This week, the Summerfield Town Council voted 4-to-1 to give Town Manager Scott Whitaker two months’ notice that the council would not be renewing his current contract – leaving 99 percent of the people in that town convinced that the council would not be renewing any contract at all with Whitaker.
At the meeting, before delivering the blow in the wee hours of Valentine’s Day morning, one councilmember spoke of a possible “renegotiation,” while another spoke highly of Whitaker’s dedication and contributions to the town. Another cited problems with the contract, not with Whitaker. But it was clear to many that this 1 a.m. vote was just a nice way of saying, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
One former town official familiar with the discussions, when asked if there was any possibility Whitaker would end up as manager after the current contract expires, stated, “Not a chance.”
Summerfield is a deeply divided town – in a nutshell, over whether to promote or stave off development – and Whitaker managed to ride that twisting bull and hold onto his job for roughly 12 years while many in the town, and some on the Town Council, saw him as a manager too much on the pro-development side.
Whitaker still had the support of Summerfield Mayor Tim Sessoms, but in Summerfield the mayor gets a vote only in the case of a tie, and, even if Sessoms had had a vote, it wouldn’t have mattered.
Previous Town Councils that supported Whitaker strongly – even made changes in his contract to help make it harder for him to get fired. For instance, in 2019, the Town Council voted to amend Whitaker’s contract and put in a requirement that the town pay him a full year’s salary – currently just over $150,000 – if the council terminated his contract before it was up for renewal. Before that amendment, his contract allowed him six month’s pay if he was terminated prematurely.
Summerfield leaders recently took a look at the possibility of changing the type of government from one led by a manager to one where the town is managed directly by the mayor and the Town Council. However, that idea does not appear to be on the table any longer.
As divided as the town of 11,000 currently is, some say no one will want to apply for the manager’s job. But, when it comes to managing local governments, there are always a good number of willing applicants who think they’re up to the challenge.
I’m certain some narcissistic person will indeed apply for the job. After all, $150,000 + is a princely sum to manage a town of 11,000. LOL
Summerfield is just like any other town in America. The entire country is deeply divided and those with the stomach to do it will figure out a way to take advantage of these differences so as to benefit themselves. (Sound familiar?)
Well, Summerfield is unified on one thing — dislike of Senator Phil Berger and his betrayal Guilford and Rockingham. Senator Berger is RISKING HIS REELECTION BID by continuing to threaten that Raleigh legislators will forcibly deannex 1000 acres in the center of Summerfield to help Berger’s donor, David Couch. Does Berger think redistricting himself out of Summerfield will get him elected if he pushes deannexation? When his district surrounds us and is where our family and friends live?
Summerfield changed ordinances to help David Couch (townhomes, apartments, commercial, higher density). Couch still isn’t happy and wants Berger to do his bidding. Deannexation is bad omen for all small NC towns.
Berger is a bully who scoffs at voters. Everyone in the region is united against this. Except maybe a few has-been “leaders” who (along with town manager Scott Whitaker) seem awful buddy-buddy with Couch and crew.
I suspect Berger is a jerk, too. I used to support him, but a few years back he wanted to impose the full rate of Sales Tax on groceries, after the GOP had managed to reduce it to 2% under Robin Hayes. I vehemently disagree with taxing food. Even very high tax economies like the UK don’t tax food because it’s so regressive.
So I penned a few letters (which got published) and suddenly I was no longer on his emailing list.
I had become persona non grata.
What a thin skinned man!
I’m amazed at the amount of people on upscale, rich only, white preferred, how unintelligent Summerfield citizens are. Those of us who have lived here for more than 50 years didn’t want all of the northerner rich airport workers building 5,000 square foot houses in our town of residential and farmland. Our farms were no longer in demand. The airport became a development authority and the Town made it impossible for us to keep our farmland for our families. You northern airport executives moved in. You are egotistical, racists who don’t realize that you are slowly but surely killing your town. As you age, who will maintain your 1 acre lot , 5000 sq ft houses? You won’t. You will want hire someone to do that and they won’t be there. You think a $250,000 home is poor trash. It’s not. You have created your castle in the sky with no revenue generators and still want your castle. No revenue equals no money. Go broke. Your attitude has shown you don’t deserve to be a town anyway. No equality. No diversity. Everyone has the same 5,000 sq ft house on the same one acre lot, like Disney World. Except Disney World welcomed visitors to spend money. You don’t. Nowhere to spend it. You don’t even invest your own money into your own town. You shop in Oak Ridge or Greensboro. Thanks for your money. Go hide away
and you will fail. The rest of us will stand by with our 1,000 acres and laugh.
A divided town? Lol, look at the armpit called Greensboro.
Without running a town as a business with professionals instead of ‘volunteers’ running for office this will continue in Summerfield and other small towns. I foresaw another ‘Battleground ‘of development throughout Summerfield without having ‘worked out’ a development arrangement for the Mixed Use Development. Look at the wonderful results of the first of its kind = Columbia Association which is a non profit manages the Village Development in Maryland and has since the fifties. Noone covered that during the debacle of getting to the position that the Village development concept is successful and WALKABLE as the remainder of Guilford County and surrounding towns are Car centric. To note the overwhelming increase of deaths from pollution (car centric cities) override heart attack deaths and cancer etc!
With a base salary of over $150,000 a year, plus benefits, for a cushy job in the Public Sector, there will be plenty of applicants.
Hell, I might be one of them. It beats working in the real world, dealing with all the hassles and aggravations, the ups & downs (mostly downs in my business since COVID), the imperious bureaucrats who think they know best, and the tax & regulatory burdens. For less money.
But the Parasitic Sector is a whole different world…
Our city and county governments employ leadership 101: lead by example. That is Guilford County now.
Having been a graduate of GHS, it was even that way in 1959. Populated with a few social elites who knew it all.