RFP Staff
♦ Apparently Salisbury City Manager Lane Bailey was on probation. Hired over a year ago in February 2015, Bailey came from Lenior after the city decided not to hold an originally planned assessment center including a panel of citizen interviewees through its original hiring consultant. Word is the city did not get many qualified applicants, and putting a poor slate of candidates before a citizen panel would have embarrassed the city council.
The city manager world is close knit and the Salisbury City Council doesn’t have the best professional reputation when it comes to how it treats its city employees. Just ask former Police Officer Kenny Lane who recently won a large settlement after Human Resources Manager Ruth Kennerly (a Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell favorite) unprofessionally terminated him while backing a Police Chief taking pain synthetic heroin pills on a regular basis. Kennerly remains under Blackwell’s protection despite her poor decision making and the resulting large settlement.
Without disclosing it to the public, the Salisbury City Council had Lane Bailey on probation, disclosing this fact for the first time last night at their council meeting. We doubt the city council will disclose the reason for the probation or the content of the discussion taking place in closed session. We expect them to act like it was just “standard procedure” to keep a good face on things like they have attempted to do with rising crime and failing schools within the city limits. We know better.
