Grovetown closer to making transition

If Grovetown went about hiring a city administrator in the same way it has grown, the city would have snatched the first person off the street and put him to work 24 hours a day.

//

Fortunately, city officials are being a little more deliberative with their hiring than they sometimes have been with their growth.

Grovetown's City Council approved creation of the city administrator position nearly two years ago. Since then, city officials have moved at what seems like a snail's pace in setting up the new job and getting help from the CSRA Regional Development Center in screening applicants.

Currently, the center is winnowing down the nearly 19 hopefuls. City Council eventually will get a pool of three to five finalists to choose from.

"It's going to be good to have one," said Mayor Dennis Trudeau. "We're at the point where the city really needs one."

He should know better than anyone else. The city's long-time, and very much hands-on, mayor has seen his job duties grow exponentially, along with the city. A professional administrator would be better equipped to handle the day-to-day, nuts and bolts duties of running a small municipal government, allowing the mayor to focus more on big-picture visions and grass-roots constituent service.

While the city's methodical approach to filling the first-ever position is admirable, there is a small, and growing, sense of urgency because Trudeau has made it clear he won't run for re-election this fall.

No one, particularly in government, is indispensable. But Trudeau comes pretty close. The sooner a good administrator can come on board, the sooner he or she can learn at the elbow of Grovetown's top elected official.

Best of luck to the city in making a wise choice - and Godspeed.