Williamsburg payments to former city manager consistent with a settlement
Happy Bastille Day! It's July 14. Former City Manager Andrew Trivette remains on city payroll. Variable speed limits coming to I-64 in James City. School tech group holds first meeting today.
Williamsburg has kept paying its former city manager his $264,000 annual salary, consistent with a clause in his contract that provided for a settlement if the city demanded his departure and he agreed to resign.
Former Manager Andrew Trivette was still on the last city payroll run June 26. He has been paid $126,845.21 in salary, plus $60,909 in accrued benefits, according to a report provided by the city attorney in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Williamsburg Watch.
The city has cloaked the reason for Trivette’s abrupt February departure in secrecy.
It refuses to say whether he received a settlement that allows him to continue receiving his salary. But it also refuses to say that there is no settlement.
“The City has nothing further to add to the publicly available information and its previous statement regarding this matter,” spokesperson Nicole Trifone told us in an email.
The employment agreement signed by Trivette in 2018 requires him to provide at least 90 days’ notice of his resignation in order to receive his termination benefits, which would be a lump sum cash payment equal to six months of salary and accrued benefits, including unused leave.
But Section 4 of the agreement, dealing with separation from employment, also says the city can provide separation payments “should the council request the resignation of the City Manager in lieu of termination.”
Trivette sent the city a one-sentence resignation letter dated Feb. 24.
City staff redacted the letter to make the first half of the sentence unreadable when it was requested through FOIA. The second half reads “the City Manager hereby resigns his position with the City, effective February 24, 2026, which shall be deemed to be the Separation Date.”
The city cites personnel exemptions in Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act for refusing to acknowledge a settlement. But FOIA does not prevent the city from acknowledging the existence of such a deal.
“FOIA does not say they cannot comment on something like this,” we were told by Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “The personnel exemption is discretionary, which means that she is choosing not to comment. “
“The City has complied with its legal obligations under the Code of Virginia regarding your various record requests,” Trifone said in her email.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Williamsburg Watch to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.