Tybee Island’s City Council approved the hiring of City of Savannah employee Bret Bell as its City Manager on Thursday, July 25 during a regular meeting of the council. A 5-1 vote in favor of hiring Bell as the full time City Manager meant
Mayor Brian West and the six councilmembers could officially end a search which began in earnest after the resignation of
former City Manager Shawn Gillen on Sept. 28, 2023.
Connect Savannah previously reported the names of Tybee’s three finalists for the full-time position. The names included Bell, Tybee Interim City Manager Michelle Owens, and Drew Willison, Senior Vice President for Corporate and External Affairs at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington.
Owens said in a text message to
Connect Savannah on Friday that she will remain with the department, shifting to a full time Assistant City Manager role once Bell begins in September. She was the Assistant City Manager
under Gillen, and unofficially began as his interim replacement in May 2023 when he took an extended leave of absence for health concerns.
Bell will be paid $165,000 annually and will begin officially in his new position on Sept. 3, according to the contract approved by City Council and attached to the meeting’s agenda. After Thursday’s vote, West said the city will formally introduce Bell during the council's next regular session on Aug. 8 at Tybee City Hall. He was Savannah’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) for five years (2019-2024) before shifting to the role of Chief Information and Public Affairs Officer at the start of this year. Bell said the opportunity to “return” to Tybee was simply too good for him to pass up.
[pdf-1] “This was a great opportunity,” he told
Connect Savannah during a Friday phone call. “I moved to work in Savannah back around 2008, but I lived on Tybee for the first three years or so. And really, those were like the best three years of my life. I was younger then, and I went out more, but it was just a blast. I stayed close to many of the people on Tybee since then and so it's always sort of been in the back of my head that I left there to sort of go back there somehow. When this opportunity came up, it really sort of blended everything. I love public service, and I get to stay in the area while progressing my career; It sort of checked all of the boxes for me. I'm very excited about this opportunity.”
The City Council member who voted against the appointment of Bell on Thursday was Michael “Spec” Hosti, who voiced
opposition to the hiring of a search firm when the City Council on
Feb. 8, 2024 voted to open the search instead of offering the job to Owens outright.
“I just want to say that I’m really disappointed in the decision this council is making today,” Hosti said at Thursday’s meeting. “I think Michelle has done a great job and I don’t know how we passed her up with the amount of experience she had in the last five years or so. I don’t think anybody else could make the city better than she has.”
[TYBEE ISLAND]
Michelle Owens, Tybee Interim City Manager
Tybee paid search firm Baker Tilly $26,950 to conduct a nationwide search to fill the position, according to documents attached to meeting agendas. The firm began accepting resumes from applicants on April 22, 2024 with a round of “first resume reviews” for candidates starting on May 21, according to the firm’s brochure on the job details.
[pdf-4] “The starting salary range is $155,883 - $165,111, depending on qualifications and experience and is subject to negotiation,” reads one portion of the job posting. “The City of Tybee Island provides a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, dental, vision, supplemental, accidental, and life insurance, deferred compensation, and deferred benefits programs.”
[pdf-5] Bell will also receive $600 per month for an auto payment in lieu of mileage reimbursement and a company cell phone, according to the approved contract.
“I've been keeping the [Savannah] City Manager [Jay Melder] informed through the entire process, so there were no surprises,” he said of how he’ll transition between now and September. “I've been with the city for 18 years and have loved my whole time there. All of it. Through the ups and the downs. I'll certainly miss it.”
“I'm going to be working over the next month with [Melder] on their transition plans. And Savannah has been super supportive of me throughout this entire process. I'm leaving feeling very good about everything and that's good. But yeah, there's a bunch of formal stuff that I'll have to do; I'll figure out all of that over these next few weeks.”