Galesburg City Manager Gerald Smith reached a separation agreement with the City Council on Monday night.
According to Acting City Attorney Paul Mangieri says Smith signed the severance agreement with compensation in exchange for Smith releasing all claims against the city.
Mangieri said the settlement amount that Smith will receive is $74,795.
Council went into closed session for over an hour and had little comment after returning to vote in open session.
4th Ward Council member Dwight White says as a member of the council that hired Smith he “apologized for getting him into this mess.”
The final vote to approve the separation agreement with 5-0-1; Sarah Davis was not in attendance and White abstained.
Mayor Peter Schwartzman called it a “dark day” in an interview with WGIL after the meeting.
Schwartzman says he doesn’t believe there are grounds for Smith’s removal but “can understand Council members who might think otherwise based on latest evidence” although he wouldn’t elaborate.
He thinks a “reasonable settlement” was reached.
Schwartzman says he understands this is hard for the community because not all evidence has been presented to them.
He says Smith made some “mistakes” but doesn’t think they were “egregious” and says efforts to remove him have been underway since he “walked in the door.”
Schwartzman was critical of Council members who voted to oust Smith while making no comment in open session on the matter.
There was public comment that derided the Council’s actions as racist and unfair to Smith.
Smith was approved as Galesburg’s eighth city manager by a 4-3 vote on Sept. 26, 2022. The total salary and benefit package offered to Smith was about $171,000. Alderman Bradley Hix, Wayne Dennis and then Seventh Ward alderman Larry Cox voted against the contract.
