Algood Creates Parks And Rec Director Position To Be Filled July 1

Algood has officially added a Parks and Recreation Director position to its list of department heads.

The position was approved by the city council after public comment and second reading of the ordinance. City Administrator Keith Morrison said that Algood has two ways it goes about filling these positions.

“It depends on what the council really wants,” Morrison said. “If we don’t have a candidate within that’s really interested then we’ll go external. Then sometimes those internals will apply once you do that. So we do it both directions, trying to get the best candidates. Sometimes it’s inside, sometimes it’s outside.”

Morrison said the position will be filled and in operation by July 1.

There were questions from the public about why the city might not advertise or recruit a parks and recreation director externally. City Attorney Danny Rader said the city administrator typically makes the hiring decisions.

“The city has an employee handbook and the general process is the city administrator makes those decisions,” Rader said. “Sometimes you have positions like the police chief, that you don’t have someone that you want to promote from within, you want to recruit from around the state. MTAS provides a service where they help advertise for that position statewide to try to help you bring in people from the outside but you probably wouldn’t involve them if you were going to try to promote from within.”

Algood Mayor Lisa Chapman-Fowler said the position is needed to oversee in and orderly fashion the growing list of parks and recreation components. Those components listed Tuesday night include the ballpark, city events and the $675,000 portion of phase one for Algood’s new park.