In the years following incorporation, Mill Creek reduced its property tax rates and formed its own police department, library, postal address, and land-use board. The city's telephone system was split between three long-distance calling areas by GTE until the state utilities and transportation commission approved a consolidated calling area for toll-free service. Sid Hanson, the chairman of the incorporation committee, was elected as the city's first mayor and served a single term until declining to run for re-election in 1987. The city government's offices moved four times by the end of the decade, between various leased buildings that all served as temporary city halls. A separate post office serving the city was promised at the time of incorporation, but was not opened until 1994.