Don Schwartz is no longer the city manager of Sebastopol

Schwartz and the city council agreed to part ways—effective immediately

Former Sebastopol City Manager Don Schwartz

UPDATE: On 4/17/25, this article was updated with new information about severance and the wording of the resolution that vote to separate was based on.

According to a press release from the city of Sebastopol, sent at 2 am last night, the City of Sebastopol announced that the City Council and the City Manager Don Schwartz have “mutually agreed to end their professional relationship, effective immediately.”

This announcement followed a performance evaluation in a closed session on Monday evening. No reason was given for this decision, and Schwartz was not present at the city council meeting last night.

According to a council meeting recap email from Councilmember Sandra Maurer, “The vote was 3-2 with Mayor Zollman, Vice Mayor McLewis and Phill Carter in favor, and Neysa Hinton and myself opposed.”

Assistant City Manager Mary Gourley said this was “a formal vote to release the city manager from his position for no cause and to approve a general release agreement.”

Looking at Schwartz’s employment contract with the city, it seems likely that he will receive a substantial severance package. His yearly salary is $245,000, and he was in the second year of a three-year contract. Since he and the city terminated his contract within 18 months of his hiring, his employee contract indicates that his severance would be around $183,000 (which is nine months of his base salary).

Recruiting a new city manager can cost between $23,000 and $32,000, according to Gourley.

So all and all, this was a pretty expensive decision.

“I am disappointed in the decision,” Maurer wrote in her email. “Don accomplished a lot of good things during his time here, and I wish him the best.”

Mayor Stephen Zollman announced the separation after the late-night, closed-session meeting that followed last night’s city council meeting.

In his remarks, he credited Schwartz’s work: “During his tenure, Mr. Schwartz helped guide the City through a number of significant challenges in his year and a half as City Manager. Among other things, Mr. Schwartz assisted in negotiating an agreement to consolidate the Fire Department and helped establish a path to solve the City’s financial challenges.”

Maurer’s recap of the meeting said that Assistant City Manager Mary Gourley will temporarily step into the role of city manager, which Gourley confirmed: “I will be filling in temporarily as the acting city manager, but still doing my current duties until they hire an interim city manager,” Gourley told the Sebastopol Times this morning.

Schwartz came to Sebastopol as city manager in January 2024. Before that, he had served as the Assistant City Manager of Rohnert Park since 2014, where he had provided leadership to attract new businesses to the city, contributed to balanced budgets each year, and helped to establish a positive working environment. In addition, Mr. Schwartz brought almost 30 years’ experience working in government, community service and nonprofit leadership, including nine years with the County Administrator’s Office for the County of Sonoma.

Schwartz’s resume seemed tailor-made for a town in a financial crisis, and this “separation” could not have come at a worse time—with the city in the middle of its annual budget process. Happily, some other long-running city decisions, like the change of garbage hauler and the consolidation of the fire department with Goldridge, are done- or almost-done deals, and just last night, the council approved the development agreement for the Barlow Hotel.