SOUTHPORT — The city manager of Southport resigned last week with little explanation — the news becoming public only after the Southport Board of Aldermen decided to appoint a 25-year-old interim replacement. His past employment indicates the resignation is part of a similar pattern in other communities.
Stuart Turille Jr. became Southport’s city manager in July 2024 after the departure of Bonnie Therrien.
The board of aldermen were notified of Turille’s resignation during the board’s three-hour closed session on Thursday, Feb. 13, though Mayor Rich Alt told PCD he was notified prior to the meeting. The board conducted regular business with Turille present for two hours before the closed session, though Turille’s contribution to the discussion was minimal.
When the board came back from closed session, Alderman Rebecca Kelley moved to appoint the city clerk, Noah Saldo, to lead the city’s staff of more than 80 people. He received unanimous approval from the aldermen, with Alderman Robert Caroll participating virtually.
Prior to the vote, Saldo chimed in and asked the mayor to “announce the prior action.”
“We’re going to take that up with him later on,” Alt said.
Turille did not return to the dais after the closed session. Port City Daily reached out to Turille for comment on his resignation but did not hear back by press.
Previous reporting shows he has more than two decades in public service in multiple jurisdictions across North Carolina and Virginia but has suddenly resigned from almost each position.
Turille led the Town of St. Pauls in Robeson County from 2007 to 2013, thereafter taking up the town manager position at North Topsail Beach in Pender County. He resigned from that position in 2018.
Three years later, he would take up the city manager position in Petersburg, Virginia, where he served around eight months before being put on administrative leave. The town gave no explanation for doing so and Turille resigned a week later.
He then took up the county administrator post in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, from April 2023 to April 2024, the board waiving the 30-day resignation notice stipulated in Turille’s contract.
In conversation with PCD on Tuesday, Mayor Alt said he couldn’t share Turille’s reasoning for his exit in Southport, due to privacy protections in the state’s personnel law. PCD asked the official to describe his and the board’s relationship with Turille, but Alt said he was limited on doing that, even if the relationship was positive.
“When we put out our press release [on the city manager transition], he got to see it first, made sure that everything we were saying he concurred with,” Alt said. “The next day [after the aldermen meeting] when I was in city hall and he came over, we sat in a room together, and he made sure that he gave me a bunch of information about projects that were still outstanding, and he didn’t want them to fall through the cracks. And I took all notes down for that, and he then subsequently sent me an email on another project. So that’s the relationship.”
PCD asked if the board was aware of Turille’s resignations before he was hired, to which Alt confirmed.
“We specifically asked questions about those particular things,” Alt said. “And the responses that he provided satisfied the majority of the board.”
Turille beat out more than 70 other applicants for the position.
In a statement to WECT published Feb. 17, Turille spoke to his resignation by saying: “Sometimes things in life don’t work out.” He’s offered the same sentiment to the press following his other resignations.
He gave the following to ABC13 News following his resignation from Pittsylvania County: “Sometimes in life things just don’t turn out. You must choose to learn and move forward.” Upon leaving St. Pauls, he said he had “reached a plateau” in the town.
Turille has been open with the public on his hands-on management style to and desire to dive head first into problem solving. This has sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, like when 19 days into his tenure in Petersburg he decided to open a street that his predecessor had agreed to close off for street dining during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As far as the administrative leave in Petersburg, Turille gave the following response to the State Port Pilot: “All I have to say is, you do the right things and things will work out, and I’m confident I did all the right things and stood on strong, ethical ground.” The administrative leave “wasn’t a punitive thing” he said.
During his tenure in Southport, Turille said he wanted to continue to whittle down the city’s list of deferred capital projects, such as the shoreline stabilization project and courthouse renovations; the town has completed almost 15 out of 44 of those that were identified three years ago.
Most recently, Turille presented next fiscal year’s budget outlook to the alderman in January; the city faces a $1.44-million deficit. Turille’s recommendations included pulling money from the fund balance, increasing ad valorem taxes, reassigning funds from capital to the general fund, and lowering the cost-of-living adjustment for salaries and wages.
Aldermen Carroll and Alderman Karen Mosteller expressed distaste with the latter two suggestions, wanting to increase taxes and use the fund balance more instead. They were also wary of Turille’s projection that development would continue at the same rate and thus bolster revenue in the future.
As for the new interim city manager, Noah Saldo, he told Port City Daily on Tuesday he had a good working relationship with Turille and assured his transition into the new role would be pretty seamless — despite this being the first time he’s been city manager.
Saldo is the youngest city manager in Southport’s history. The 25-year-old said he thinks people on both sides of the age spectrum get a bad rap, but noted people should judge each individual differently.
“I’ve been here, I know what we’ve had going on, I’m one of the only ones that could pick up right where we left off,” Saldo said.
Saldo began his career as a funeral director, but decided he wanted to go into government service and obtained a master’s degree in public administration. Previous government experience includes city clerk and human resources for his hometown of Boiling Springs; he also served on the planning board there. However, Saldo said he was still surprised at being named city manager at last week’s meeting.
Alt lauded Saldo for all he’s accomplished in the limited amount of time he has worked for the city and praised Saldo’s ability to listen and incorporate the community’s feedback into his work. He also pointed out a person’s younger years tend to be their most creative and innovative, an approach Alt said the city could benefit from.
“Einstein developed a law of relativity when he was 26, right? And then he lived off that for the rest of his life,” Alt said.
Saldo said his vision for the city is continuing the progress it’s made on major projects and getting the board of aldermen through budget season.
“I pride myself in really relationship building, and I think that’s kind of the most important, kind of first aspect of leadership is really having that relationship with our employees and our community — really getting to that boots on the ground standpoint to really understand the organization and the department,” Saldo said.
The promotion also comes with a pretty significant pay increase, from $84,000 to $150,000 annually.
Saldo will lead the help as the city begins its search for a permanent city manager soon, a process the board of aldermen has gotten very familiar with. Alt said he believes the city has gone through seven city managers over the last 12 years.
“It is certainly not good for stability. But in spite of all of that we have, we started off three years ago with a laundry list of, I think, 42 major projects that were stalled and not going anywhere, lots of discussion, but no action. And we’re now currently knocking them out.”
[Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect Southport has more than 80 full-time employees, not 40 as previously written. PCD regrets the error.]
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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