Crossville City Manager Greg Wood announced Tuesday he plans to retire in the spring.
“This job is not a marathon. It’s a relay race,” Wood told the Crossville City Council during its Tuesday work session. “In a relay race, if you pass the baton too early, you lose. If you pass it too late, you lose. You need to figure out where the zone is.
“I think I’m coming into that zone for health issues. I think it’s time to move on.”
Wood’s contract extends to March 2024.
He has proposed a retirement window of Feb. 9-May 10, with a two-week overlap with the council’s selected city manager. He proposes his pay and benefits continue at the current rate if he remains in the job beyond his current contract date.
He asked the council not conduct an annual evaluation.
“I love this city. I love all my employees,” Wood said, becoming visibly emotional. “It was a hard thing to come here and say with all of these employees who have supported me.”
Wood said he hoped the timeline would allow the council time to recruit and bring a new manager to the community, if necessary.
“This allows us to put somebody in the position and you can onboard them,” Mayor R.J. Crawford said. “That’s not something we don’t always get.”
Wood joined the city in 2017.
A job posting will be issued in the coming weeks. The council will also discuss its search for a new manager during a retreat to be held in December.
Crawford said knowing Wood’s timeline gives the council an advantage. He proposed as much as 60 days overlap between Wood and his successor, once that person is identified.
“We’ve got a lot going on in this city, and it’s only getting busier,” Crawford said.
Wood did ask the council to consider its retirement plan for employees. The city left the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System in 2013, opting to create its own plan in the face of a plan requiring increasing contributions — around 18% of employee pay at the time.
Employees already enrolled with TCRS were allowed to continue their participation, but new employees were not permitted to join the state plan.
That places some employees at a disadvantage, Wood said. TCRS gives employees credit toward retirement benefits for any unused sick leave. The city’s system does not.
“They are in a lose or use situation, with no incentive to conserve,” Wood wrote in a memo to the council.
He proposed a plan to provide some compensation for employees retiring with at least five years of service with unused sick time. To prevent any conflict with his retirement, he suggested no such plan begin until July 1, after his retirement.
Leah Crockett, human resources administrator for the city, said the state has since transitioned from the legacy plan the city previously participated in to a hybrid defined benefit plan. It requires both city and employee contributions, but the contribution amount from the city would be lower than before.
She proposed bringing someone to speak to the council after the first of the year to discuss if and how the city could return to the TCRS.
“Some of their policies have changed,” Crockett said. “The landscape has changed dramatically.”
Crossville Fire Chief Chris South said not participating in TCRS has impacted his ability to recruit people to the department.
“It’s been detrimental to our hiring process,” he told the council. It’s especially true for potential hires who come with experience and some time of service under a TCRS plan.