After months of public frustration and lingering questions about transparency, the Spring Lake Board of Commissioners voted Monday to appoint interim Town Manager Dennis English as the town’s next permanent manager.
The vote followed a public forum where residents submitted written questions in advance. Only five were asked—selected after review by the town attorney—during a special meeting featuring English and fellow finalist Michael Douglas, a veteran municipal manager.
Commissioners later entered closed session and after they emerged, voted 3–2 to hire English. Commissioners Fredricka Sutherland, Jackie Jackson, and Tony Burgess voted yes. Commissioners Soña Cooper and Adrian Thompson voted no. Mayor Kia Anthony only votes in the event of a tie.
Anthony turned to congratulate English immediately after the vote.
Cooper told CityView she opposed the appointment because she does not believe English meets professional standards for the role.
“Mr. English is not qualified. He is not ICMA [International City/County Management Association] certified nor does he qualify as a well‑qualified manager, which is what Spring Lake needs,” she said.
Spring Lake advertised the town manager position with a salary range of $135,000 to $150,000.
According to the job posting, the manager serves as chief executive officer of the town of roughly 12,000 residents, responsible for overseeing all municipal operations, implementing board policies, managing personnel and finances, and ensuring the effective delivery of public services.
The minimum qualifications included a bachelor’s degree in fields such as public administration, business administration, political science or finance, with a master’s degree in public administration or business administration preferred.
The job posting also noted that an ICMA Credentialed Manager designation was preferred, though the town would consider an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that demonstrated the necessary knowledge and abilities.
Divided Board and Months‑Long Dispute
English’s appointment caps a turbulent stretch for Spring Lake’s leadership.
In February, commissioners voted 3–2 to fire Town Manager Jon Rorie, a move supported by Sutherland, Jackson, and Burgess. Cooper and Thompson opposed the firing.
At the same meeting, the same three commissioners voted to appoint English—who had no prior experience working in local government—as interim manager. He took the oath of office on March 9.
The firing blindsided the rest of the board. Anthony wrote on Facebook that the decision “was not made in the best interest of Spring Lake” and warned against “political games, personal agendas, or reckless decision‑making.” The move drew public backlash and renewed scrutiny of board transparency.
Spring Lake is still recovering from three years of state financial control after the North Carolina Local Government Commission took over in 2021 due to evidence of massive financial mismanagement. The town has cycled through more than a dozen managers in the past two decades.
In February, when asked by ABC11 how he was selected, Jackson said, “Oh, randomly, randomly. I’m not exactly sure. I can’t even remember exactly sure, it came just randomly.” Jackson later apologized to residents, saying she misspoke and had been trying to describe English’s qualifications without disclosing information from closed‑door sessions, according to The Fayetteville Observer.
The Candidates
English arrived in Spring Lake with a background rooted in state government, economic development, and lobbying rather than municipal administration. Before becoming interim manager in February, he had never worked in local government.
According to his LinkedIn, in 2012 he spent a year with the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, where he served as an economic development coordinator working in eastern North Carolina through a federal grant. He then spent nearly four years as assistant to the secretary at the N.C. Department of Administration, a role he has said involved helping more than 5,000 minority and small businesses statewide.
In 2017, English founded Inner Banks Strategies, a Raleigh‑Durham government affairs firm he still leads. On LinkedIn, he described the firm as focused on navigating complex public policy and highlighted lobbying work on charter school approvals, small‑business policy, disaster recovery, and stakeholder engagement. His profile identified him as a “Government Relations Executive, Strategic Lobbyist, and Public Affairs Advisor.”
He received a bachelor’s degree from Saint Augustine’s University and a master’s in public administration from North Carolina Central University.
Douglas, according to his LinkedIn, has a decade of municipal management experience, most recently serving as town manager of East Spencer from 2021 to August 2026. Before that, he managed the towns of Kenly and Green Level.
