Salem Mayor Now Salem's City Manager

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Published on August 20 2019 4:09 pm
Last Updated on August 20 2019 4:09 pm

The Salem City Council has named a new city manager. It's Salem Mayor Rex Barbee.

Mayor Pro-tem Sue Morgan made the motion after an hour-long closed session Monday.

“We have offered Rex Barbee the official job as city manager with an $87,500 salary to begin. He will start off with 12 days of vacation immediately. We will have an annual review prior to May 1st,” said Morgan.

The vote in favor of making Mayor Rex Barbee City Manager Rex Barbee was unanimous.

Councilman Nic Farley says they looked at other candidates.

“We had 16 applicants. We interviewed three candidates. We spent a lot of time over the last three months really weighing out our options and interviewing folks,” said Farley. “I think we are all pleased with the selection process and how we all worked together to come up with our next city manager.”

Farley says Barbee stayed out of the interview and discussion process so the rest of the city council could talk freely.

Barbee says he looks forward to exploring opportunities and challenges facing the city.

“The city of Salem is a great place to live and to work. I’ve always had a keen interest in providing whatever type of service I could to the community to make it a better place to be. The city has a very strong workforce with lots of talent which makes moving into the city manager position an easy transition for me. I have a lot of business background and management. I think those skills will come into play. I can make the transition fairly smooth.”

Barbee says he has a lot of respect for city employees and plans to expand on that in his new role as city manager. He plans to concentrate on quality of life issues that can determine if an individual or a company decides to locate in the city. While Barbee wants to work for new jobs, he feels the primary push will be to keep businesses that are already here.

Barbee has been the General Manager of Safe Sheds for the past 12 years and is just beginning his second four-year term as Mayor after being re-elected without opposition in April.

Barbee plans to resign as Mayor after the September 3rd meeting and will step into the city manager’s position the following day.   Current City Manager Bill Gruen’s last day on the job will be September 3rd.

Barbee says Sue Morgan will be Mayor Pro Tem for 60 days after his resignation during which time the city council will have to selected a new mayor. He reports it can be a current city council member or someone else within the city limits. The unexpired term would run until the April 2021 municipal election.