MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown’s incoming city manager Paul Brake said he will be ready to hit the ground running Feb. 8.
A day after his hiring was announced, Brake said on MetroNews affiliate WAJR’s Morgantown AM he will be “learning the community by meeting different individuals, whether it be homeowners, individuals part of organizations.” He continued “I certainly want to get to know all of the employees and then all of our sister organizations that provide municipal services.”
The former Grand Blanc, Michigan City Manager will oversee 234 city employees in Morgantown.
Some of the projects he helped manage during the 4 years he was in Grand Blanc include familiar elements to Morgantown.
“I had an opportunity to work on some elements of expanding the air cargo hanger for Bishop International Airport. I was involved in a Brownsfield redevelopment project that really made an instrumental change to the whole downtown area,” Brake explained.
For more than a decade, Brake worked for Meridian Township which borders the community of Michigan State University.
“During that time I worked on different initiatives with the university on land use planning, entrepreneurism and had an opportunity to work with faculty and administrators and really cultivate that relationship of what they term town gown,” added Brake.
Brake has 2 decades of municipal leadership experience from large cities like San Antonio, Texas to the township he served the longest.
“I’ve worked for organizations that served populations up to a million and as small as 3,000,” he said.
“I have a pretty good diverse view of local government services and good take-aways and best practices.”
Brake replaces former city manager Jeff Mikorski who resigned to take a city manager position in Wisconsin.
The starting salary for Brake is $130,000.