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Wednesday was Mitchell Johnson’s last day working for the city of Greensboro.

He accumulated – with sick leave – 27 ½ years as a city employee. His final gig with the city was as a special assistant to the City Manager. But he, most notably, was City Manager from 2005 to March of this year.

When Scoop caught up with Johnson this week, he was getting ready for a life completely outside the public sphere.

He squashed a rumor floating around that he would go work for Guilford Metro 911. Johnson said he has no immediate plans to work for another city or county. He is, however, pursuing consulting work to help businesses improve their relationships with government entities.

He doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings about his dismissal – at least not any he was willing to share.

"When I walked into the manager's office," he said, "you are kind of walking through a door you can't walk out of."

And he plans to stay in Greensboro and enjoy what it has to offer, without the stress of being its top employee.