WS Chronicle

The City of Winston-Salem is in a time of transition as Assistant City Managers Derwick Paige and Greg Turner will both be retiring at the end of the month.

Paige began his career with the city in 1982 as a public safety officer, which at the time combined the duties of both police and firefighters. Paige, who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in administrative justice, originally aspired to be an FBI agent, but by the time he’d become a police sergeant in 1989, had decided to change careers. He earned a Masters in Public Administration from UNC-Greensboro, and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who worked in city administration in Norfolk, Virginia.

Paige was transferred to the planning department, were he put his knowledge of the city to a different use, working on zoning cases. After that, he held a variety of positions that gave him varied knowledge of city government, including M/WBE coordinator, budget analyst, special development administrator and development director. In 2003, he became assistant city manager.

Paige’s accomplishments include fostering the recruitment or retention of more than $3 billion in economic development projects with more than 5,800 jobs that include Caterpillar, Bunzl, Herbalife, Lowes, Corning and many others. He’s worked on many redevelopment projects, including Wake Forest innovation Quarter, Union Cross Business Park and Whitaker Park. Some of his other accomplishments include overseeing the creation of the Winston-Salem Sister Cities program and developing the RUCA (Revitalizing Urban Commercial Areas) loan program.

Paige’s current responsibilities include overseeing Police and Fire, Emergency Management, Community Assistant Liaisons, Human Relations and Business Inclusion and Advancement. He said it’s very rewarding to see the impact he’s had on the community he lives in.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” said Paige. “I’ve been able to really, I think, make an impact and a difference in people’s lives.”

Turner also has a long career with the city. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from N.C. State University in 1982, he was hired by the city as a traffic systems engineer who managed the central computer system that coordinated the city’s traffic signals.

He was promoted to traffic operations engineer in 1985, when he added managing the maintenance of traffic signs, signals and markings, to his responsibilities. After becoming certified as a registered professional engineer in North Carolina, he was promoted to assistant transportation director in 1985 and transportation director in 2001.

In 2002, he became assistant city manager overseeing numerous departments. He’s currently over Transportation, Utilities, Sanitation, Stormwater/Erosion Control, Engineering, Planning and Development Services, City Link and Property & Facilities Management.

Turner’s many accomplishments include overseeing the replacement of the Salem Lake Dam, renovations at Elledge Wastewater Plant and the first phase of Quarry Park. On sanitation, he was a part of transitioning to curbside garbage pickup and single-stream recycling, where residents put multiple types of recyclables in the same bin.  He also oversaw Stormwater Management getting its own department and Erosion Control being integrated into that department. In transportation, he managed numerous road improvement projects, the construction of Research Parkway and Stratford Village Boulevard as well as the modernization of the city’s traffic light system.

Turner said the people he’s worked with have been the best part of his job.

“I really enjoy the folks I’ve gotten to work with,” he said. “I don’t think I would be anywhere near as successful as an individual if I hadn’t had a great team to work with me.”

Paige will be succeeded by Evan Raleigh, the current director of Business Inclusion and Advancement. Raleigh has a degree in political science and a Master of Arts in Management from Wake Forest University and a Master of Public Policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He started with the city in 2011 as a management analyst. Raleigh said he’s excited and humbled by the promotion.

“I know I’m following in the footsteps of someone who’s done tremendous things on behalf of the community,” he said. “I’m just really looking to do the community proud.”

The city is in the process of searching for Turner’s replacement and is planning to maintain its current four assistant county manager positions. City Manager Lee Garrity said both Paige and Turner will be sorely missed.

“I’ve worked with both of them for my entire career,” said Garrity. “It’s a major loss of institutional knowledge.”