Russ Overton Is Cary’s 12th Town Manager

Photo: Town of Cary

Cary has a permanent town manager again. Town Council voted unanimously on Thursday night to appoint Russ Overton, who had been serving as interim town manager since December 15, to the permanent job. He was sworn in before the meeting adjourned.

Overton is Cary’s 12th town manager since the town adopted the council-manager form of government in 1961. He first joined the town as an engineer in 1998, and he stepped into the interim role after Sean Stegall resigned last year.

The appointment was not listed on the meeting agenda, and council made it after coming out of a closed session late in the night. The Line reported that council did not run a national search for the job, and that Overton’s salary in the permanent role is $344,000 a year.

Before the vote, council spent part of the night on the cleanup that followed Stegall’s time in the job. Three outside investigations looked into how Town Hall was run under Stegall, and together the reports listed 39 fixes.

On Thursday, council put deadlines and clearer rules around some of the biggest ones. The town will now survey its own employees every two years instead of every three, so that the town hears about problems sooner, any change to a town job needs a written explanation to council first, and the town manager’s role is now spelled out in the town rules as the top administrator, the person who runs the day-to-day operation. Overton now has to act on the nine fixes identified and report back to the council mid-2027.

Additional reading: Town of Cary news release · The Line: Russ Overton Sworn In as Cary’s New Town Manager