Benton Harbor City Commissioners have appointed former City Manager Ellis Mitchell to serve as the new interim city manager. That’s after Darwin Watson was fired from the city manager position Monday. At a Thursday special meeting, the commission approved Mitchell to serve while a search is done for the next manager. Mitchell told us he served as city manager in Benton Harbor from 1983 to 1987. He also said he most recently worked as mobility manager at Dial a Ride. During Thursday’s session but after the vote, Mayor Marcus Muhammad said the drama of the past week has created chaos.
“As you can see, the city of Benton Harbor has reached a level of turbulence and uncertainty,” Muhammad said. “We terminated one manager, declared an emergency, now hiring an interim manager.”
Muhammad said his “hope and prayer is that out of this chaos, hopefully order and normalcy will prevail.”
“One thing that I can say [is] that what is happening is not good, and it does not look good.”
To Mitchell, Muhammad said it’s unfortunate he’s returning under the current circumstances. Muhammad voted against the appointment along with Mayor Pro Tem Duane Seats. The two had questions about whether a proper employment agreement and necessary background checks had been done. Commissioner Ron Singleton amended his initial motion appointing Mitchell to set him a salary of $85,000 and then the vote was taken. It was approved six to two with Commissioner Sharon Henderson abstaining. After the meeting, new Interim City Manager Mitchell told us he’ll win over the skeptics.
