diff --git a/lib/galaxy/managers/users.py b/lib/galaxy/managers/users.py
index 4489a00689e6..bd739a169ffe 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/managers/users.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/managers/users.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
     and_,
     exc,
     func,
-    select,
     true,
 )
 from sqlalchemy.orm.exc import NoResultFound
@@ -838,15 +837,3 @@ def _add_parsers(self):
         )
 
         self.fn_filter_parsers.update({})
-
-
-def get_user_by_username(session, user_class, username):
-    """
-    Get a user from the database by username.
-    (We pass the session and the user_class to accommodate usage from the tool_shed app.)
-    """
-    try:
-        stmt = select(user_class).filter(user_class.username == username)
-        return session.execute(stmt).scalar_one()
-    except Exception:
-        return None
diff --git a/lib/galaxy/model/repositories/user.py b/lib/galaxy/model/repositories/user.py
index 157bf7c2bf1f..f0cf0b2c98fe 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/model/repositories/user.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/model/repositories/user.py
@@ -11,15 +11,16 @@ class UserRepository(ModelRepository):
     def __init__(self, session: SessionType):
         super().__init__(session, User)
 
-    def get_by_email(self, email: str):
-        stmt = select(User).filter(User.email == email).limit(1)
-        return self.session.scalars(stmt).first()  # type:ignore[union-attr]
 
+# The get_user_by_email and get_user_by_username functions may be called from
+# the tool_shed app, which has its own User model, which is different from
+# galaxy.model.User. In that case, the tool_shed user model should be passed as
+# the model_class argument.
+def get_user_by_email(session, email: str, model_class=User):
+    stmt = select(model_class).filter(model_class.email == email).limit(1)
+    return session.scalars(stmt).first()
 
-def get_user_by_username(session: SessionType, user_class, username: str):
-    """Get a user from the database by username."""
-    # This may be called from the tool_shed app, which has a different
-    # definition of the User mapped class. Therefore, we must pass the User
-    # class as an argument instead of importing from galaxy.model.
-    stmt = select(user_class).filter(user_class.username == username)
-    return session.execute(stmt).scalar_one()  # type:ignore[union-attr]
+
+def get_user_by_username(session, username: str, model_class=User):
+    stmt = select(model_class).filter(model_class.username == username).limit(1)
+    return session.scalars(stmt).first()
diff --git a/lib/tool_shed/test/base/test_db_util.py b/lib/tool_shed/test/base/test_db_util.py
index 3b4cbce31f16..e7e4c88415f9 100644
--- a/lib/tool_shed/test/base/test_db_util.py
+++ b/lib/tool_shed/test/base/test_db_util.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import galaxy.model
 import galaxy.model.tool_shed_install
 import tool_shed.webapp.model as model
+from galaxy.model.repositories.user import get_user_by_username
 
 log = logging.getLogger("test.tool_shed.test_db_util")
 
@@ -171,10 +172,6 @@ def get_user(email):
     return sa_session().query(model.User).filter(model.User.table.c.email == email).first()
 
 
-def get_user_by_name(username):
-    return sa_session().query(model.User).filter(model.User.table.c.username == username).first()
-
-
 def mark_obj_deleted(obj):
     obj.deleted = True
     sa_session().add(obj)
@@ -190,7 +187,7 @@ def ga_refresh(obj):
 
 
 def get_repository_by_name_and_owner(name, owner_username, return_multiple=False):
-    owner = get_user_by_name(owner_username)
+    owner = get_user_by_username(sa_session(), owner_username, model.User)
     repository = (
         sa_session()
         .query(model.Repository)
diff --git a/lib/tool_shed/webapp/controllers/repository.py b/lib/tool_shed/webapp/controllers/repository.py
index e7627292f426..747162130692 100644
--- a/lib/tool_shed/webapp/controllers/repository.py
+++ b/lib/tool_shed/webapp/controllers/repository.py
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@
     util,
     web,
 )
-from galaxy.managers.users import get_user_by_username
 from galaxy.model.base import transaction
+from galaxy.model.repositories.user import get_user_by_username
 from galaxy.tool_shed.util import dependency_display
 from galaxy.tools.repositories import ValidationContext
 from galaxy.web.form_builder import (
@@ -2293,7 +2293,7 @@ def set_malicious(self, trans, id, ctx_str, **kwd):
     def sharable_owner(self, trans, owner):
         """Support for sharable URL for each repository owner's tools, e.g. http://example.org/view/owner."""
         try:
-            user = get_user_by_username(trans.model.session, trans.model.User, owner)
+            user = get_user_by_username(trans.model.session, owner, trans.model.User)
         except Exception:
             user = None
         if user:
@@ -2321,7 +2321,7 @@ def sharable_repository(self, trans, owner, name):
         else:
             # If the owner is valid, then show all of their repositories.
             try:
-                user = get_user_by_username(trans.model.session, trans.model.User, owner)
+                user = get_user_by_username(trans.model.session, owner, trans.model.User)
             except Exception:
                 user = None
             if user:
diff --git a/lib/tool_shed/webapp/model/repositories.py b/lib/tool_shed/webapp/model/repositories.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..67f83430e389
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tool_shed/webapp/model/repositories.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+from sqlalchemy import select
+from tool_shed.webapp.model import User
+
+
+class UserRepository:
+
+    def get_by_username(self, session, username: str):
+        stmt = select(User).filter(User.username == username).limit(1)
+        return session.scalars(stmt).first()