The City of Galesburg will once again be looking for an acting or interim city manager as it searches for a full-time city manager. Interim Galesburg City Manager Wayne Carl notified city officials Wednesday that he is resigning the position in 30 days.
Carl informed the mayor, City Council members and city staff of his departure in an email sent Wednesday evening.
WGIL confirmed his action to WGIL on Thursday, writing via email, “Yes, I have submitted a 30 day notice to the Mayor and Council that I will be resigning as interim City Manager on Friday, Sept. 8 for personal reasons. It has been a pleasure to serve the city in what will be 2 months time when I depart.”
Carl returned from retirement to assume the role of interim city manager on July 5. The former longtime director of Public Works had just retired from the city March 24 after 22 years in various roles.
Galesburg also has vacancies for city attorney and director of Public Works.
Galesburg Mayor Peter Schwartzman said Carl’s resignation was “unexpected.”
“It is a very stressful job and one which has extremely busy these days as we still haven’t filled the Public Works directors position,” Schwartzman said. “We have had a lot of moving parts since the new council took over. It has been tough on morale and workload. I feel for all the city workers.
“Things will get straightened out soon, I hope, but it is a hard time to find top level employees.”
The position became vacant when former city manager Gerald Smith and the city agreed on a separation agreement on June 12. Smith started as Galesburg city manager Nov. 7, 2022.
The City of Galesburg is in the process of searching for a new city manager. On July 12, Mark Peterson of search firm GovHR said he expected the process for Galesburg to hire a city manager should take somewhere between 3 to 6 months.
“I imagine interviews for the new city manager beginning in September and offers made in early October, so hopefully late October or early November we should complete our search for a city manager,” Schwartzman said.
Before Carl returned on July 5, Director of Community Development Steve Gugliotta had been serving as acting city manager in Smith’s absence.
