Council Rejects Renegotiating with Doyon

As the Billings City Council bid farewell to Mayor Tom Hanel, they also delayed until January the process of replacing the city administrator.

The Council appears unlikely to re-negotiate with their former top choice. The move at Monday’s meeting came after Greg Doyon, the current Great Falls city manager, declined the job Friday on the basis of salary and other contractual items.

Mayor-elect Bill Cole, who will take office in January, called for the city to re-open talks with Doyon over the weekend. Councilmember Larry Brewster, who serves as chairman of the subcommittee to select a new city administrator, said reopening negotiations with Doyon wouldn’t work out, saying [quote] “His last message to me was that he was not interested in renegotiating with us… I think we should accept that and move on to the next step.” [end quote]