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On a 3-2 vote Centralia City Council approves separation agreement with City Manager Lowell Crow

By News Mar 8, 2021 | 8:42 PM

On a 3-2 vote, the Centralia City Council has approved a separation agreement that will pay City Manager Lowell Crow $50,000 to retire.    The council then approved an employment agreement with Forrest Langenfeld to be Interim City Manager while a search is completed for a new city manager.

While none of the council members or Mayor Herb Williams would say publically why they wanted to terminate Crow, Councilman David Sauer spoke out on why he was voting no.

“There is obviously a lot more to this than appears in the few documents that have been made public.  I’m personally quite unhappy with the result, but also with the process that was used to bring this about, so I’ll be voting no,” said Sauer.

Councilman Spanky Smith cast the other no vote, while Councilmen Howard Jones and Andre Marshall joined Mayor Herb Williams in moving to accept the separation agreement.   Marshall said he had been vocal during the closed session meetings, but felt this was a personnel issue that should not be discussed in public.

Sauer said while he supported Langenfeld as an excellent candidate for the Interim City Manager position, he questioned how the selection process of a new city manager can be wrapped up in the 150 days Langenfeld has agreed to serve.

“We’re going to have at least two, maybe three, new council members starting in May.  If we don’t start the search until May, then we’re already going to be down two months.  If we start the search now we may be using council members who may not be here in three months.   So the search really can’t become serious until May, which is two months into this five-month agreement with Mr. Langenfeld.   I see that as a problem.

As a result, Sauer voted no.  The rest of the council concurred with the agreement with Langenfeld that will pay him $7,500 a month to serve as Interim City Manager.

The separation agreement with Crow will also pay him an additional $10,000 for the four weeks of accrued paid time off and an additional $5,891 if he does not elect to continue with the city’s health insurance benefits.

The two sides also agree not to pursue an action or make disparaging comments about each other.   Crow is also ordered to return all city-owned property no later than March 15th.

Langenfeld is a Centralia native who started his career as Centralia’s Community Development Director and later worked as President of People’s National Bank before becoming a financial consultant largely on economic development projects.