Herington city manager Thatcher Motti resigns; commission moves to executive session on personnel

Thatcher Motti, Herington's city manager, told the City Commission on Feb. 17 that he was "here before you tonight to formally submit my resignation," and reviewed three years of work including a capital improvement plan, Safe Routes to School and moderate-income housing grant efforts and other projects. Motti said he planned to "work hard through my last day" and to assist with a smooth transition.

The commission had no public comment from commissioners on the resignation. Speaker 1 moved that the commission accept the resignation, effective Feb. 10 with a final date of March 18; Speaker 5 seconded. The transcript records the motion and the second but does not include a clear, standalone roll-call or recorded vote on that acceptance in the portions provided.

During public comment, Kat Souza urged the commission not to waive a 60-day notice requirement in the manager's employment contract, characterizing the lack of the notice as a breach and arguing the manager should not be paid accrued leave or otherwise be relieved of contractual obligations: "It does appear that he wanted to ensure he was protecting himself, but his dates didn't work out while our municipality... is the one who will be left to suffer. Vote no. Do not waive that 60 day notice." The clerk reminded speakers that name and address are requested for public forum records.

Immediately after the resignation motion, Speaker 1 moved the commission into executive session under KSA 70-843-19(3) to discuss employer-employee negotiations and to include the governing body, the city manager and the city attorney; the open meeting was set to resume at 6:20 p.m. The motion to recess into executive session was seconded and taken up by the commission.

Motti used the meeting to thank staff, the commission and community volunteers, and said he would make himself available during and after the transition. The transcript includes no further formal action explicitly recording the result of the acceptance motion in the segments provided; the executive session motion was made to allow confidential discussion of personnel and negotiation matters.

What happens next: the commission moved into a statutorily authorized executive session to address personnel/negotiation issues; any final actions on the resignation, severance or pay-out of leave would be recorded in the official minutes or in subsequent public action once the executive session concluded.