The City Council is retaining City Manager Mike Frazier, but Deputy City Manager and Water Resource Director Terry Lowe is out after more than 14 years with the city.
The shakeup happened late …
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The City Council is retaining City Manager Mike Frazier, but Deputy City Manager and Water Resource Director Terry Lowe is out after more than 14 years with the city.
The shakeup happened late last month, when Mr. Lowe resigned Feb. 26, sparking a special meeting for the City Council to debate the fate of Mr. Frazier two days later.
After more than an hour behind closed doors, the Council voted unanimously to not pursue any action against Mr. Frazier after bringing him in for two rounds of questioning during the executive session at the special meeting.
“Typically day in the life of a city manager,” Mr. Frazier joked after the council passed a motion to take no action against him. “They just had some tough questions about something I had to do. I talked them, they’re satisfied, so we’re done.”
Neither Mr. Frazier, nor some members of the city council would get specific about the questions they had for Mr. Frazier. Nor would anybody confirm that it had to do with the sudden departure of Mr. Lowe after rumors surfaced that he was fired or asked to resign.
When asked if the personnel situation had to do with the sudden departure of Mr. Lowe, Vice Mayor Chris Judd said “not necessarily.”
In his resignation letter, Mr. Lowe checked the box “Personal Reasons” for the cause of his quitting, but there was no further elaboration for that reason.
City officials have not released any official announcement of Mr. Lowe’s departure. But in an e-mail, Deputy City Manager and city spokeswoman Diane Arthur wrote: “Terry Lowe resigned from his position as Deputy City Manager / Water Resource Director. The City Manager has named Mike Gent as Acting Deputy City Manager / Public Works Director and Lee Lambert has been named the Acting Water Resource Director.”
Mr. Frazier, 67, has been in the city manager position since November 2018 when previous manager Bob Wingenroth resigned. He had served as assistant city manager since 2015.
Prior to that, Mr. Frazier was the Surprise Police Chief since February 2011 after three-plus years in the same role in El Mirage. His law enforcement career includes 32 years with the Phoenix Police Department, where he rose as high as second command.
He makes $230,000 a year in his current role as city manager.
“I think we have a great city manager and I move that there be no action taken,” Mr. Judd said after the City Council returned from executive session.
Later Judd added, “We all came to the unanimous conclusion that we have a fantastic city manager and we’re very fortunate to have him.”
Mr. Frazier said he was never worried the Council was going to vote to fire him.
“I feel like I take the right actions, and certainly Council always has the right to ask me any questions they so choose to, and I tried to answer them as thoroughly as I can and try to provide them with information so they can make decisions,” Mr. Frazier said.
When asked what the specific questions they had for him, Mr. Frazier said, “I’m not going to get into it because it’s kind of a deep issue.
They had some questions about something they wanted to get clarification on and I think I provided that to them. Thus we had the action you just saw.”
Mr. Judd said the Council was forced to meet in a special executive session because of Open Meeting Laws.
“Anytime there’s anything strange that comes up we have to do it in a work session,” Mr. Judd said. “Or we have to do it in a regular council meeting. Or we have to do it in E-session. This one, there was personnel involved, so it had to be in an E-session. It was the only way we could all talk to each other to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Mr. Lowe, who owns a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s in the same from The Catholic University of America, came to Surprise in November 2005 as a manager in the Project Management Division.
He helped oversee the construction of City Hall and the Public Safety Facility as the project manager when they were build a decade ago.
He was named the interim director of the public works department in early 2013 before becoming the Water Resource Management Department director in August that year.
In December 2018 right after Mr. Frazier took over as city manager, Mr. Lowe was promoted to deputy city manager.
Mr. Lowe also worked for the cities of Peoria and Mesa before coming to Surprise.
Mr. Judd said he was sad to see Mr. Lowe go.
“Terry’s a great guy,” Mr. Judd said. “It’s a huge loss for the city.”
Mr. Gent has been the Surprise public works director since 2015. He came on board as an assistant in November 2013. Prior to that, Mr. Gent was assistant to the public works director for 2-1/2 years in Tacoma, Washington.
He owns a doctor of social work, leadership and innovation from the University of Southern California. He also has a master’s from Norwich University and a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University.
Mr. Lambert has been with Surprise since 2005, the last six years as a water manager.
Editor’s Note: Jason Stone can be reached at jstone@newszap.com. Visit yourvalley.net.
Former NAU Lumberjack who loves going to concerts (or I did), watching sports (or I did) and hanging out with friends (oh, never mind). I also enjoy backgammon, surfing and men who are not afraid to cry.
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