It is being reported that the sudden resignation of Greensboro City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba is related to the domestic disturbance at his home on Dec. 28, 2023 and the police response to the 911 calls.
However, Mayor Nancy Vaughan has said repeatedly that Jaiyeoba’s resignation was not the result of the incident on Dec. 28 or the body-worn camera (BWC) videos that were released to and viewed by the members of the City Council. The request by the News & Record to release the BWC videos to the public is still in court.
After the City Council meeting on Tuesday night, March 5, Vaughan said, “I don’t believe the city manager did anything wrong on Dec. 28.”
Today Vaughan said, “The city manager violated an internal policy that other employees have been fired over, and that’s why I didn’t vote for any severance.”
One could infer from that statement that if Jaiyeoba had not resigned, he would have been fired. But neither Vaughan nor any of the city councilmembers who have been asked would confirm that.
Vaughan said that the City Council learned of this violation of internal policy by the city manager last week, so the process moved along pretty quickly.
The split 5-4 vote by the City Council to accept Jaiyeoba’s resignation and provide him with a severance package on Tuesday night was caused by a disagreement over the severance package offered to Jaiyeoba which consisted of three months of salary and benefits.
Three of the four no votes–Vaughan and Councilmembers Zack Matheny and Hugh Holston–have all said on the record that they voted against the motion because of the severance package, but were in favor of accepting the Jaiyeoba’s resignation.
Councilmember Sharon Hightower was the only member of the City Council who said that she was against accepting the city manager’s resignation and explained that she was voting for the motion because she supported the severance package.
Deputy City Manager Chris Wilson was appointed interim city manager by the City Council. Wilson also served as interim city manager after David Parrish resigned on June 30, 2021. There was no controversy over the resignation of Parrish. He actually did resign to spend more time with his family and he received no severance package when he resigned.
Former City Manager Jim Westmoreland resigned March 2, 2018, for personal reasons, and again there was no controversy over his resignation and Westmoreland did not receive a severance package.
On Feb. 3, 2014, Denise Turner Roth resigned as Greensboro city manager in order to accept a job in the Obama administration. Roth received no severance package when she resigned.
In October 2011, former Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young announced he was resigning to accept a position as city manager of Alexandria, Virginia. There was no controversy over Young’s resignation and he didn’t receive a severance package.
So the two big questions are: Why did Jaiyeoba resign and why did he receive a severance package when the four previous city managers who all resigned didn’t?
Banging staff is a no-no when you are the city manager.
Severance? Must be nice. All of us that have current positions at the Coliseum must resign from the city in order to stay in our current roles under this new management scheme.
None of us are getting any sort of severance!!!
Clear as Mississippi Mud. GSO City Council is totally transparent. Just ask them.
Will we get an honest answer? I’ll guess no. Another Snafu….will this council ever learn? Vote wisely or you’ll be stuck again.
One down maybe Sheriff Rogers next…
The truth will set us free, but first it will make us angry
Heads should roll on this information. He was trying to hide the information and the Chief of Police was hiding , the mayor was invoved also. The entire city council was also trying to hide the information from the taxpayer. Please let the city council go with the city manager.
Can you read? The incidents are separate. Mayor said he violated an internal policy. Google HR and you can figure it out.
DTF maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are, the domestic incident has some audio between family members relating to the manager and his unscrupulous behavior in his position
The council determined the domestic was not an offense they wanted to fire the city manager for. However, the internal drama/policy violation was not one they could stand. The domestic probably provided the slippery slope for the inevitable conclusion. For critical thinking minds and the ability to parse the mayor’s specific words you should be able to figure it out without the rumors. There are only two things that get people in his position fired: money or sex.
Good question. You would think that a city that considers itself an equal opportunity employer would provide all departing employees a similar severance package unless there was some unique feature of the contract under which the departing employee worked, or unless the employee was fired, which would probably warrant something less than other departing employees received. Since it appears that other departing managers were not fired and did not receive a severance package, the severance package being provided to this particular manager must have been attributable to some peculiar provision in his contract. If not, but the Council merely wanted to treat him better than his peers, perhaps the City Attorney should opine on whether the Council has the discretion to discriminate in that fashion…
You jest. Chuck Watts, antidiscrimination?
Our City Council is so full of it , they spend money like a drunken sailor. Sure hope those videos are still going to be released.
A severance package that is not an established procedure for this manager? Sounds like hush money to me….
Good work on this story throughout, buddy. I’m sure you’re 10,000 miles ahead of me on this, but something did occur to me about how all of this went down. Could it be related to the sudden presence of Jaiyeoba’s personal attorney (the one from Womble Bond)? It came out of left field. There’s a section of the city personnel policy manual about employees retaining criminal defense attorneys (see page 87 of manual: https://user-kcmpnye.cld.bz/policy-manual-10-20151/B87/#zoom=true). Nothing in it struck me as noteworthy, but you might see it with fresh eyes. I’m not basing this on anything but a hunch, so do with it what you will. You can take the reporter out of the newsroom … yada yada yada.
Thanks for standing up for open and transparent government.
You are very smart probably due to your years as a reporter. Last night Nancy said it had nothing to do with the domestic. Really look at her words. Careful words. He violated an internal policy other people have been fired for. In your experience where does that lead? He’s the highest ranking employee in the city. It’s not illegal, it’s policy. What policy could the highest ranking employee violate that would lead to termination?
I have no inside information. I’m good at puzzles. Remember the most obvious answer is usually the answer.
Also what whack job institution calls their HR departments “People and Culture.”
Margaret I miss your sharp eye & opinion in our papers.
