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County Manager Bryan Hagood will end his carer with Alamance County in April, according to a county news release.
Hagood is unusual among city and county administrators in spending his entire 24-year career with Alamance County. He was born in Burlington and graduated from Southern Alamance High School though, with a father who was with the State Highway Patrol and then the Southern Bell telephone company, his family moved around the state a lot in between.
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While still in high school, Hagood started officiating games for the county Recreation and Parks Department, mostly in rural Alamance County. After serving in the U.S. Marines for four years and studying recreation and parks management at N.C. State University, Hagood came back to the county part-time in 1998.
By 2005, Hagood was the director of recreation and parks, and in 2012, former County Manager Craig Honeycutt hired him as assistant county manager.
Honeycutt left for a county manager job in Wayne County in 2017 at a time when the makeup of the Alamance County Board of Commissioners was not favorable to him – one member campaigned on firing Honeycutt. The board hired Hagood, 45 at the time, quickly immediately without considering other applicants.
Even seeing first hand how unstable management positions can be, Hagood did not opt for a contract with a six-figure severance like many managers and school superintendents – who owe their continued employment to the majority of an elected board – Hagood simply had a clause that he could apply for another county government role if the commissioners wanted him out and a $125,000 salary.
Hagood’s term as county manager stands out. He shepherded a $189.6 million education bond package voter-approved in 2018 and convinced the county commissioners to approve the county’s largest-ever property tax increase of 8 cents to cover bond finance costs the following year.
While those efforts went pretty smoothly, the past couple of years cannot have been easy for the county manager. Protests over the county’s Confederate monument have been frequent, and many protesters have taken their cases directly to the commissioners. In an email he sent to the commissioners in 2020, Hagood recommended moving the monument to avoid violence. It was not well received, but his working relationship with the board stayed strong.
Hagood plans to move to western North Carolina with his family after retirement. He and his wife Misty have been married since 1999 and have a son, Jack.
“My wife and I are excited about the opportunity for her to further her career at a time that coincides with my eligibility to retire,” Hagood said, according to the release.
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
