City Manager David Parrish said, “I had no idea.”
The June 15 City Council meeting was the last one for Parrish as city manager. His resignation becomes official on June 30.
The City Council, in an effort to do more than just read a resolution, invited Parrish’s family to the meeting and Parrish proclaimed repeatedly that he had no idea his family was in the building until about half of them had walked into the council chamber.
In introducing his wife, three children, parents, grandmother, brother and sister-in-law, niece and nephew, Parrish choked up several times and had to get a little help from Mayor Nancy Vaughan so he didn’t miss anybody.
Vaughan had begun this segment of the meeting, which for obvious reasons was not on the agenda, by noting that it was Parrish’s last meeting as city manager and she said, “We’d like to recognize the really fine job he has done over the last couple of years, the past three years as city manager and longer than that as a city employee.
Vaughan started reading a resolution honoring Parrish and each councilmember read one of the “whereas” paragraphs.
The resolution stated that Parrish had come to work for the City of Greensboro in 2013 as an assistant city manager, became interim city manager on April 15, 2018 and was unanimously promoted by the City Council to city manager on June 5, 2018.
The resolution also notes that one of the reasons for that unanimous vote was the way Parrish, as interim city manager, had handled the response to the tornado that struck Greensboro on April 15, 2018.
Councilmember Michelle Kennedy adlibbed the beginning of her portion of the resolution saying, “Whereas David Parrish has always had really good taste in socks.” It provided a good break for what had been a somber recitation of Parrish’s challenges and accomplishments as city manager.
Vaughan noted in her remarks that Parrish started off with the tornado and then for the past 14 months had to deal with COVID-19.
Vaughan also noted that although she hated to see Parrish go, she thought he was making the right decision for the right reasons.
Although what Parrish is going to do next hasn’t been announced, several councilmembers joined Vaughan in saying that they were glad Parrish, who is a native of Greensboro, was staying in the community and looked forward to working with him in a different capacity in the future.
Mr. Parrish. TUVM for your service. I’d get out, too.
Congratulations to David Parrish who has done an outstanding job as City Manager! He has shown himself to be a man of principle, integrity, and intelligence! I absolutely understand his decision to resign and applaud him for it. However it will definitely be to the detriment of our great city. Wishing David and his family all the best in their future endeavors!
David Parish absolutely covered up Hinson’s crimes and rewarded him w a full retirement package. He us capable of being very evil.
Previous city managers also covered up Hinson’s crimes. That seems to be a Greensboro tradition and a requirement for getting along with our incompetent city council. I have read that we should never attribute to vice and corruption that which can be explained by sheer stupidity and incompetence, but I’m not convinced that there is enough stupidity and incompetence in the whole county to account for the actions taken by our city council members.