition before Potts’ final day.

Hart, meanwhile, has been Sinking Spring’s manager for 10 years but has logged more than a half‑century in municipal service, most of it in West Reading. It began in the early 1970s when, at 13, he volunteered to help clean streets after Tropical Storm Agnes. That led to part‑time work, then full‑time work, and eventually the public works director’s job.

He was hired as Sinking Spring’s manager in 2016 after the borough council fired his predecessor. During his tenure, Hart has shepherded the borough’s four‑phase Penn Avenue revitalization plan, a massive undertaking centered on realigning the Route 422 corridor’s two major intersections to improve traffic flow. Just this week, he met with PennDOT engineers to review Phase 3 — overhauling the intersection with Shillington Road/Mull Avenue.

As with Potts, Hart said he’s leaving on good terms.

“They’re actually very upset that I’m leaving,” he said. “It’s one of the best councils I have worked for. They let me do my job.”

Council has only recently begun its search for his replacement, sorting through more than a dozen applications received since the job posting went live.

“Hopefully we can settle on somebody at the tail end of next month, ” he said, “because there’s going to be a lot of transition … that person is going to have a lot to learn.”