Fairfax City Manager Fired By Outgoing City Council

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — At its Tuesday night meeting, the Fairfax City Council terminated the contract of City Manager Laszlo Palko without cause.

The council's decision goes into effect on Wednesday and current Deputy City Manager Valmarie H. Turner will serve as the interim city manager until she leaves in January to become the city manager in Roanoke, Virginia.

The motion to terminate Palko's contract was approved on a 4-2 vote, with Councilmembers Kate Doyle Feingold and Jeff Greenfield voting against the measure. Councilmembers Billy Bates, So Lim, Tom Ross, and John Stehle voted to end Palko's employment.

Tuesday night was the final meeting of the current city council, with four members ending their terms. Doyle Feingold and Greenfield were defeated in Nov. 5 general election and Lim, Ross and Stehle did not seek reelection.

The new council will be sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025.

Joining Bates on the council next month will be Stacy R. Hall, Thomas D. "Tom" Peterson, Stacey D. Hardy-Chandler, Anthony T. Amos, and Rachel M. McQuillen.

During the second public comment portion of Tuesday night’s meeting, Hall gave a statement on behalf of her fellow incoming councilmembers — Peterson, Amos and McQuillen — who were sitting in the audience.

“I'm speaking here as an incoming councilmember and on behalf of my colleagues, Rachel McQuillan, Anthony Amos and Tom Peterson. We understand that a closed session will soon be held to discuss personnel matters. While the specifics are not yet clear, we want to emphasize for the record that we believe decisions regarding significant personnel changes should not be made by an outgoing council, as this is the final meeting for five of the six council members. We strongly believe that any major personnel changes, changes that will impact both the incoming council and our city residents, should be left to the incoming council.”

The outgoing council approved the hiring of Palko in April, after former City Manager Rob Stalzer stepped down on March 1.

Prior to Palko coming to work for the city, he served as the city manager of Manassas Park. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day and strategic executive management of city departments and developing and recommending policies, strategies, annual budget, and ordinances for the governing body’s approval, as well as managing the execution of the city budget and capital improvement program.