WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — After years of discussion, Warner Robins now has its first city administrator. Last year, Georgia state representative Heath Clark said people were talking about the position before he took office.
Now, that role has finally been filled. During Monday's meeting, mayor and council approved David Corbin for the job, effective immediately.
"I am so excited about it. It's something that we've needed for a very long time, you know, and it's happened," said councilman Larry Curtis.
Back in August 2017, the city created the city administrator position, but never hired anyone. The discussion resumed in 2019 when a University of Georgia study said Warner Robins is the only mid-sized Georgia city without that position, so the city updated its charter.
Once Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on the new charter, the hiring process began in Aug 2020.
"I think this is the perfect answer for what the citizens voted for because the citizens voted for an individual that was in favor of a full-time mayor and some form of city administrator, and that's what we have," said Mayor Randy Toms.
Corbin is the managing director of Terminus, LLC, a company that provides financial advice to corporations, governmental entities and nonprofits.
The company has worked with the city's finance department for the last four years, helping with the budget and different bond deals. Toms admits he was reluctant when Terminus was first brought in.
"Just to be honest with you, I wasn't too keen on the idea, but when he got here, I realized that he was very knowledgeable," said Toms. "He won the trust of department directors and he's worked well with everybody... he's got such a wealth of knowledge."
Curtis agrees and says Corbin is the right man for the job.
As Warner Robins' city administrator, he will answer to the mayor and have the power to appoint and suspend city employees and prepare the budget, according to the amended charter.
"Working with department directors, making sure day to day operations... and I'm certainly going to be involved in that with David," said Toms.
He says he still intends to be a full time mayor for the city. Curtis says having someone in the position is going to help tremendously.
"I think it means better communication. One person, one centralized person that we can contact to get things done. It's just going to be better communication. He actually brings a skillset as a city administrator that we currently don't have," said Curtis.
Toms says they are still working through the final details of the contract, like Corbin's salary and what will happen to the city's current contract with Terminus.
"We realize that we're going to have to change things. Certainly, I don't know if anything like this has been done within the city, so we're going to have to convert him over and make some changes," he said. "We're going to have to change the construct of how it's done if in fact we want to continue with Terminus. So yes, we have a contract with them, but yes, it's going to have to change a little bit."
With all the growth continuing in the city and the county, Toms says Corbin is the right person to get them to the next level.
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