Eric Duthie has been hired as Tusayan’s Town Manager and has been given a three year contract. He replaces Will Wright whom the council claimed resigned. However the Watchdog has learned that the resignation came with a price. Wright received a severance payment of nearly $50,000. It’s unclear why this was not discussed in open session. We learned of the severance payment in filing a public records request. Here is a link to the severance document.

Severance payments are usually given when someone is fired or forced to resign. Otherwise this is one heck of a going away present. Yet at no time did the Town Council formally discuss the $50,000 severance or give any indication Wright’s decision to leave was not entirely his own. We asked Mayor Greg Bryan was Wright terminated or did he indeed retire as has been stated.

The Mayor replied, “You can make whatever inference you want. He retired and part of our agreement with him was a severance package. End of it.”

We accidentally discovered the existence of the Wright severance package when it was mentioned in passing at a prior town council meeting.

Duthie was given a three year contract after the Town Council met in execution session October 21^st and changes his status from Interim Town Manager to Town Manager. After the vote Duthie quipped that he’ll have to get new cards made. His wife attended the meeting and is making plans to move to Tusayan now that the job is permanent or as permanent as one can expect.