News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville discussed the possibility of creating an assistant city manager position during Tuesday night’s work session.
City Council members talked about Manager Greg Wood’s eventual departure and how important learning Crossville operations from him could be. Wood said the city is in a better position to take on a new city manager because of department head competency.
“Typically the lifespan for a city manager is typically about 3.5 years,” Wood said. “So just for the career field there’s a lot of folks that have experience and then they can get spun out fairly quickly.”
Wood said that currently, department heads have degrees for what they are trained to do which will help a new city manager.
Wood said that stepping stone positions to becoming city manager could be either a public works director or a chief financial officer. He said that pay would need to be comparable to a department head position, in the $80,000 to $90,000 range.
Wood said he would give the city a notice of multiple months before he leaves. Conversations Tuesday night also focused on how the need for a public works director plays into the city’s future.
“Here’s the flip side, you could go assistant city manager for public works,” Wood said. “Then you wouldn’t necessarily get an engineer but you could get somebody with a background that knows water, sewer, streets.”
A previous survey did not identify an assistant city manager position. However, Crossville officials feel the city takes on more responsibilities and operations than a the comparable city.
