Former Concord City Manager Passes Away

Duncan Ballantyne, the former city manager for the city of Concord, passed away on the morning of July 6, surrounded by members of his family, according to former colleagues.

Ballantyne spent a year and half battling multiple sclerosis, according to press reports.

For nearly a decade, Ballantyne was Concord's city manager, between 1996 and 2005.

Ballantyne was credited with getting city government to focus on redeveloping Concord’s vacant parcels in an effort to bring in more future revenue, as well as businesses and services residents and visitors desired.

But towards the end of his tenure, councilors grew impatient with his leadership. Meetings were often verbally testy between Ballantyne and elected officials.

In June 2005, the council denied to offer Ballantyne a raise, with five councilors voting his job performance “not satisfactory,” according to the Concord Monitor.

Ballantyne announced his resignation in September of that year, verbally resigning during a meeting, saying he was taking the county administrator in Martin County, Florida, a government entity more than twice the size of the city of Concord, in area where other family members lived.

Ballantyne worked in Martin County for nearly four years but was fired after county commissioners said they weren’t happy with how he was responding to work requests. At the time, Ballantyne countered in press reports that he had implemented plans that saved the county more than $50 million without a reduction in services. 

Ballantyne then went to work in Carteret County, North Carolina, where he served for nearly three years. He was hired to work in Miami Beach in 2012 and became ill not long after taking that job, according to officials there.

A funeral will be held in Palm City, FL, on Wednesday. 

Editor's note: The date of Ballantyne's passing has been corrected.