Traverse City needs a new city manager.
Marty Colburn's dismissal was made official at a meeting of the city’s board of commissioners last night. Colburn had been in the job since 2015.
City commissioners voted to approve paying Colburn roughly $97,000 — which includes severance money, earned vacation time, and other contractual obligations.
Jordan Travis is the city government reporter with the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and covered the meeting.
He spoke to IPR's Dan Wanschura about it. You can listen above, or read the transcript below. Both have been lightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT
Dan Wanschura, IPR News: How did last night's vote turn out, Jordan?
Jordan Travis, Traverse City Record-Eagle: Well, there was a lot of public hand wringing, if you will, about the fact that the city commissioners found themselves in this position in the first place. They expressed regret that they had reached a point of, pretty much, no return. There were more than a few who mentioned the fact that there was not a lot of public reason given for reaching that point.
IPR: Did anybody last night publicly state the reason for his firing?
Travis: There's been very little said about it. Mayor Richard Lewis sought to perhaps end some speculation and said that there were no immoral, unethical, or illegal activities by Colburn, either in his professional capacity or in his private life.
All I've heard in reporting on this is that there was a difference in managerial style. And Marty Colburn himself mentioned that there's always a need for perspective and that the commission has a right — in terms of a working relationship and management perspective — to make a change if they so choose. As you can see, that's not very specific.
IPR: As city manager, Colburn ran the day-to-day operations of the city government. But of course he reports to the city commissioners. What kind of relationship did he have with them?
Travis: From what you could see at the meetings, it was a pretty professional relationship. He would occasionally have disagreements with the commissioners here and there. Probably the one he would run into the most was maybe the most publicly anxious about having to fire him. That would be Commissioner Tim Werner. They had their disagreements about how the city manager followed the commission's directions. But (Werner) told me that it was no reason for him to want him gone.
IPR: This comes at a time when there's a lot going on within the city government. What happens now moving forward?
Travis: Well, for the time being Assistant City Manager Penny Hill is the interim city manager, but she's made it known that she's not looking to do that for any longer than necessary. They're going to consider a couple of candidates, including city clerk Benjamin Marentette, and eventually they are going to have to find somebody to take the job permanently.
This comes as they are looking to hire a police chief. Jeff O'Brien announced that he's going to be retiring in the middle of the year.
They still have an interim city treasurer and finance director after James Henderson left. And last night, one of the city commissioners mentioned that their city engineer could be retiring as well.
