Hilton Head town manager gets $15K bonus, contract extension after 9 months on the job
The town manager of Hilton Head Island is getting a $15,000 bonus and a two-year contract extension after 9 1/2 months on the job.
The island’s Town Council in a 7-0 vote Tuesday approved the one-time bonus and contract extension for Town Manager Marc Orlando, who took over as the government’s chief executive on Feb. 22.
Orlando’s contract originally was a two-year agreement, but with the two-year extension it runs until Feb. 21, 2025. After that, the contract will automatically renew for one year at a time unless it’s terminated by town leaders, as is customary.
The town manager’s salary has not changed, Mayor John McCann confirmed Wednesday. It’s still $200,000 a year.
The Town Council’s vote Tuesday followed Orlando’s performance review during an executive session on Nov. 16.
“I think we’re sending a clear message to him, and to the community, that we hope he’s a long-term player and partner with us in the future,” Ward 2 representative Bill Harkins said at Tuesday’s meeting.
McCann in a Wednesday interview said that Orlando, a former Bluffton town manager, has “hit the ground running.”
The mayor said he has been particularly impressed with Orlando’s handling of the U.S. 278 corridor project and the mid-island tract, a 103-acre parcel that Hilton Head wants to develop into a community park.
Orlando also has been forced to navigate the pandemic, which flared up this past summer as COVID-19 cases skyrocketed. He has spearheaded a new strategic plan for the town government; has helped identify how Hilton Head will spend $5.2 million in federal coronavirus relief funds; and has grappled with a fierce debate over a diversity training that the Office of Cultural Affairs hosted for arts and cultural leaders earlier this year, among other things.
He did not immediately respond to a phone message Wednesday.
Other parts of Orlando’s contract were not changed Tuesday by the Town Council vote.
The contract includes an $850 monthly car allowance for a vehicle that’s “appropriate for his position.” The town also pays Orlando’s monthly cellphone and internet bills, the contract says.
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 2:52 PM.
