After less than a year as Dayton City Manager, Steve Floyd is no longer employed by the City of Dayton. At a special-called city council meeting on Friday, Dayton City Council unanimously authorized a separation agreement with Floyd, who joined the City in January 2022.
“The City of Dayton and City Manager Steve Floyd are parting ways, effectively immediately, as he has signed a separation agreement with the City. We appreciate the work Steve did for us and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” said Dayton Mayor Caroline Wadzeck.
Assistant City Manager Calyn Wesson has agreed to step in as interim city manager and city staff will continue their work as usual, Wadzeck added. Wesson has been with the City of Dayton for less than a year and was hired on by Floyd to be the City’s finance director. In October, she was promoted to assistant city manager.
Wesson is a Certified Public Account with a Masters Degree in Finance and a history of success at another municipality, as well as at a school district.
Earlier this week, it became apparent that the relationship between City Council and Floyd had soured. A short meeting on Monday, following by a lengthier executive session, ended with Floyd being asked by the City to resign. Due to the agreement that both parties have signed, it is unlikely that information will come to light. What is known is that the separation agreement, which still must be formally signed by Floyd, provides him with six months of his $195,000 annual salary. This equates to a payout of around $97,500.
When Floyd arrived in January, he soon discovered that the City had a $5 million budget shortfall, which was overcome by cutting 24 positions, reducing what was spent on outside engineering and consulting fees, accepting a $1.2 million contribution to help with infrastructure costs from DCDC, using $2 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, and raising water and sewer rates.
In public comments at the start of the meeting, four local residents pleaded with the City to reconsider letting Floyd go, including J. Taylor Choate, a member of the Dayton Community Development Corporation board. Choate said that while he and Floyd have not always seen eye to eye on the DCDC, Choate grew to respect Floyd. He told the Council that it takes both sides working together and encouraged them to make the decision that is in the best interest of the City.
Sarah Vickery suggested that Floyd may have “stepped on some toes” while trying to help the City through its financial hardships.
“I really wish that everyone could put aside their differences,” she said.
With her daughter Madelyn seated in a wheelchair beside her at the podium, Marina Quiroz praised Floyd for healing emotional wounds that resulted after her daughter’s near-fatal accident in January 2020. Quiroz criticized the former management of the City and the police department for botching the investigation of the crash and said that Floyd had restored her trust in the City.
Floyd was not present for the meeting as he had a pre-arranged event with his family. Bluebonnet News reached out to Floyd for comment; however, Floyd said he cannot issue a statement as that is part of his separation agreement.
“I’m taking my toys and 100k of your tax dollars and going home because I didn’t get the DCDC money to build my empire” ~ Po lil Stevie
Does this mean the dump will stay open?
Never trust a redhead. Good riddance and don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!
Why does this guy get a $100,000 going away present for throwing a tantrum and quitting? This is piss poor by all measures.
Wow 6 months severance pay…..sorry but that’s outrageous. Would love to know who he pissed off.
It’s only tax payers money don’t worry about why he got it. The new water and sewer we are paying will take care of it.
He needed to go. His childhood pal was the police chief, who decided to cut staff also. If you can’t get through on 911, animal control, fire or just plain old police dept, thank the chief and ex city manager. One dispatcher per shift for the city of Dayton is ridiculous.
Maybe the city council will do everyone a favor and get rid of him next.
Y’all miss it all they spent $13,000,000.00 on internet for 79 people how stupid. You can’t move in this town but the keep trying to get more population to move here tore the pavement up on highway 90 what a mess you turn this little town into trying to make it look like Houston try to go somewhere during the week traffic traffic traffic and oh don’t forget the trains