Pekin selects police chief instead of Mays to be city manager

WCBU Radio in Peoria reported Tuesday that John Dossey will drop the “interim” tag from his city manager title after a divided Pekin City Council voted Monday night to permanently hire him for the job. 

The other finalist for the job was Jeff Mays, director of administrative services for the city of Quincy.

Dossey will start on as the full-time city manager on Nov. 6. His hiring comes more than 10 months after Mark Rothert was fired from the position. Dossey was the interim city manager for the past three months, succeeding former interim city manager Bruce Marston, who left city government after human resources complaints from his employees. 

Mays was appointed by then-Mayor Kyle Moore in February 2019 as the interim director of administrative services. He replaced John “Skip” Bright, who had retired. The interim tag was later removed by the City Council.

Dossey will make $170,000 a year as city manager.