Eastpointe hires interim city manager

Eastpointe, for at least the next three months, has a city manager after the city council voted to hire Ryan Cotton, a former city manager of Holland.

Cotton is hired at a pay rate of $84 per hour, and his contract runs through July 27. When it expires, Eastpointe City Council can extend it through October 26, according to the contract.

Cotton's contract is a "lease agreement" with a firm called GovTempsUSA, LLC, an Illinois-based company. GovTempsUSA will receive about 29 percent of what Cotton is paid, per city spokesman Bill Driskell.

Cotton lives about 200 miles in Grand Haven, but is expected to live nearer to Eastpointe, and will keep a 24-to-40-hours-per-week schedule, the city said He'll be reimbursed for mileage at a rate of $199.47 per week. The city has also agreed to pay GovTempsUSA nearly $80 per week over Cotton's mileage.

Eastpointe has 123 full-time and 50 part-time employees, and an annual budget of about $57 million. Former Eastpointe City Manager Steve Duchane retired in August, and the Macomb County suburb had been without a city manager ever since.