WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Monday night in a pre-council meeting, Mayor LaRhonda Patrick said the city of Warner Robins has narrowed down their search for a permanent police chief to four candidates.
The same night, the council voted to work with a consultant company to help them bring in candidates for their fire chief as well.
The city has been without a permanent chief since July.
Developmental Associates LLC will help the city recruit and interview candidates from in and out of the state.
"It is still the goal to have this position going into 2024," said Patrick referring to filling the Fire Chief position.
The contract says the company will help the city until March of 2024, for a price of $24,500.
"It's about 90 days for the vetting process and then you have to go into the interview process and all of that," Patrick said.
Other than Fire and Police Chiefs, the city still needs a human resources director, building and inspection director, finance director and a city administrator, which are all filled temporarily.
"Some of our interims will become our permanents, but it's always a good practice to have a full interview process with individuals who have interest in it," she said.
Mayor Patrick says the hardest to fill and the most critical is their Finance Director.
"It's not hard to fill regarding the pay because I feel like we've corrected that. Now we just have to get the word out," Patrick said.
She says the city has been behind on their finances since before her term.
Mayor Patrick has worked with auditors and hired a certified public accountants firm to help them update their books and find a director. She says they have told her that a candidate will be hard to find until they correct their financial issues.
"Once we're caught up and once we have our cloud-based software, and we're no longer doing paper we believe we're gonna have what's in place to hire that talent," she said.
Mayor Patrick says the city hopes to hold a job fair in the near future to welcome possible additional candidates.