Grovetown decides to name administrator from within

The path of Grovetown officials' search for the city's first administrator took a sharp turn Monday.

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"The administrator that we selected to serve as the city administrator has declined to move to the city of Grovetown," Mayor Dennis Trudeau said after a closed session to discuss the position at Monday's semimonthly meeting.

City officials have spent two years creating the position -- drafting the job description, soliciting applications and choosing from among the top five candidates. Their plan originally had been to bring in a candidate for a transition before Trudeau's Dec. 1 retirement.

The final candidate, however, backed out after more than a month of contract negotiations, Trudeau said.

The mayor and city council members agreed Monday to temporarily fill the position from within.

City Clerk Shirley Beasley will be moved into the administrator position. Vicky Capetillo, the city's utility billing supervisor, will move into the city clerk position, and other in-house changes will fill Capetillo's position.

"This will be a six-month probationary period," Trudeau said. "It is really to see how this works out. It could be permanent."

Beasley, as city administrator, will take on much of the day-to-day operations of the city along with many duties she and Trudeau currently perform, including writing local, state and federal grant applications and attending meetings.

If the change does not work out, Trudeau said city officials could begin the application process again.