Marathon City Attorney Steve Williams will serve as interim city manager after the ousting of former City Manager George Garrett, the Marathon City Council decided unanimously on March 10.
Councilman Kenny Matlock, who made the initial motion to fire Garrett, first proposed Williams’ appointment.
“Steve’s assured me he’s extremely comfortable doing (the job) – obviously not full time, because he doesn’t want it full time, which is another plus,” Matlock said. “It’s happened in the past in this city where it just rolls through and hasn’t gone out for hire, and I think we need to.”
Council members Lynn Landry and Robyn Still asked to avoid consolidating Marathon’s two staff positions that report directly to council into one employee, instead recommending Code Director Ted Lozier as the interim manager.
“This is not about installing somebody and then voting them in. I want to have a process in the public about what we’re going to do,” said Landry. “Are we going to do a nationwide search, a localized search, a regional search? … As far as I know, I think (Lozier) is the only one in our city that has experience as a city manager.”
With Vice Mayor Debbie Struyf and Mayor Lynny Del Gaizo supporting Matlock’s motion, Landry and Still agreed to appoint Williams as the interim manager, later setting a special call meeting for March 17 to review the manager’s job description and selection process.
The council finalized its severance with Garrett later in the same session, placing his separation agreement on the consent agenda. Terms of the agreement were not discussed in the meeting, but a copy later obtained by the Weekly detailed a $219,373 total payout per the terms of Garrett’s employment contract – $81,249 for 20 weeks pay after his final working day of March 10, $56,874 for 560 accumulated sick leave hours, $20,312 for 200 banked vacation hours, $24,374 for pay during his 30-day notice period, and a total of $36,562 in retirement benefits.
The severance closely mirrors the agreements from Marathon’s last two city managers, Chuck Lindsey and David Migut. In October 2020, Lindsey received a payout of about $112,000 for 20 weeks pay plus accrued vacation and sick time.
Traffic troubles explained
Utility Director Dan Saus provided an update on Marathon’s deep wastewater well pipeline drilling project, responsible for heavy traffic on U.S. 1 with the closure of a southbound lane by the Marathon Airport.
The traffic pattern in place, Saus said, was the only setup approved by the Florida Department of Transportation, and involved an extended lane closure to allow two drill rigs to operate simultaneously. Installation of the pipe as soon as possible is critical as Marathon works to meet a federally-mandated deadline to complete its new wastewater injection well by 2028.
“Our contractor actually had to hire a special (traffic) engineer to get the permit, and it’s been a long, painful process for all of us,” Saus said. “With two drill rigs, we’ll get out of there twice as fast. … We were ready to start in August, but we couldn’t get a permit (from DOT).”
In other news:
- A plethora of ordinances presented by Planning Director Brian Shea corrected the constantly-changing name of Florida’s state land planning agency in Marathon’s code, comprehensive plan and development regulations.
- With a new batch of building rights made available in December 2025 from the Florida Department of Commerce, the council unanimously approved its first award of four allocations for 2026. Following Tuesday’s approval, both Landry and Shea noted, the city has exhausted all applicants on its waiting list for market-rate owner-occupied homes. Under the new award schedule approved by the council, Marathon may distribute up to five of these rights in even-numbered years, or six in odd-numbered years. “If you want to build a house, you have a lot and you want to occupy that unit, now is the time to do it,” Landry said.
- Resolution 2026-30, unanimously approved, provides for fee increases for use of the city marina’s mooring field, seawall dockage and dinghy dock, held static since 2023. Rental rates will increase by roughly $5 per foot for seawall dockage, with mooring field and dinghy dock rates increasing by $5 or $10 per month.
- Resolution 2026-33 unanimously authorizes a $1.485 million change order to the first phase of Marathon’s deep injection well wastewater pipeline, providing for the pipe to cross beneath Vaca Cut and the Robert Dopp Bridge on Coco Plum Drive. Saus told the council that bids for the first phase of the deep well project could not include the underwater crossings when initially received, as the city had not received necessary permits from the Army Core of Engineers. The permit now in hand, he said, would expire on March 14 if a contractor was not selected, leading the city to award the underwater crossings to DBE Utility Services, the $5 million low bidder for the other components of phase 1.
