Rocky Top names Mike Ellis interim city manager
Will hold post ‘up to six months’
MIKE ELLIS
During a recent special meeting, the council voted 4-1 to approve a resolution that authorized Mayor Kerry Templin to hire the interim city manager, whom Templin had already recommended during the council’s Feb. 16 regular meeting.
City Manager Michael Foster turned in his resignation to the council during the February meeting, effective March 31.
Foster, who has served in the position since 2016 when the city charter was changed to a city manager form of municipal government, had been working under increasing negativity from the new mayor and council majority since they took office in December.
Templin and the council approved a severance agreement with Foster during the February meeting that will ensure that Foster gets paid “a lump sum equal to four months aggregate salary, accrued leave, and benefits,” including the $500-a-month car allowance that his employment contract dictates.
The city also agreed to maintain existing health insurance coverage for Foster through July 31.
To replace Foster, at least temporarily until a permanent replacement can be recruited, Templin recommended that the council consider hiring Ellis. The resolution passed at a special called meeting March 2 paved the way for Templin to pick Ellis for the job.
The mayor said Ellis is retiring from the Anderson County school system and would be available to take the city manager’s position the day after Foster’s employment ends.
Under contract terms approved by the March 2 resolution, Ellis would be paid on the basis of $55,000 per year plus a “standard benefits package.”
The duration of employment would be six months initially, or “until a permanent city manager is hired.” But extension of the position beyond the initial six months would require approval of the council.
Councilman Richard Dawson cast the only vote in opposition to the resolution for the interim city manager.
Foster, who also is an elected Anderson County commissioner serving District 2, was targeted by Templin and two council candidates allied with him in last year’s city election.
Templin defeated longtime Mayor Timothy Sharp in the November election, and his two allied council candidates, Mack Bunch and Jeff Gilliam, also won the only two council seats that were on the ballot.
They had campaigned on a pledge to replace Foster, saying primarily that they believed he was not as in touch with the citizens as they felt he should be.
On Jan. 31, Templin chaired a special council “workshop” meeting to discuss his proposal to change the city charter to eliminate the city manager form of government and return to the strong mayor-council setup the city had prior to 2016’s charter revision.
“I’d like to see it go back to a mayor-council arrangement, with a city manager or administrator option, but where our elected officials have more involvement in the day-to-day operations,” Templin said in calling for the workshop. “Under the mayor-council setup, you would have a water commissioner, streets commissioner, recreation commissioner, and so forth.
“I think there is a tremendous downside to the situation we’re in right now,” he said. “It seems the citizens feel they are not as involved and represented by the city government as they should be. They elect us to represent them, but they only see us at monthly board meetings. I’d like to change that.”
During that meeting, which Foster did not attend, Foster was the target of a small group of people – some residents of Rocky Top and some not – who called for his removal from the city manager’s job. Their major complaint was that potholes in front of their homes were not being filled in a timely manner.
Foster, whose contract as city manager was renewed for five years last September by the previous mayor and council, is credited with obtaining millions of dollars in state and federal grants for the city during his tenure, as well as bringing the city’s troublesome budget under control and maintaining a positive fund balance.
He also has overseen a massive project to upgrade the city’s aging sanitary sewer system, which has been aided by some of the large grants he has been able to secure.
