Holland, Ayden part ways

Published 1:11 pm Thursday, January 14, 2016

AYDEN – Brandon Holland, the former Murfreesboro Town Administrator who left that job in 2014 to accept the position of Town Manager in Ayden, found himself unemployed as of Tuesday.

At their regularly scheduled meeting Monday night, the Ayden Town Commissioners voted to end Holland’s employment contract.

According to information on www.witn.com, the vote was 3-2 by the Commissioners to end the contract.

Ayden Mayor Stephen Tripp told WITN, “We concluded it was in the best interest of both parties to end the contract.”

Tripp says Commissioner Mary Davenport, Mayor Pro-Tem Donnie Skinner, and Commissioner Michael Harris voted in favor.

Commissioner Ivory Mewborn and Commissioner Phyllis Ross voted against ending the contract.

According to RC News-Herald archives, Holland informed members of the Murfreesboro Town Council in late April of 2014 that he was leaving to accept the job in Ayden. The Ayden Commissioners hired Holland during a meeting on April 28, 2014.

His last day of employment with the Town of Murfreesboro was May 28, 2014. His first day on the job in Ayden was June 9, 2014 at which time he was earning a base salary of $72,000 annually.

Holland spent three years in Murfreesboro as its Town Administrator, first hired in May of 2011.

The Randleman, NC native was originally enrolled at North Carolina A&T University, where he was on the football team. After a year he transferred to Appalachian State University, a school known for educating one-third of town/city managers in the state. There, he graduated with a degree in public management and a minor in communications in December 2008. Two years later he obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, also from Appalachian State.