By Judy Reed
It’s taken nine months, but the Cedar Springs City Council may finally be getting a new City Manager.
They are scheduled to vote on the contract for Michael Womack at their Council meeting on Thursday evening, July 14. If approved, he will be sworn into office, and start on August 1.
Womack has been serving as an Executive Intern, for the Village of Lake Orion, Michigan, which is located on the east side of the state.
He is also currently a Graduate Assistant, in the City Manager’s office in the City of Eastpointe, Michigan; and an Attorney at Womack & Womack P.C., in Shelby Township.
The contract calls for a salary of $72,000, with a 2 percent increase annually at the anniversary of his start date; five days vacation to start; insurance; and other benefits. The entire contract can be found in the agenda on the city’s website at cityofcedarsprings.org.
The City will also be approving two other contracts Thursday evening.
One is for an interim City Clerk—Christine Witt, who will work part time until the City Manager can hire a new, full time clerk. She will be paid $16.00 per hour for up to 25 hours of work.
The other contract is a property assessment agreement with Grand Rapids Township. The township will provide property assessing services to Cedar Springs for approximately $24,600, which is about the same as was budgeted for the prior assessor, Jason Rosenzweig. The City Council fired Rosenzweig after a vote of no confidence resulting from a dispute over whether the City should pay taxes on their own property.
The Council will also revise current Interim City Manager Barbara VanDuren’s contract. In her contract, she was originally slated to stay until August 31. But since Womack is starting August 1, her contract will be revised to that date. But it also states she may continue her assignment here to assist in the transition if that’s acceptable to both parties.
Readers can find the agenda and entire packet with the contracts at www.cityofcedarsprings.org. Click on meetings and documents, and then archived documents, and then on the right side, 2016 City Council documents.
