Comments for Worst City Manager Contract in NC History? | Eastern NC Now

Bubba, the bar will have a field day with this! Maybe they can bring in Shannon Russell with this complaint!

Commented: Monday, October 12th, 2026 @ 9:45 pm By: Washington Native

I wonder if anyone is going to file an ethics complaint about the city attorney with the Bar Association?

Commented: Monday, October 12th, 2026 @ 5:41 pm By: Bubba

Voters expect our elected officials, mayor and council, to be in control. They set policy, and then the city manager carries it out. This contract turns that relationship upside down. The city council loses control over the city manager. The city council is supposed to be the boss and the city manager the employee. In what world can a boss not criticize an employee? In what world can a boss not fire an employee for poor performance? Under this proposed contract, it would cost the city a wad of money if the new manager turned out to be a dud and they had to fire her. The last one turned out to be a dud and was unanimously fired after a few months. That is not serving the taxpayers. This is a terrible contract for the people of Washington and needs to be rejected.

Commented: Monday, October 12th, 2026 @ 2:26 pm By: Victoria

(continued from first comment)

Surely, the city attorney must have known that law, yet the golden handshake was paid out to Russell. But it gets worse. I am also told by attorneys that North Carolina law prohibits personnel changes by local government bodies during the period between an election and when the newly elected local government body comes into office. A request to resign would be such a personnel change, and this vote occurred during the period when it is by law not allowed.

Surely, the city attorney must have known that law, too. So, the question is - Why did he allow this clear breach of NC law? As Shakespeare would say, something is rotten in the state of Washington, NC.

Nick Fritz was talking about trying to claw this golden handshake back. Is that why thugs were sent to harass first his business and then his family, leading to his resignation to protect his family?

As to this new contract, it is an insult to citzens, voters, taxpayers, and city elected officials

Commented: Monday, October 12th, 2026 @ 9:29 am By: The Shadow

Rip up this contract and send the city attorney packing

Commented: Sunday, October 11th, 2026 @ 7:04 pm By: Washington Native

This appears to be backdoor detroit level politics! Not a fan of Joe Davis since he failed to get me my tax cut but this is important information

Commented: Sunday, October 11th, 2026 @ 4:43 pm By: Concerned Voter

Awful contract, and also an AWFUL city Attorney. Washington can do better.

Commented: Sunday, October 11th, 2026 @ 10:48 am By: Bubba

I agree CT. Did someone ask the City attorney to draw up this very generous city manager contract?
Who was it?
Did the City Council members offer any guidance?
Was that done in the shadows?
I thinking that if he acted outside the city council's request & guidance, then he needs to resign Now! Washington is a small town. It shouldnt be micro-managed by unseen power-hungry agents.

I know that there are many who are negative toward Joe Davis, but This CATCH of his alone, shows us why we need to keep an alert/thinking person like Joe on the job. I am sending my gratitude to him.

Commented: Sunday, October 11th, 2026 @ 1:06 pm By: Washingtonian

What utter nonsense. Whose side is the city attorney on? In this case it is certainly not his employer and client, the city. He is setting up his own client for some major financial payouts, and that means the taxpayers. If he put these things in on his own, why is he backstabbing the city? If he did it on the demand of the new city manager, that is a good reason to not hire her and look for someone else, preferably from the private sector instead of a career bureaucrat.

My understanding is that all state government employees, from the top to the bottom, have a probationary period, which I think is six months. During that period, the employee can be let go with no consequence if they do not measure up. Why does the city manager contract not have a similar provision? Only after successfully serving the probationary period, does a state employee become a permanent employee.

Commented: Sunday, October 11th, 2026 @ 10:38 am By: Rino Hunter

Slimy max is a disgrace to the local Republican Party.

Commented: Saturday, October 10th, 2026 @ 6:44 pm By: trump2028

Why should a city manager even have a contract in the first place? I spent five years in state government in the Jim Martin administration. High level state administrators DO NOT have contracts. If you are an exempt employee, like I was, and those are mostly the highest level positions, you are an employee at will who can be dismissed at any time, as I was when a new Democrat administration came in. There does not even have to be cause to let someone go. For middle level administrators and below, they work under the State Personnel Act, where cause is needed to remove an employee and there is a grievance process for those who contest their removal. Golden parachutes like those in this contract do not exist.

Most of these appointed officials in state government who are employees at will manage government agencies far larger than the city of Washington. For my department, it was a $2 Billion+ budget and 18,000 employees. Yet all of us at the management level were dismissed without cause when an administration of the opposite party came in office.

The private sector largely works the same way as to top management being employees at will.

Local government needs to run more like state government on personnel.

Commented: Saturday, October 10th, 2026 @ 6:41 pm By: Steven P. Rader