The reason is much more mundane.
https://twitter.com/lcaesarcrawford/status/1656408894376235010
Isn’t that the inter-governmental office director? I seem to remember early on, there were some going-ons in Raleigh that affected GSO and she was clueless. Didn’t she come from Charlotte? If so, things are coming into focus, perhaps.
Well that’s $135,00 they can save. Oh wait, the still going to write a check.
Good gosh it keeps getting better. Council really has been conned by a Nigerian prince.
Tweet deleted. HaHaHaHa
I cant believe she can say that with a straight face.
She has the face of a weasel, calling it a straight face is a really big stretch
The smile of a professional politician.
The smile of someone who has had too many facelifts.
I hope she didn’t pay for them
* What was the internal policy that Jaiyeoba violated, that causes every other employee to be fired for that?
*Would Hightower, Johnson, Wells, and Thurm have voted to give him $78,000 in free money if he was white?
Not a snowballs chance in ………
No.
I’m wondering if the decorated fireman who was fired by the manager over his Facebook post got severance. Apparently he violated city policy. I’m thinking a lawsuit may be in order. Oh wait. He was a WHITE person.
Sorry, my previous comment erroneously included Tammi Thurm as voting for Jaiyeoba’s “golden goodbye”. It was Hoffman and Abuzaiter, in addition to Yvonne Johnson , Goldie Wells, and Sharon Hightower.
Thurm probably counted votes and went with “no” so it would look like she was doing a solid for the conservative parts of her district.
Recall Nancy.
The actions by GPD police chief in suppressing crimes by city officials is sad and depressing. Not personally knowing him, from the view of the average citizen, he seems like an incompetent DEI hire. ‘Thing is, he doesn’t fit any of the standard affirmative action groups. Sure hope things aren’t really bad, we sure as hell cannot count on the current Department of Justice to do the right thing.
I’ve been following your reporting on this story the last few months. Solid journalism. Appreciate the information. Hope these questions get answered, as sunlight is the best disinfectant.
What internal policy could this be??
Let’s see…is it tardiness to work? No. Not worth firing for.
Is it a criminal offense? No. He hasn’t been charged with anything.
Is it mouthing off to his supervisor? No. He’s the top man.
Is it workplace theft or malfeasance? Probably not. That would lead to criminal charges and they wouldn’t pay him to leave for that.
Is it incompetence? Maybe, but let’s get real. We would have heard about that, and they wouldn’t be keeping it a secret.
What could it be…. Hmm. Let’s look back a little ways. He did create special positions for a few close lady friends of his, and then hired those same lady friends to work closely under him…. Closely. Under. Him. Hmmm….the picture is getting clearer.
Tai, you little devil. You been dippin’ that pen in the company well?
Well, that fits all the pieces and makes the most sense. Almost everything comes down to sex or money. The sex angle makes more sense, and it would get you fired if the ladies complained about it. And he certainly has surrounded himself with ladies. Well-dipping isn’t an automatic criminal offense but might be worth retaining a criminal defense attorney depending on the allegations if one of those ladies got mad at him. It’s also worth paying hush money for to make him go away before it hits the fan. I think we have a potential winner.
Reality bites.
Bingo! We have a winner. The City Council knows this and still gave him severance.
Sherlock Holmes ain’t got anything on Officer Don! You must have been a detective – and a good one.
Thanks for the clear and logical reasoning.
Your conclusion is hard to refute.
Thanks! I just like the detective shows.
Try “Endeavour” from ITV (Independent Television) in the UK. It’s riveting.
There’s also “Morse” and “Lewis” of the same ilk, all derivations of the books written by Colin Dexter.
Cheers!
I agree all of them were guilty of hiding and trying cover up whole thing, no one learn about anything until almost last of January, I like know how many citizens been arrested during their call to the police with a similar family matter, 911 call clearly states girl said she think she broke here daddy arm.
“Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind every successful man’s downfall is the other woman”
People are starting to get it. The Council/PD leadership/Legal Office/Mayor saw the BWC and nothing was criminal, only personal medical and mental health issues shared. They didn’t want Tai to resign over that. They publicly supported him after they saw the video, knowing it might be released to the public. Now, they want him to resign. Do you see now? The resignation is a violation of a city policy. If people looked in the right direction, they would realize the PD did nothing wrong on Dec. 28, but now it is the Chief being questioned because it looks like his resignation is related to Dec. 28. His own officers question him on here because the City won’t say what really happened. Get the city managers office to confirm this was in no way related to Dec. 28 and in fact solely because of something serious that came out in the last two weeks….a violation of a city HR policy. As always, the police department takes the fall for a city issue. How convenient. The officers did everything right, the Chief did everything right. And now they are made to look bad/dishonest. I wanted the BWC to be protected for future DV calls/victims. Now I want it out so people can see there is no “smoking gun” ………and then they are left to find the real reason for resignation.
Fast and loose with tax payers money!
Show us the tape. Do not forget how this story started. Regardless of the “resigned” city manager, the question of preferential treatment and political power still hangs in the air.
They all should be terminated
The latest info on the news channels says his resignation was due to a “personnel” matter. You suppose it was “fraternizing” with his employees and he was reported? And the issue with him being injured was due to his family finding out about it? And was that the same issue in Charlotte?
Bingo my friend you have just hit the nail on the head.
It’s CLEAR that NO ONE on here has either ever had a job or understands HR, state or federal law. If the city manager did engage in a “consensual” affair/situation or relationship, that would NOT have gotten him FIRED. Nor would it have been grounds to ask for his resignation. The subordinate would simply have been REASSIGNED! People get into workplace situations ALL THE TIME.
If he was let go, it’s because HE DID SOMETHING HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO DO. Plain and SIMPLE.