Galesburg OKs separation agreement with city manager

Publish date: 2024-06-28

The Galesburg City Council on Monday night approved (5-to-1) a severance agreement with City Manager Gerald Smith.

The agreement gives him 20 weeks compensation to leave immediately, equal to about $75,000 including salary and accrued vacation.

Mayor Peter Schwartzman said Tuesday there’s no specific timetable as of yet to search for Smith’s replacement. “This should be worked out over the next two weeks,” he said.

While the mayor agreed with the council decision, Schwartzman said the city should not move on without reflection.

“For Galesburg to continue on its forward path, there are things we must do. Both elected officials and community members can help our city heal and assist bringing us all together during this tumultuous time, for our city and our nation,” he wrote in a Tuesday press release.

The mayor recommended that the city:

  • Recognize that we must treat all members of our community with respect. This is particularly true to new members to our community, ones that have been brought here to lead and to those that bring new ideas and investment (social and economic).
  • Reach out to community members different from you (by attending an event that you don’t know much about or may be apprehensive about for some reason). See diversity of thought, background, culture, etc., as a strength, not a weakness.
  • Find common ground on which to work with others. Look for these opportunities, rather than oppositional ones. Make this a priority, acknowledging that this type of collaboration is what will make our community whole again. Feeding division and disseminating unfound rumors will not.
  • Focus on the positive things going on in Galesburg, and there are a ton. Spend more time on furthering these efforts than on rehashing the negative ones. (I realize there are negatives that cannot be ignored, as we can learn from our mistakes and identify systemic challenges. I am merely saying that it is not productive to focus primarily on the negative. A house can burn down in five minutes but it takes a lot longer to build a new one.)
  • Show humility and grace. We are all members of this community. We all want to live in peace, harmony and love. No one has all the answers. Everyone has something to contribute. Encourage others to participate and be heard.

    • “If we all do these things and encourage others to do the same, we will heal and move forward. It is up to us, every one of us,” Schwartzman said. “I have faith in the resilience of our city and its people.

    The city of Galesburg hired Smith last September to be city manager, after serving that role in Maquoketa, Iowa, among a 25-year career in public administration.

    Smith was chosen by the Galesburg City Council to fill the position after a nationwide recruitment and selection process, led by the recruitment firm GovHR.

    His predecessor, Todd Thompson, served as Galesburg city manager since 2011, and on May 23, 2022 was sworn in as the new Rock Island city manager.

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