PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — City Council has selected Portsmouth’s next city manager, the city’s fourth since 2020.
In a 4-3 vote Monday, council moved to appoint Steven Carter to the position. The Air Force veteran is currently the city manager in Albany, Georgia.
Mayor Shannon Glover and council members Mark Hugel and Bill Moody voted against Carter’s appointment, saying current Interim City Manager Mimi Terry was their preferred choice.
“I’m absolutely disappointed in my colleagues,” Glover told 10 On Your Side. “Once again, we’ve chosen to overlook a qualified professional who was in the position, doing the job, moving our city in a positive direction, making progress.
“For our community to think that anyone else is going to come here and perhaps care about our city and do the work that needs to be done and they’re not going to make any mistakes, that’s just unrealistic.”
Carter and Terry were among the three finalists for the position after a national search.
“It’s about getting the right person to move our city in the right direction,” said Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke. “He [Carter] comes to us with a strong IT background and he’s been a city manager in Albany, Georgia for, I believe, over 10 years so we have someone who is coming with real life city management experience.”
Carter was one of firm Korn Ferry’s top candidates. Glover told us the search for a new city manager has been the most expensive in the city’s history, costing nearly $66,000.
“We paid a search firm a ton of money to look for these candidates for us,” Lucas-Burke said, “so we owed it to them to offer them this opportunity to lead our city, and I think this is what is going to bring about positive change in the city of Portsmouth.”
Carter, who will start April 22 with a $255,000 salary, comes in after a slew of turnover in the position in recent years. It started after the sudden resignation of former City Manager Dr. Lydia Pettis Patton in 2020.
Angel Jones then took over the position in 2021, but was later fired via a 4-3 vote in a charged meeting in May 2022. Former Police Chief Tonya Chapman then took over for Jones and was fired just months later in January 2023.
Terry has served as interim city manager since January 2023.
However, Terry won’t serve in interim capacity going forward after Monday’s actions. Council also moved to appoint former City Manager Pettis Patton to an interim role under her Berkley Group at a rate of $210 per hour. That vote was 5-2, with Glover and Hugel voting no.
This is a breaking update. Look for more coverage coming up from WAVY’s Michelle Wolf.