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Avondale Estates’ Board of Mayor and Commission is searching for a new city manager and will host a meeting seeking community input as the search process moves forward.

On Tuesday, June 5, at 5:30 p.m. the city will hold a public input meeting at the Avondale Estates City Hall, located at  21 N Avondale Plaza. According to an Avondale Estates press release, the meeting is seeking responses to two questions, specifically:

• What qualifications/qualities would you like to see in the new City Manager?
• What two issues would you like to see the new City Manager and the BOMC begin working on after he or she is appointed?

The meeting will be facilitated by the city’s executive recruitment consultant, the Mercer Group, and is expected to finish no later than 7 p.m. Those not wishing to speak publicly at the meeting can use comment cards to leave feedback.

 

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Mayor Jonathan Elmore said the city manager position is being advertised through June 15.

Avondale has had an interim city manager, Ken Turner, since the City Commission decided to part ways with Clai Brown, the previous city manager, in February.

In December, Brown announced his intention to resign effective Feb. 16 of this year, only to rescind that resignation a month later after the city commission refused to pay him a severance that amounted to more than $300,000 (it was exactly $317,408.17, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution). The severance would’ve been a year’s salary – Brown makes about $180,000 per year – plus accrued vacation and sick leave.

A severance for resigning is unheard of in the public sector. How Brown got that added to his contract in 2015 was one of several issues facing city commissioners as they considered whether to renew his contract. None of the current city commissioners were serving on the board when Brown was hired in 2008. They also weren’t present when the contract was amended to include the severance. A Decaturish investigation also revealed that Brown’s salary was far more than what most cities of a similar size pay their managers.

The salary for the new city manager will be between $130,000 and $160,000.

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