Mayor-elect Corbett takes to the microphone, City Manager Prosser leaves

Mayor-elect Ron Corbett got up to speak and City Manager Jim Prosser got up and left.

That was the case on Thursday evening at the Downtown District's annual meeting where Corbett gave his first speech since winning election Nov. 3 over City Council member Brian Fagan.

Prosser on Friday said he left the event for his own ethical reasons and not as a slight to Corbett.

“No big deal,” Prosser said, noting that the city still has two City Council runoff elections on Dec. 1.

“I try to avoid being at political events," he said. "I didn't realize there was going to be a Ron Corbett speech. It's still campaign season, so it's better that I'm not looking like I'm attending political events.

“If all the campaigns were over, we'd be fine. But there's still campaigns going on, and I didn't know exactly what the content (of his speech would be). No big deal.”

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, also got up and left shortly before Corbett's Thursday evening speech. Eyerly said he needed to get to a 6:30 p.m. meeting of the city's special citizen committee that is advising the city on property buyouts.