Lee Garrity Appointed City Manager

Office of the Mayor - July 17, 2006
Contact: Allen Joines, 727-2058

As city manager, Garrity will direct the activities of 2,360 city employees carrying out a variety of municipal functions. The city will operate during 2006 - 2007 fiscal year on a budget of $329.3 million.

Garrity is the city’s fifth manager since Winston-Salem adopted the council-manager form of government in 1948. He succeeds Bill Stuart, who retired June 30 after serving for more than 26 years.

Joines and the members of the City Council selected Garrity from among 42 applicants as part of a national search led by Slavin Management Consultants of Norcross, Ga. “This was a nationwide search and it validated for us that Lee is the best choice to lead the city,” Joines said. “He is a strong leader, he has an excellent rapport with city employees and he has excelled in his oversight of many of the city’s critical operations.”

As assistant city manager, Garrity was responsible for overseeing the Police and Fire departments, the LJVM Coliseum Complex, the Dixie Classic Fair, the Benton Convention Center, the City Secretary’s Office, Employee Health and Safety, and the Human Resources, General Services, and Marketing and Communications departments. He managed the agenda for City Council meetings, assisted in the development of the annual city budget and coordinated city annexations.

Among his accomplishments as assistant city manager, Garrity designed and implemented a mandatory diversity training program for city employees and managed the development and implementation of the city’s nationally recognized strategic plan. He also managed the public assembly facilities study that resulted in formation of the Public Assembly Facilities Commission and the Winston-Salem Sports and Entertainment Complex.

Garrity was also responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of the new public safety communications system, a new police deployment plan, and development of a new employee pay plan and performance review system.

Garrity joined the city in December 1990 as a budget and evaluation analyst. In 1992 he was promoted to senior budget analyst and in 1997 he was appointed to lead the Office of Organizational Effectiveness. In this position he coordinated the Citizen Efficiency Review Committee and directed the implementation of key committee recommendations.
Before joining the city, he worked in Washington, D. C., as a staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, and subsequently on the staff of the Federal Elections Commission. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in public administration from George Mason University in Virginia. In 2005 he was a graduate of the inaugural Public Executive Leadership Academy, an eight-month program of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a credentialed manager by the International City/County Management Association.

Garrity, 44, sits on the board of Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina and the advisory board of Liberty East Redevelopment Inc. He is a graduate of Leadership Winston-Salem and an elder of Parkway Presbyterian Church. He and his wife, Cathy, have two daughters.

Garrity’s annual salary will be $152,000.
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