NC city council fires manager, 5th to leave since 2000, but doesn’t tell residents why

This story was updated Tuesday, Aug. 3, with comments from City Council members:

Monroe City Manager Edward “Larry” Faison was fired in a 4-3 City Council vote Friday, making him the fifth such official to leave the position since 2000.

Assistant City Manager Brian Borne was sworn in as interim city manager at 5 p.m. last Friday, the city of Monroe said in an email.

The City Council gave no reason for Faison’s termination, according to an email from the city on Monday.

“The manager serves at the pleasure of Council,” the email said.

Lynn Keziah, the council member who made the motion to fire Faison, said there wasn’t any single conflict that soured his relationship with the now-former manager. However, Faison was “not a people’s person” and frequently butted heads with the council, Keziah said.

Council member Angelia James, who also voted for Faison’s termination, said “the city is moving in a different direction” from his vision. She stressed that Faison had committed no illegal activity.

Faison will receive severance pay equal to one year his annual salary of $171,412.80 plus benefits, city spokesman Peter Hovanec said.

The Observer was unable to reach Faison.

Faison’s predecessor

Faison was hired in October 2014 after the previous city manager, John D’Agostino, was terminated in another 4-3 vote after less than four months on the job, the Observer previously reported. D’Agostino’s predecessor, Wayne Herron, abruptly quit in July 2012 after a heated council debate over his decision not to give then-police Chief Debra Duncan a performance bonus, the Observer also previously reported.

Herron’s resignation, which was part of a pattern of city managers quitting the same position, prompted the city to launch an investigation into Monroe’s city management.

The investigation detailed a dysfunctional city hall where workers were afraid they were being secretly recorded and claimed council members indulged in nepotism and often intervened in city affairs, the Observer previously reported.

“If I were a city manager, I wouldn’t touch Monroe with a 10-foot pole,” Keziah, who supported D’Agostino, told the Observer after the official was fired.

Keziah said the situation with Faison was “very different” from the one with D’Agostino. Some council members hadn’t even met D’Agostino when they voted to fire him, Keziah said.

Deliberations then a vote

During Friday’s special City Council meeting, council member Franco McGee seconded Keziah’s motion to terminate Faison’s contract. They were joined by James and Surluta Anthony.

Mayor Bobby Kilgore, Mayor Pro Tem Marion Holloway and council member Freddie Gordon voted against the motion. Deliberations on the vote took place in a closed session.

“When you want to micromanage or do (the city manager’s) job for him, you know that there’s going to be a problem,” Gordon told the Observer on Monday.

Holloway and McGee did not respond to an Observer request for comment. Anthony declined to comment.

Faison previously served as a city manager for Kilmarnock, Va., and the North Carolina towns of Whiteville, Spring Lake and Swansboro.

This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 3:05 PM with the headline "NC city council fires manager, 5th to leave since 2000, but doesn’t tell residents why."