10 local administrators in Mountain Empire region earn more than $100K
Mac McLean/Bristol Herald Courier
Published: December 3, 2007
Updated: May 29, 2008
Bill Dennison uses two sentences to sum up the duties of a job that makes him the second-highest-paid public employee in Bristol, Va.Published: December 3, 2007
Updated: May 29, 2008
“The City Council sets the policy,” said Dennison, who has served as Bristol’s city manager since Jan. 1. “I implement the policy.”
Dennison is one of 10 local administrators in the Mountain Empire region who earns more than $100,000, according to public employee salaries collected from 65 local governments by the Bristol Herald Courier.
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These individuals are responsible for the day-to-day operations of a county, city or town and can be divided into three categories: those who are elected, those who are appointed and those who work on a contract basis.
Dennison, who makes $117,000 per year, started working for the city 34 years ago as a deputy building inspector and slowly worked his way to the top.
He was appointed to serve as assistant city manager in 1986 and took over as interim city manager when longtime City Manager Paul Spangler retired late last year.
Dennison officially became Bristol’s city manager May 22 and now supervises 350 to 400 employees.
But Dennison also answers to five bosses, working at the pleasure of the City Council, which evaluates his performance every year as it decides whether to continue his employment by appointing him to another term.
The five council members are accountable to the voters, who elect them to four-year terms.
Tennessee voters skip this step by voting for their own county mayor.
“I guess you could call [a county mayor] the chief executive officer of a county,” said Sullivan County Mayor Steve Godsey, who serves as his locality’s chief administrator.
Godsey said the county mayor used to be called the county executive. He or she is responsible for day-to-day management and serves a four-year term.
Not every locality can afford to hire a Godsey or a Dennison to manage their local government’s operations. The lowest-paid town manager in Southwest Virginia still earns $45,000 per year.
The expense to pay an administrator can be prohibitive to small-town officials who must also hire police officers to keep their residents safe, treasurers to manage town finances and workers to pick up trash.
“You’re talking about at least $35,000 a year to hire a full-time town manager,” said Glade Spring Treasurer Carter Ratliff, whose locality had a $435,000 budget this year.
Glade Spring hires its town manager on a contract basis from the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission’s roving town-manager service.
“Stuff that doesn’t fit in with the town treasurer’s position or the town clerk’s position probably falls into my position,” said Traci Tolley, who was appointed in July to serve as Glade Spring’s town manager.
Tolley is a full-time planning district commission employee who works for the town on a part-time basis. She got the job when Town Council talked with the commission’s executive director and worked out the terms of her contract.
In exchange for Tolley’s services, Glade Spring pays the commission $6,500 per year.
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