The âfixer-upperâ: County Manager, former Mayor Tony Petelos ready to retire after 35 years of public service
Photo by Erin Nelson.
Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos at the Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Birmingham. Petelos is retiring after 35 years of public service in the Birmingham-Hoover area.
When Tony Petelos left the Hoover mayorâs job to become Jefferson Countyâs first county manager in 2011, a lot of people told him he was crazy.
Hoover was considered a âhappeningâ city where things were running smoothly, and Jefferson Countyâs government was in disarray, facing bankruptcy and still lacking public trust after 22 county officials had gone to prison for corruption in the preceding years.