(Telegraph file photo) Kimberly Kleiner, former city Administrative Services director

NASHUA — Nearly seven years after she was named Mayor Jim Donchess’s chief of staff, and roughly four years after she became the city’s Administrative Services director, Kimberly Kleiner departed City Hall Friday for what Donchess called “another professional opportunity.”

“I think she leaves with mixed feelings … I will miss her, and I believe others will as well,” Donchess said at last week’s regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen.

Donchess first announced Kleiner’s departure in a Sept. 23 email to the Board of Aldermen, in which he thanked her “for her unwavering commitment and dedication” to Nashua, and credited her “hard work, determination and passion for serving the city and its residents” as “instrumental in our success and and progress as a city.”

Donchess also stated in the email that he was appointing city Economic Development Director Tim Cummings as interim Administrative Services director, effective Oct. 3 (today), and told aldermen at the Sept. 27 board meeting that he was planning to nominate Cummings on a permanent basis.

While Donchess didn’t offer specifics on Kleiner’s plans, he did say she “accepted a new opportunity in the public sector,” which he described as “an important step” in advancing her public service career.

Donchess told aldermen that Kleiner’s contributions to the city, and its residents, were many, such as her leadership in “the initiative to reform the city’s HMO (health insurance) plan,” which, he said, was eventually agreed to by 10 groups of city employees, resulting in the city saving nearly $4 million per year.

Kleiner, Donchess said, “did a lot of work in upgrading our camera system” and updating the software, and she also “oversaw all the City Hall COVID-19-related improvements made throughout the building.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.