City manager maximum pay
Brookhaven: $220,000
Sandy Springs: $215,000
Johns Creek: $212,449
Savannah: $203,873
Roswell: $191,964
Valdosta: $186,117
Albany: $148,418
Smyrna: $132,930
Note: Figures represent maximum wages for city managers in cities with more than 50,000 residents that responded to a state survey. The maximum wage is not necessarily the actual wage paid to the cities’ managers.
Source: Georgia Department of Community Affairs, 2015 Municipal Wage and Salary Survey
One of the highest paid city officials in Georgia, Brookhaven City Manager Marie Garrett, is stepping down following disagreements over compensation and other issues.
Garrett, who has run Brookhaven's operations since it became a city in 2012, is paid a $214,000 base salary plus benefits, including a $600 monthly car allowance, 30 vacation days and retirement contributions worth 8.8 percent of her salary.
Garrett worked closely with Brookhaven’s initial leaders, but her relationships with some of the city’s elected officials became strained over policies and priorities.
As part of an agreement with the city, Garrett will receive a $225,000 severance package if it is approved by the City Council on Tuesday. She could have been owed some $350,000 if the city had followed through with plans to fire her, according to a contract that called for her to be paid nine-months severance plus benefits.
A provision in the severance agreement bars both parties from making disparaging or negative comments.
“Over the past three years, Marie Garrett’s integrity and hard work have been invaluable assets to our city and instrumental to the city’s success,” according to a statement included in the agreement. “The mayor and the City Council thank Marie for her devoted service and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Garrett didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday, and she didn’t answer a phone number listed for her home address in Alpharetta.
Brookhaven, a city of 51,000 residents, already has listed a job posting to hire a replacement city manager.
“We’ll look at hiring the best city manager we can for the best price we can,” said Mayor John Ernst, who took office this month. “We’ll be more in line with the cities around us as opposed to being the richest one in the southeast.”
Councilwoman Linley Jones said the city is looking to move ahead.
“I can tell you with confidence that any future compensation package for a future city manager will look quite different than this one did,” Jones said.
Garrett worked closely with Brookhaven’s first mayor, J. Max Davis, who said she was “indispensable” during the city’s launch and worth what she was paid. Garrett’s base salary was $170,000 until 2013, when the city gave her a $44,000 raise.
“As you mature as a city, some things needed to be addressed more swiftly,” said Davis, who resigned to run for the Georgia House of Representatives last year. “Our expectations started to grow as we had successes. She did a good job, and like anything, there’s a time to move on.”
Former Councilman Jim Eyre, who was at odds with Garrett and Davis at times, said he believed Garrett’s compensation was “over the top.”
“Brookhaven is going to be in a better place when it finds a manager who listens more to what the council and mayor have to say,” Eyre said. “While she may have been competent, she wasn’t a good fit for the city of Brookhaven.”
The Brookhaven City Council voted 5-0 to suspend Garrett on Jan. 12, but then called off a follow-up meeting to fire her. Instead, the city and Garrett agreed to go through mediation, which resulted in the settlement Thursday.
After the city’s vote on the severance agreement Tuesday, Garrett could still revoke it until Thursday, according to the agreement’s terms.
Councilman Joe Gebbia said the city originally hired Garrett because it needed an experienced manager who knew how to answer myriad questions about municipal governance.
“We were all novices and admitted it was on-the-job training,” he said. “We wanted to secure the very best city manager we could.”
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