On Monday evening, Kirk Bednar attended his last Brentwood City Commission meeting as the community’s long-serving city manager. He will retire on Jan. 31 after 24 years of service to Brentwood.
“First and foremost, I want to thank this community, this commission and all the commissions that have come before you in the last 24.5 years that have allowed me to work here,” he said. “Brentwood is a very unique and wonderful community, and as I’ve said before, if you’re in the world of city management, there’s not many better places you can do that at.”
It was an evening of well wishes for Bednar, who began his career with Brentwood in 2000 as the assistant city manager. He was named city manager in 2013. The City Commission is currently conducting a national search for Brentwood’s next city manager.
Early in the meeting, Brentwood Fire Chief Brian Goss and Assistant Fire Chief Brian Collins presented Bednar with a white fire chief’s helmet with six bugles on the shield.
“In the days before radios, they used to give orders on the fire grounds by shouting them through a bugle,” Collins said. “Symbolically, the more bugles you have, the more authority you have. It starts with the first line supervisor all the way up to the fire chief, which has the most at five bugles. In the fire service, we jokingly refer to the city manager as the sixth bugle.”
All seven members of the Brentwood City Commission also presented Bednar with a plaque honoring his long service to the community.
“He’s done a great job and has been a great leader, has helped us get succession planning right in so many areas and instill such a fantastic culture,” Mayor Mark Gorman said.
With the city manager search ongoing, the Commission voted on Monday to appoint Jay Evans, assistant city manager, as Brentwood’s interim city manager. He will take up this new role on Feb. 1 and serve in that position until the Commission appoints a new city manager.
Evans said he is honored by the appointment and looks forward to serving the City Commission in this capacity while they search for a new city manager.
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