City manager Nocerini resigns

Former City Manager Lisa Nocerini

By Sarah Shurge – After eight years of serving the community, Lisa Nocerini resigned as Wayne City Manager. Effective Thursday, August 31st, her resignation was final and official.
“It was a good time for the city to have some different thinking,” said Nocerini. “I had accomplished the things needed to be done, the city is moving forward financially, and we have more employees. I know there will be more hurdles, but this is the best time to transition to someone else.”
Back in 2013 and 2014, Nocerini did some consulting work for the City of Wayne. The city manager at the time had resigned and the then mayor asked Nocerini if she would come help in a transition period.
“I knew the city was going through challenges, which is why I got the call,” said Nocerini.
Nocerini went through the interview process and the council voted 5-2 in favor of her joining. The council then asked her to stay longer to have some stability.
“One month turned into one year. One year turned into many years,” said Nocerini. Throughout her over eight years as city manager, Nocerini enjoyed one specific thing the most.
“Other than the volunteer work that I’ve done, what I enjoyed the most was working with such a diverse, incredible team of department heads,” said Nocerini.
Nocerini described the team with one word: phenomenal.
“My biggest achievement, I will say with confidence, is the team I helped create,” said Nocerini. “I’m so proud of them and will put them up against any team in the state.”
Having a team you can depend on, makes any job easier.
“It wasn’t easy. There were times when a job like that can get to you, difficult days and criticism,” said Nocerini. “I kept my head up and knew I had a great team working with me. It really made it worth it.”
With Nocerini’s resignation, the city had someone from within step up as acting manager. The current acting manager is Wayne Police Chief Ryan Strong. “He is also the Emergency Coordinator for the city. We worked closely together and I think he will do a tremendous job,” said Nocerini. “Being the chief and the way he’s handled things, he’s done a fantastic job. I have full confidence in him that he will keep things moving along and keep morale high.”
The city council meeting on Tuesday, September 5th, voted 7-0 in favor of Chief Strong being acting/interim city manager. The council also agreed to hire the Michigan Municipal League to do a search for a new city manager.
“I’ve been through four councils, and the one thing I’ll say is that they did renew my contract and that really gave that vote of confidence at the end. It allowed me to leave on my own terms and I really appreciate that,” said Nocerini.
“Wayne has a great group of people. That was the hardest thing about leaving – leaving them. There were many tears,” said Nocerini. “I wish the city all the best moving forward and hope they continue the progress that we started.”
“I will not miss getting poison ivy eight times, but we made such a difference with park clean ups. I really enjoyed that,” said Nocerini. “We had fun at those and made a significant difference. We laughed, we itched, we saw great things, and we saw tough things, but we knew we needed to do it.” We thank Nocerini for all the work she’s done for the city and wish her the best with her new opportunities elsewhere!