Council, Utility Board tap new manager candidates

Alyssa B. Martin news-herald.net

LOUDON — As Loudon City Council and Loudon Utility Board near the year mark of searching for a new city and general manager, the two entities have finally established some common ground by unanimously agreeing to call in three candidates for in-person interviews later this month.

During the joint meeting between City Council and LUB on Aug. 12, Council and Board members agreed to open up applications for the manager search once more. City Attorney Kris Frye has collected applications and coordinated with city council and board members since the Aug. 12 meeting on potential candidates.

On Monday evening, the Council and Board was instructed to provide their top two candidates.

“The format that the chairman and I have talked about with Attorney Frye is we’ll let (each city council member) make two recommendations and then we’ll keep a tally of those, and I’ll turn it over to Chairman Campbell who will do the same process with the utility board members,” said Loudon City Mayor Jeff Harris, who has filled in as Interim City Manager since fall of 2023.

“Through that collection of names, hopefully we will have two, three, I don’t know how many names we’ll wind up with, and then we’ll have to make some decisions on when to call them in, and the next step,” Harris continued. “I want to try to make sure everyone has their voices heard and their recommendations.”

Out of the multiple

candidates nominated, there were three candidates who were voted on at least two times.

Andrew Cieslak, Ocala, Fla., and Kevin Goins, Athens, Tenn., each received two votes and Gary Palmer, Milton, Ga., received five votes. On Milton’s resumé, it states his residence is in Georgia but his most recent job is located in Texas.

All three candidates are going to be invited to interview in-person on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at the Loudon Municipal Building.

“Some of these applications were received in early August, so I mean, it’s been two months, and they certainly don’t want to wait another month,” said City Attorney Kris Frye, while picking a date and time for the interviews.