BANGOR, Maine — City government has a new No. 2 in the former town manager of Glenburn, city officials said Thursday.

Michael Crooker was in City Manager Cathy Conlow’s office on Thursday afternoon discussing his new $95,000-per-year job as assistant city manager. City Human Resources Officer Richard Cromwell accompanied him.

Crooker and Cromwell effectively replace Robert W. Farrar, who retired last month as assistant city manager after 27 years of service. Cromwell said he began his $71,000-per-year job in August.

The idea of the job split, Conlow said, is to largely free the assistant city manager’s position of personnel issues in the 450-employee city government in order to handle other concerns, including operation of the city bus service.

“We’re going to try some new things as we move forward,” Conlow said Friday.

City council members have expressed an interest in improving and possibly expanding Community Connector, a 22-vehicle fixed route public transit system the city operates in Bangor, and the towns of Brewer, Veazie, Orono, Old Town and Hampden.

The bus system also provides service to Husson University, New England School of Communications, Eastern Maine Community College and the University of Maine. It covers 103 miles of roadway within walking distance of 75 percent of the population of the six communities. Bangor has operated the system since December 1972, according to the city website.

Councilors wish to make the transit service “more robust,” Conlow said, by working with government officials in the service’s client towns. The 45-year-old Crooker’s knowledge of the area and those people makes him a good fit for the assistant’s position, Conlow said.

Crooker said he looked forward to his new job but doesn’t know when he will start. He is still negotiating a departure date from Glenburn, he said.

“The things the city’s been doing are great,” Crooker said.

He attended a recent Maine Municipal Association conference and, without attendees knowing he would soon be working in Bangor, heard several people there praise the city’s waterfront development, new entertainment venues and downtown revitalization efforts, he said.

“I just smiled and agreed,” Crooker said.

Crooker will also work as a sounding board to city department heads, Conlow said. He had served as Glenburn’s town manager since 2006. He had served as the executive director of the River Coalition in Old Town for nearly two years prior and as manager in Bradley for six years before that.