The Rye City Council has selected Assistant City Manager Brian Shea as its interim manager.
Shea will replace Greg Usry, the outgoing city manager who is scheduled to retire on March 28. His appointment was decided by the council at its meeting Wednesday night, with work initially done by the subcommittee formed to help find Usry’s long-term replacement, which includes Mayor Josh Cohn, who is politically unaffiliated, and councilmen Josh Nathan, a Democrat, and Bill Henderson, a Republican.
In approving Shea’s interim appointment, the mayor announced $50,000 would be added to Shea’s current salary of $159,000, prorated to reflect his interim tenure.
Shea first took on the role of assistant city manager in February 2022 after serving as Albany’s chief of operations.
Prior to that, he was the chief of staff to Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and upstate director of intergovernmental affairs for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
Since June 2023, Shea has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Nathan told The Record that the interim selection was a full council decision and all council members participated in interviews with all the prospective in-house candidates.
“My expectation and hope is that the subcommittee’s work is done or largely done and that the full council will be engaged in all substantive aspects of the search,” Nathan said
The council has selected Pracademic Partners to lead the search for a permanent manager, according to Nathan.
Shea is expected to remain in the interim position for several months as the city navigates finding Usry’s successor.
Shea is in the running for the permanent role, a source told The Record.
Usry announced his planned retirement in early December 2024 after more than five years in the role. He succeeded, on an interim basis, City Manager Marcus Serrano, who resigned in 2019 after four years.
Before becoming city manager, Usry spent 30 years in the private sector, specializing in municipal finance and executive leadership, and more recently worked in real estate development.
Locally, he chaired the city’s Finance Committee before his interim appointment and has lived in Rye for 25 years.
His role became permanent in 2021, when his annual salary was boosted to $215,000 from the $195,000 he was paid in the interim role. Usry was the highest paid city employee in 2024 ($215,000), according to city financial information obtained by The Record.
Nathan and Councilwoman Julie Souza, a Democrat, were both absent at Wednesday’s meeting.