He got his bachelor’s degree in political science from Grambling State University, and a masters degree of public administration from American Military University. He also holds a variety of professional certifications from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Cornell University.
What They Said at the Forum
During the public forum on Tuesday, residents were invited to submit written questions in advance; five were ultimately asked after being vetted by the town attorney.
Both men identified infrastructure and blight as major concerns, but English framed his priorities around long‑term, incremental work. He named water infrastructure, abandoned properties, and economic development as his top issues and told residents that meaningful progress would take several years. He pointed to efforts already underway, including stakeholder focus groups and use of the town’s nuisance ordinance. He also spoke about leveraging Spring Lake’s proximity to Fort Bragg to attract jobs.
Douglas, meanwhile, emphasized the town’s roughly $75 million infrastructure needs and highlighted his past success securing more than $24 million in state and federal water‑sewer funding. He said the town has the capability to secure similar support again, but residents would need patience while funding cycles play out.
“So the capabilities are there. You just got to wait a little bit for money,” Douglas said.
Douglas also named transparency as a top three priority.
“Everything I’ve read thus far is that there’s a transparency problem between the board and the residents. A lot of people don’t trust the board or the town manager,” Douglas said.
He pitched monthly “meet the manager” sessions and a public newsletter to help residents track progress and hold leadership accountable.
Questions about neighborhood safety and property upkeep, particularly in areas like Deerfield, drew different answers.
Douglas emphasized prevention and community involvement, describing school-based outreach on crime and drugs and stressing that police alone cannot fix the problem alone. “There’s no one way to secure a town. You can hire 100 police officers. That’s not going to fix the problem,” he said.
He said safety depends on residents calling in suspicious activity and on broader initiatives beyond just adding officers. “There are other initiatives that can go into effect,” he said without naming specifics.
English framed the issue as a balance between compassion and safety, saying not every problem is crime—some stem from an aging population and residents who can’t maintain their property.
“It’s about relationships. Over the last seven months, I’ve went to homes, shook hands, hugged 90-year-old women, built those relationships, and let them know that I care—not just about code enforcement and our police chief in the back, but it’s about commitment and connection and empathy,” English said.
On policing, he backed enforcement but warned, “we will never have enough police officers,” arguing Spring Lake also needs tools like neighborhood “captains” and close coordination with the police chief.
On management style, Douglas described himself as collaborative but direct, shaped by two decades in the military. He said he holds weekly all‑staff meetings to set priorities and believes disagreements should be resolved internally so the town presents “one band, one sound” to the public.
English said he leads as a listener and strategic thinker, emphasizing teamwork and cross‑department collaboration, especially given Spring Lake’s small staff. He pointed to joint efforts like National Night Out—a national event generally held on the first Tuesday in August—between police and fire as examples of how departments can work together effectively.
Both candidates were asked about their experience with municipal budgeting. English described his first budget cycle as a “crash course,” saying he worked closely with the finance director, met individually with every department head, and then with commissioners during a retreat. He highlighted a budget passed with no water rate or property tax increase, emergency funds set aside for water system failures, and money allocated to bring in a specialized public works “A‑team.”
Douglas cited 10 years of municipal budgeting experience and outlined a structured process beginning in January with preliminary department requests, followed by council retreats and detailed work sessions.
He said budgeting requires compromise and that he avoids using cash reserves except for one‑time needs, relying instead on line‑by‑line justifications and close mid‑year monitoring of spending.
What Comes Next
English’s salary as interim town manager was budgeted at $149,750.12, Town Clerk Carly Autry told CityView in March. Rorie, the previous manager, had an annual salary of $140,000 when he started in May 2024..
The Spring Lake commissioners will discuss English’s salary at their next meeting on Monday, according to Cooper. English will also be administered the oath of office during the meeting, according to the agenda.
English told residents he wants to continue the work he began as interim manager. “We do not want to stop the momentum. Let’s keep it going,” he said.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
