Meg Hibbert
Contributing writer
“It’s a fascinating challenge, but a good challenge,” said new Salem City Manager Chris Dorsey, summing up the job after his first two weeks.
Dorsey took over from longtime city employee Jay Taliaferro, who retired Nov. 1.
Dorsey has already been impressed by Salem’s employees, particularly Street and General Maintenance Department. The city’s first snowfall in two years hit the first day of Dorsey’s initial week. He decided to walk to work from his home near Boulevard.
“I was amazed the streets had already been plowed,” he said. “And when I walked back at 5:00, the sidewalks had been cleared, too.”
Dorsey is familiarizing himself with “what the hot buttons are in the community,” such at last Monday night’s Council Meeting. During the Citizen Comment period, citizens spoke passionately about proposed zoning changes that would have allowed a duplex in a single-family zone – Council denied it – and possible changes to the HopeTree Family Services Campus that could add up to 320 single-family, multi-family, apartments and businesses.
“It’s a fascinating challenge but a good challenge,” he said, referring to getting accustomed to Salem and Virginia in general. “I’m in the process of ‘translating’ what I did in Tennessee to Virginia.”
Dorsey came to Salem after more than 30 years in local government in his home state of Tennessee where he grew up in Memphis and was city manager in the Chattanooga area as well as working in other communities.
His heart is in local government.
“You can see the difference you make with local government,” he said.
He arrived at the beginning of city budget preparations, and has already started meeting with departments. Tuesday it was the Street and General Maintenance Department.
“I am impressed with the city staff. They are very knowledgeable. It’s important to have good staff and administration. City managers don’t know everything,” Dorsey said, smiling.
He credits being a member of the Jaycees was where he learned “a lot about working with people and public speaking.” He was state president of the Tennessee Jaycees in 1997-98.
Dorsey is the youngest of six children. He has a sister in Richmond and his other siblings are scattered throughout the nation. He earned a degree at the University of Tennessee in budgeting and finance, and a master’s at UT in public administration.
The 60-year-old has three children: Andrew, 21, who is studying marine sciences at Coastal Carolina; Reagan, 19, who is a freshman at Huntingdon College in Alabama where he is studying business, and daughter Sydney, 17, a senior in high school in Chattanooga. Reagan earned a scholarship in “E Sports,” computer gaming, his dad said.
As far as what Dorsey wants people to know about him, he said, “I’m an approachable person. I treat people the way I want them to treat me.”
