MONROE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — The City Council of Monroe has fired their 5th City Manager in twenty years. Larry Faison worked as the Monroe City Manager for the last seven years, but he was fired after a 4-3 Council vote.
Many community members were left asking why? The discussion behind the reasoning was done in a closed session, and no public statements giving any reasons were sent out.
FOX 46 spent the day in Monroe tracking down answers. One Monroe resident, Lucy Burgess, said she had posted on Facebook to see if any of her friends knew why Faison was fired. No one had an answer. After reaching out to all four of the Council Members who voted to fire Faison, FOX 46 heard back from Councilman Lynn Keziah.
Keziah made the motion to terminate Faison, and he said it all had to do with his dissatisfaction with Faison’s performance.
“He didn’t really want to chat about anything. I know he’d give our staff directions, and not even talk to them about it,” Keziah said. “The City Council had several meetings with him where he just didn’t pay me a bit of attention. And it was issues that were affecting the Council. You know, after a while, enough is enough.”
Though Mayor Pro Tem Marion Holloway told FOX 46 he thought Faison did a fine job, and the reason the other members fired him was nothing personal or sinister, strictly business.
The Council voted to replace Faison with Brian Borne, to serve as the interim City of Manager for Monroe. Faison was given until Tuesday at noon to gather his things in his office. City spokesman Peter Hovanec said Faison will receive severance pay equal to one year of his annual salary, $171,412.80.
FOX 46 reached out to Faison for comment but did not hear back.
