Portsmouth City Council members are split on how to move forward appointing the next city manager as they head into meetings next week to determine the process.
Mimi Terry, the city’s former chief financial officer, was hired as interim in January after a majority of the newly elected City Council fired Tonya Chapman six months into the job.
The city manager is effectively the city’s CEO, tasked with carrying out the council’s vision, developing a budget, supervising city employees and selecting department heads. The traditional process for hiring a city manager typically involves a job advertisement, a narrowing and vetting of qualified candidates and interviews with finalists.
The council is scheduled to meet for a closed session Monday to discuss the appointment, which could lead to an official vote to appoint Terry or pursue a hiring firm. The City Council also meets for its regular meeting Tuesday.
Mayor Shannon Glover said the city should build on its momentum and stability by appointing Terry, who he said has improved morale and provided much needed guidance during a challenging budget season.
City leadership has undergone significant upheaval in recent years, with three city managers serving over the past four years. Chapman was on the job for about six months following the abrupt termination of Angel Jones last summer. Terry was hired as chief financial officer in 2020 but previously said she was fired by Chapman.
Glover said the consequences of such instability have divided the City Council and damaged the city’s image, sometimes resulting in a loss of “institutional knowledge.”
“(We) have already participated in a real-time, on-the-job performance that has met or exceeded expectations,” Glover said. “We’re moving our ship in the right direction and now is not the time to start over from the beginning.”
Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke said the city likely wouldn’t find a better candidate than Terry if they pursued a firm — a process she said could cost $20,000, according to the mayor.
Terry earned a bachelor’s in accounting from DeVry University, according to the city’s website. The Portsmouth native served as deputy director of finance for Richmond and worked in the finance department for the cities of Hampton, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Newest council members Mark Hugel and Vernon Tillage credited Terry’s performance as interim, but said they vowed during their campaigns to follow the proper hiring process and that it’s still the right thing to do. Hugel said elected officials should be “diligent” in finding the city’s new chief executive.
“A search is not a referendum on Ms. Terry’s performance,” Tillage said.
Tillage said Glover asked him in December to support the appointment of Terry as interim with the understanding a search would follow. He also said Glover told him last week “people will forget” that Tillage said throughout his campaign he wanted to follow the proper hiring process.
“When they were not in the majority, there was a different feel up here,” Tillage said. “They wanted a process.”
In another jab at Glover, Tillage also said six City Council members offered new dates for Wednesday’s meeting so all could be present. Council members Mark Whitaker and De’Andre Barnes were absent.
Glover later said he didn’t intend to circumvent the process but wanted to hear from the public on how to move forward.
Council member Bill Moody also spoke about the need to “follow the process” for hiring a city manager during his reelection campaign and criticized the previous council majority for not doing so. But he said Wednesday he supported offering Terry the job as her six months as interim has shown more than a one-hour interview could.
Several Portsmouth residents spoke in favor of offering Terry permanently, mostly noting the city has brought her back numerous times to clean things up and that she has a strong community presence. While some supported following the proper process, most said the city should be flexible this time and not lose out on someone who’s proven.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]
