With mixed emotions, Salina City Manager, Mike Schrage, submitted his resignation to the Salina City Commission at their December 23rd City Commission meeting informing them that the Warrensburg, Missouri City Council had appointed him their next city manager earlier that afternoon.
Schrage addressed the City Commission at the end of their meeting expressing his love for the community, his respect and appreciation for the City staff and elected officials, his pride in being a part of the community’s significant progress & successes and providing additional details about the reasons for his family’s decision to return to Missouri at this time.
See below for Schrage’s full remarks to the City Commission.
Schrage’s last day will be Friday, February 7th . The City Commission will consider appointment of an Interim City Manager as well as their next steps regarding the process to select and appoint the next City Manager in the very near future.
Additional Remarks from Salina City Manager, Mike Schrage
My family and I absolutely love Salina! I am thoroughly enjoying the work of being Salina‘s City Manager, now more than ever; and, I sincerely believe the City organization as well as the community as a whole are in the best shape they have been in decades, if not ever.
But . . .
It is time for me to begin drawing my pension in Kansas and return to Missouri. Consequently, I have accepted the city manager position in Warrensburg, Missouri.
Not only does it fit in to my family’s financial plans, but it creates an opportunity for my stepfather to move in with us; we will be a 30 minute drive from my father-in-law whose health needs are significantly increasing; and, I am extremely excited about the professional opportunity that awaits me and the value that I believe I can add as Warrensburg’s next city manager.
Hopefully, Warrensburg is the last stop in my city management career. I will consider myself blessed if I am lucky enough to be able to look back on my time in Warrensburg as fondly and proudly as Salina.
The timing of this announcement was affected by Warrensburg’s selection process and timeline which has made it a little awkward around the holidays. My last day will be February 7, 2024. I will be coordinating with City staff to hand off projects & responsibilities in the meantime.
I believe there is undeniable consensus about how successful Salina has been as a community, lately; unprecedented excitement about the community momentum that has been built; and significant optimism about our future!
I have certainly enjoyed being a part of that!
There are too many deserving people to adequately give credit where it is due, but I do want to note that our recent successes are the result of unprecedented community collaboration; selfless effort and investment from the local private sector; courageous & steady leadership from City Commissioners; exceptional assistance from state & federal elected officials; impressive amounts of effort & leadership well beyond the norm by City staff and legal counsel; terrific leadership and foresight by our prior City Manager, Jason Gage; lots and lots of creativity; a deliberate & persistent willingness to work outside of our comfort zones; and strategic risk taking all of which are extremely rare for a community.
I have never seen anything like it in my 36-year career! I have tried to convey to all of our City employees & elected officials that public service is a very noble endeavor and each individual should take pride that they are community building to improve the lives of their friends, neighbors and families.
Over my career I have tried to adopt and foster an attitude that we should be flattered by extremely high expectations even when they come in the form of harsh criticism since it just serves to underscore how much is expected of us and how much we are entrusted to serve our community.
I wish each of you the best!
If you aren’t familiar with Theodore Roosevelt’s remarks referred to as the Man in the Arena, I encourage you to take a few minutes to find it on the internet and reflect on his wisdom from 114 years ago!
I am honored to have been in the arena with so many of you for the last 19 years!
And, I look forward to watching Salina continue on the upward trajectory that this community has built for itself!
Sincerely,
Michael D. Schrage
Salina City Manager