Propes reappointed to serve as Monroe city administrator

The Monroe City Council voted Tuesday to reappoint current city administrator, Logan Propes, to continue in his position with the city for another 5 years and 7 months. His previous 4-year appointment is up in May of this year. The reappointment will take him to the end of 2026.

Mayor John Howard has high praise for Propes, attributing much of the city’s recent successes in economic development to Propes’ leadership.

“He is the best thing that ever happened to the city,” Howard said. “He’s a financial wiz – he has taken our reserve from $4 million to $25 million. Just since I’ve been mayor, our prime rate has gone down double digits. We’re the No. 1 downtown in Georgia and our sales tax revenues were up double digits in 2020 – and that’s during a global pandemic. Our parks are totally renovated, we’ve purchased property for our future downtown green, we’re creating value for our citizens by taking fiber to every home in town and we’re adding to our real estate portfolio for our police department. That will open up future retail space downtown.

“The increased stability of our entire team is an economic development dream,” Howard added. “And he’s the boss – I’m the cheerleader.”

Propes began serving as city administrator in May 2017 after first serving as the city’s finance director since 2015. Prior to that he was finance director for the Jackson County government after serving as a fiscal analyst. He was also employed as deputy clerk in Hall County. He has an Associate’s degree in business administration, a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and a Mastor of Public Administration degree from the University of North Georgia.

Propes has been re-appointed with an annual salary of $160,000 with the relevant cost-of-living adjustments.

The Monroe City Council members voted to reappoint Propes but the vote was not unanimous. Councilman Norman Garrett and Councilwoman Myoshia Crawford opposed the motion. When Propes was first appointed in 2017, Garrett was an opposing vote. At that time, he said he did not oppose Propes’ appointment or annual salary of $120,000, but he did oppose the monthly auto allowance of $625 since Propes lived in Monroe. Propes has lived in Monroe for the past 14 years.

Howard said this time there is no additional auto allowance for Propes – just the flat annual salary of $160,000 with the regular COLA adjustments every two years. He said there is room for merit increases for city employees in the alternate years.