ByZach Logan|April 23, 2020 at 6:48 AM EDT - Updated April 23 at 7:06 AM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Although the coronavirus pandemic is keeping Savannah’s city council from physically meeting, it’s not stopping them from trying to hire a new city manager.
Last April, former City Manager Rob Hernandez announced his resignation. He left in June. Since then, former Chatham County Assistant Manager Pat Monahan has been filling the position.
Monahan tells WTOC that council members are still actively searching for his replacement.
Monahan was supposed to be out of the city manager’s office by March 31. But he extended his last day to May 1, which is next week, and Savannah is still without a new hire.
On Thursday, council members and the current city manager are expected to make an agreement on keeping Monahan on a month-by-month basis.
Since Mayor Van Johnson and the rest of the new city council members took their seats in January, they’ve been actively discussing the role of the city manager and what kind of person they want for the job.
Monahan says council members have been holding virtual meetings with the search group who is responsible for finding the job candidates. He says he wants to be accommodating, especially during this pandemic, which has been a big undertaking.
“I thought this would be the period, punctuation mark to my 35 years. I think I’m going to end this with an exclamation point. Of course, I’ve never been through a pandemic before and how it’s affected this organization and the community. It affects the city’s budget, but it also impacts a lot of our smaller businesses,” Monahan said.
City council is expected to vote on the agreement between the city and Monahan on Thursday. Monahan says once a new hire starts, he will resign but stick around to assist during the first few days at no cost to the city.
For Savannah City Council’s full meeting agenda for Thursday,click here.
Photo: Getty Images