Knoxville City Manager Aaron Adams is down to his final days in the position. A search for a replacement is underway, and Adams says that he hopes whoever fills the position will be an effective communicator and let community members be involved in decisions.
“One thing that’s critical, that I think as a profession, we don’t always do is to communicate and get good, germain, truthful information out there. What I think we sometimes do is fall into a trap that we are just so focused. In general, I don’t think it’s ill intent, but I think people become hyper-focused, and all they want to do is deliver, so you sometimes skip a step. And I think the public needs to be involved in those types of things.”
The Knoxville City Council took its first steps in the city manager hiring process at its meeting Monday night. They appointed Assistant City Manager Heather Ussery as Interim City Manager, and will go through a process to find a replacement. Outgoing City Manager Aaron Adams says the council has a variety of options, and will complete the process in the most thorough manner.
“The council really seemed to focus on the need to recruit for this position. There’s a whole spectrum of things you can do here, which starts on one end to consider Heather as the permanent replacement. But there’s also another side that says you do need to recruit, see who’s out there that might be the best fit. They definitely leaned towards that. So as a staff, we have an RFP that we will bring out, and I will send on to the mayor and council, and that can start a whole process.”
The Knoxville City Council held its final meeting of 2020 Monday evening.
The council appointed Assistant City Manager Heather Ussery as Interim City Manager, and began a process of hiring a new permanent city manager.
They approved two ordinances pertaining to rezoning requests at 410 E Main Street and 413 E Robinson Street.
Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Director Hannah Vander Veer presented the council with the chamber’s year in review, which included updates with the chamber’s websites, and the chamber’s events in 2020.
The next Knoxville City Council meeting will be January 4th at 6:15 p.m.