Washington City Council Votes to Offer City Administrator Position to Local Candidate and Former Owner/Manager or McDonalds.

The Washington, Georgia city council met on Monday October 14, 2024. At the meeting the council voted to offer the job of city administrator to Donald Long. The vote required a tie breaking vote by mayor Bruce Bailey in favor of offering the position to Long. Councilmen Nathaniel Cullars Sr., Larry Hill and Maceo Mahoney were not in favor. A lack of experience for the position was voiced as a concern as was more time to consider the other applicants. You can watch the meeting in full on the Washington Wilkes Informer YouTube Channel.

Mr. Long has listed on his application for the position of city administrator, executive advisor to the board of directos at Barnett Southern Corporation since 2022. Prior to that he has listed management and ownership experience at McDonalds from 2006-2022. He has also listed several service and community awards. You can see his full resume below this article along with the resumes of the other applicants for the position and the criteria the city has created for anyone considered for the job.

Applications were received beginning in early July of this year and the job announcement stated the deadline to apply was August 9, 2024. Sixteen applications were received. Three of the applicants listed experience specific to the former title of city manager, those applicants being Danny Lucas, James Woods and Mandy Cody. Cody was city manager for the cities of Winder and Metter as well as providing extensive planning and development work to the city of Statesboro.

I am in the process of contacting the applicants to find out if they have been interviewed by anyone from the city of Washington. The job listing states that due to the “high volume of applicants” they will be unable to contact each applicant personally. It is completely understandable the applications would be reviewed and the most qualified candidates would have been contacted and interviewed. Hopefully I will find out soon who those top candidates were. So far the information I have received from members of council is that none of the applicants were interviewed.

What do you think? Does experience actually managing the unique needs of a city matter when hiring a city administrator? Does a a candidate need to have experience and understanding of infrastructure such as water, sewer and electric and the legal requirements that come with a municipality and local government? Some of the applicants do have such experience, some to an extensive degree. Does knowing who someone is matter more than their experience or education? Are other experiences translatable to the position of city administrator? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.