Mascoutah fired its city manager on Monday. The mayor said they’d lost faith in him.
Mascoutah City Council members voted to dismiss their city manager on Monday after the relationship between them soured, according to Mayor Pat McMahan.
McMahan didn’t provide a specific reason for Bradley Myers’ dismissal, first reported by Herald Publications. McMahan served as a city councilman for a decade before he was elected mayor this year.
“In regard to the dismissal of the City Manager in Mascoutah, communication, information and cooperation are vital in the relationship between the City Council and City Manager,” McMahan said in an emailed statement. “The City Council had lost the confidence, faith and trust in the relationship that is so crucial to enable City Council to make the decisions that our constituents elected us to make.”
McMahan declined to comment further on personnel issues.
Myers, who took over as city manager in 2018 after Cody Hawkins resigned suddenly, also declined to discuss details, citing advice from attorneys.
“There are two sides to every issue. Mine will come out later,” Myers said in an email.
Councilman John “Jack” Weyant said he wouldn’t discuss why Myers was fired, but said the vote to oust him was unanimous. The council discussed the issue in closed session, Weyant said, and took a vote in open session.
“He didn’t break the law or nothing,” Weyant said.
Councilman Walter Battas also declined to say why he voted to remove Myers, as did Councilman Doug Elbe.
“You’d have to talk to talk to the mayor or someone at City Hall,” Elbe said.
Councilman Nick Seibert did not immediately return a call.
Myers earned more than $107,000 as city manager in 2019, according to the BND’s Public Pay Database. He worked previously for the Illinois Department of Transportation and the city of DuQuoin, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The city plans to hire a new manager, Weyant said. The council will meet on Monday, Nov. 22 at the municipal building to discuss replacing Myers, although talks on how they will find a replacement might be in closed session.
The meeting time is tentatively set for 7 p.m.
While they search for a new manager, the assistant city manager and other department heads will keep things running, Weyant said.
“There shouldn’t be anything that’s different right now,” Weyant said.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
