Retiring county administrator will receive more than $800,000 from Wyandotte County
Doug Bach, the recently retired county administrator for Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, will receive more than $800,000 as part of a separation agreement with the Unified Government.
Bach served as the county administrator from 2014 until announcing his retirement on Dec. 28. He retired Jan. 6 — less than a month after new Mayor Tyrone Garner was sworn in.
Bach was appointed as county administrator by former mayor Mark Holland. He also worked for mayor David Alvey. But after Garner defeated Alvey in November, questions swirled around whether Bach would still serve as county administrator, which is not an elected position.
Just two days after Garner was sworn in, on Dec. 13, Bach indicated his intent to resign, according to the separation agreement obtained by The Star. KCUR previously reported on the agreement.
As part of his separation agreement, Bach will receive a lump sum payment of $336,445.28, which represents compensation payable to him from Jan. 7, 2022 through March 13, 2024. He will also get a severance payment of $50,000 and $427,364.72 for accrued leave. The sum totals $813,809.28. Bach will receive all the payments by the end of the month.
Last week, the Unified Government unanimously named Cheryl Harrison-Lee as the interim county administrator.
Harrison-Lee’s term is scheduled to run from Jan. 7, 2022 to April 1, 2023. She becomes the first woman and first Black person to serve in the role.
The Unified Government could vote to appoint her as full-time county administrator at the end of her term.
She is the CEO of Harrison-Lee Development and Consulting firm, and previously served as the city administrator for Gardner in Johnson County.
In her previous role as Gardner’s city administrator she helped the city win awards and brought several hundred million dollars worth of new development. She resigned in September 2018, 16 months before her contract was set to expire and the Gardner City Council voted to spend more than $350,000 in taxpayer dollars to buy out her contract.
The written separation said at the time that the two sides could not talk about what happened, The Star reported.
