“I’m offering to help the city.”
He resigned from the interim city manager job last month, but for $100 an hour Melvin Burns says he is willing to work part-time making sure some multi-million-dollar projects in the city keep moving forward.
“Because I care about the city”
But Muskegon Heights Mayor Pro Tem Kellie Kitchen says Burns will not resume other city manager duties.
“Still won’t have a city manager in that position.”
Kitchen says even during the two years he served as interim council was looking for someone besides Burns to fill the city manager position permanently. But keeping him on part time project manager addresses the immediate problem.
“That we can keep the major projects that haven’t happened in our community in years continue, we do. We have a person in place that can manage that.”
The mayor says the state may cover Burns hourly rate for up to 120 days. By then councilman Robert Jenkins wants somebody doing the city manager job.
“City manager should be number one from this point on. We are not getting off this subject no more.”
Burns and the city are now negotiating a part time project manager contract,
“I didn’t want to leave the city high and dry. I love the city I’ve been here most of my life.”
