City buys out city manager’s contract

Published 10:37 am Tuesday, September 11, 2007

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Without discussion, Dowagiac City Council agreed Monday night to exercise the buyout clause in City Manager Dale L. Martin's contract.
That option allows the city to pay Martin six months salary and benefits to cancel his employment agreement.
Martin, who recently bought a house on N. Front Street, succeeded William H. Nelson Jr. in March.
In a prepared statement, Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Comstock said, "Mr. Martin was a good and successful city manager in his prior positions, however, the Dowagiac City Council does not feel that Mr. Martin's management style is a good fit for the City of Dowagiac. We feel that it's best for both Mr. Martin and the city that the council exercise the buyout option in Mr. Martin's contract."
"We wish Mr. Martin all the best and are confident that in a setting more similar to what he was familiar with, that he will make an excellent city manager," commented Mayor Donald D. Lyons.
The city will begin immediately to initiate a search to replace Martin in a process expected to take from three to six months.
Assistant City Manager Mrs. Rozanne Scherr was appointed to serve as interim city manager until a new manager is selected and sat at the council table Sept. 10.
"One thing I personally admired about Dale was that he was definitely a creative thinker," Scherr said. "If you throw 10 million ideas out there and one of them works, that's a fabulous thing."
Third Ward Councilman Leon Laylin made the motion to buy out Martin's contract, supported by Second Ward Councilman Bob Schuur.
According to Martin's $90,000 contract, which he began receiving March 26, the city has three options in deciding on severance pay in the event of his involuntary termination.
The city would have no obligation to pay severance only if he was terminated because of a conviction for an illegal act involving personal gain to himself. Or, the city could have made a lump-sum severance payment.
The council had been evaluating Martin's first six months as manager and is required by his contract to give him six months notice if he is not to continue.
One elected official characterized Martin's management style as too "relaxed" and "laid back" to be a good fit in an organization of elected officials and hired staff who pride themselves on being "intense" and "hard driving. The two just didn't mesh. There always seemed to be issues. The question ultimately became, do you try to resolve those issues and make it work, or do you take the contractual out and go down the road? Trying to change someone's essential personality is a pretty big task. We felt it would be in both of our interests – his and ours – to make the break cleanly and to utilize the opportunity in the contract to do that and go forward. There's no one big issue. I couldn't point to any one thing. It just wasn't a fit. We wanted to give him a very fair opportunity to adapt and fit in" after Nelson's style had been ingrained for a decade.
Martin was apparently notified Thursday and moved out of his office over the weekend.
Martin served three years in the Army, mostly in Germany.
He had been city manager in Linden, a community about half the size of Dowagiac south of Flint in Genesee County, since 1998.
He was Lexington village manager for two years prior to that.
He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Alma College and a master's degree in public administration from Oakland University.