Jefferson County, Al.
The Jefferson County Commission will not vote today on whether to hire Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos as the county's first professional manager, President David Carrington said late Monday evening.
"It will stay on the agenda for me to update everybody where we are, and we need to decide, in fairness to him, when he's going to get a vote," Carrington said.
Commissioners Sandra Little Brown and George Bowman said Monday that they were not prepared to vote on the Petelos nomination. Petelos needs the votes of four of the five commissioners to become county manager.
The matter has threatened to divide the commission, which mostly has avoided the kind of public spats that plagued the previous commission.
Brown and Bowman have said since Thursday that they were opposed to voting on the nomination today because more time was needed, but Carrington has insisted on keeping the matter on the agenda, he said, because no one asked him to remove it.
The matter unanimously passed the county's administrative services committee last week, but some commissioners said later that they were uncomfortable that it was being rushed.
On Monday, Brown asked that the appointment be taken off the agenda to avoid a divisive public debate that she said could derail the nomination.
Brown said she is not opposed to Petelos but would like the entire board to support the candidate.
"We have come too far as a unified group to do what's good for the county," Brown said. "I would be willing to support Tony Petelos, or any county manager, with five votes. One or two people shouldn't be left out there."
Bowman continued to say he had a number of problems with the selection, including the process used and whether the county was following the law. The commission earlier this year hired a national search firm to identify candidates for the position, but the county did not follow that process in seeking out Petelos, Bowman said.
He also questioned whether the law required the county to seek three new candidates if earlier ones did not work out.
Carrington said the law says the county "may" seek new candidates, not that it "shall."
Two previous finalists for the job withdrew their names from consideration after being identified by the search firm and interviewed by the commission.
Petelos said Monday that he's still interested in the job. "It's in their hands and I'm waiting to see what they do," he said.
The Hoover mayor met with the five-member board last week for nearly an hour and has said he planned to accept the county manager's job if it were offered.
Commissioner Jimmie Stephens said he supports Petelos "100 percent" and was willing to vote today, but the nomination should not be jeopardized if the votes are not there.
"Do I think you should hold it off for two weeks to make everyone feel comfortable and so he has a better chance for success? I say yes," Stephens said.
If his hiring is approved sometime this month, Petelos could begin work as soon as Oct. 1. The Alabama Legislature has given the commission an Oct. 1 deadline for making an offer to a prospective county manager.
Should he become the county manager, Petelos would step down as Hoover mayor on Sept. 30.
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