City Attorney Planning to Retire
By: Lisa Carr
Updated: August 13, 2008
The city of Lubbock will soon have another executive position open for hire. City Attorney Anita Burgess has announced her plans to resign less than two weeks after Chief Financial Officer Jeff Yates quits. Burgess isn't commenting on her upcoming resignation until it becomes official and that's expected sometime next week, but that's not stopping some other city officials from talking about why they think she may be leaving after 13 years with the city.
Burgess has been the top attorney for Lubbock since 1995 and supervises ten other city lawyers. Many of her colleagues describe her as one of the best in her field and a master of municipal law. We're told she is planning to leave Lubbock to be the city attorney in Denton, Texas. City Councilman Floyd Price tells us it's disappointing to see excellent employees like Burgess and C.F.O. Jeff Yates say goodbye to Lubbock, and while he can't be sure, he thinks he knows why they're moving on. He says the Hub City has always hired the best professionals and when other cities hear Lubbock's budget next year won't allow any significant raises for those people, they swoop in and steal our top executives by offering more money. Neither Burgess nor Yates has confirmed money is the motivation behind their resignations.
Now, Councilman Price says the city needs to stay alert and make sure they do whatever they can to make sure more top executives don't follow this same course. Burgess is expected to officially resign next week, after the Denton City Council approves her for hire. No word yet on who may replace her here in Lubbock.
