City Engineer Keith Beatty resigned on Monday, effective immediately.
Beatty had been the city engineer since June 2002 and joined the city in June 2000. He said Tuesday morning that he left because he wanted to resume a professional career in the private sector.
“I’ve got a couple of options still open, and it was just best that I resign then so I can pursue those,” he said. “I haven’t made my final decision, and I have a few weeks to do that.”
Beatty said he didn’t give notice because he and City Manager Matt Zimmerman had had prior discussions about his imminent departure.
“This has been something that we’ve been working on,” he said. “It wasn’t a notice issue for Matt.”
Asked if job dissatisfaction were a factor, Beatty said, “I don’t know. I can’t say that. It’s almost non-newsworthy. I’ve just decided that I want to go a different way with my career, I’ve had quite a few offers lately, and I’ve decided to make that decision now.”
He said he and Zimmerman got along in a typical employer-employee fashion.
“I was a department head, so really I had only seen Matt at commission and when we needed something,” he said. “No real issues. Matt had only been here a year, so we were all still trying to get to know each other.”
Beatty said that as of now, he plans to remain in the Emporia area. He said he wished there was an assistant city engineer that he could’ve left the position to.
“But they’ll be able to manage,” he said. “We’ve got good people in engineering and planning and zoning, and at the plants. I have full faith that they can move in and take care of the things that need to be taken care of right now.”
Zimmerman said the city would probably place a job ad in professional engineering magazines and also advertise the position to the League of Kansas Municipalities.
create (anonymous) says...
Yes, now we can look around for someone more highly qualified, certainly more responsible. Not giving at least two weeks notice seems rather unprofessional and irresponsible, whether or not the city manager was aware of intent. Bad form!
March 11, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nascar (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
March 11, 2008 at 1:35 p.m. ( permalink )