Eckert Receiving Full Pay as Consultant

Former Powder Springs City Manager Rick Eckert is continuing to receive his monthly salary of $9,600, plus benefits, as he serves as a consultant for the city.

He has received the pay since went into effect Feb. 17 and will continue to receive it through May, when his two-year, $115,000-a-year contract ends. If he finds another job prior to then, the pay will stop.

Powder Springs hasn’t used his consulting work yet, but “if the need be, we will be assigning different projects for him to be working on,” Mayor Pat Vaughn said.

“We’re trying right now to just get stable , she said.

Hulsey is receiving $6,000 a month as the city continues its national search for a permanent manager.

Vaughn said Eckert offering to continue as a consultant with the city was “very amicable.”

But former Councilman Tom Bevirt, who attended his last meeting in January and was on the council as Eckert , said the city likely won’t use the former city manager’s services.

“He’s not really doing any work,” Bevirt said. “If they didn’t want him there before, why would they want him as a consultant?”

Bevirt said that while he was a councilman, Eckert’s work with Powder Springs had started to decline, and his job search was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Fortunately they had a former mayor and council member (in Hulsey) who said he would fill in until they could find a permanent city manager," he said.

In his resignation letter to Vaughn and the five-member council, Eckert said Powder Springs’ governing body and staff has “risen above the hardships” of the past couple years, including the 2009 floods and the economic downturn. The complete letter is attached.

He said the city has been able to balance the budget while avoiding decreases in services, and there have been “minimal reduction(s) in force mainly from part-time staff.”

Eckert noted that other progress made by the city includes new financial software, and , , the Lewis Road project, and .

“I have chosen this time to step down for the simple reason that the city is running well, the budget is balanced, and from all preliminary indications, it will continue to be, and there are no major issues that are pending,” he wrote.

“It is the right time for a transition period and to allow a new manager to step in when things are running as smooth as possible. That is the right thing to do.”