Farewell, Sue Edwards

Inter­im City Manager Elaine Hart has announced the resignation of Assistant City Manager Sue Edwards, who has worked in various positions at the City of Austin since the early Seventies. Edwards had contemplated retirement nearly a decade ago, when former City Manager Toby Futrell stepped down, but Futrell's successor Marc Ott persuaded her to stay. In an earlier transition (1994), Edwards returned from a private consulting firm to assume management of Emergency Medical Services. She told the Statesman that what she intended as a two-year sojourn "turned into 23." Hart's memo cited various projects managed by Edwards, including creation of what became the Economic Development Department, overseeing the construction of City Hall, and the city's involvement in developing the Second Street District. More recently, Hart wrote, Edwards "negotiated and oversaw redevelopment of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, Seaholm Power Plant, Downtown Block 21, the former Green Water Treatment Plant ... and [the city's involvement in] the formation of the Waller Creek Conservancy." Edwards' retirement will take effect March 1; Hart intends to appoint an interim assistant city manager before that date.