Soon Demorest will have a new City Manager. In executive session tonight during their regularly scheduled meeting, Demorest City council members discussed the finalists for the position of City Manager. The position has been open since December 2014 when long-time City Manager Juanita Crumley’s position was split into three positions, Manager, Clerk and Treasurer. Crumley was then demoted to the Clerk position and in February she resigned/retired . 35 applications were received and were then checked and considered by the Council members and departments heads. Mayor Rick Austin remarked, “it was amazing how much duplication there was in the lists we got from everyone, the top candidates were all on everyone’s lists.” The field was narrowed to the top 5 candidates and tonight, the two finalists were named.
From Piedmont College, Kristi Shead, is currently the college’s senior financial analyst. Shead currently manages a budget for over 60 departments for $7.6 million in expenses. Her responsibilities include student financial services with a budget of over $33 million in revenue. Prior to the position at Piedmont, Shead was the event director and sales manager at Highlands County club. She also oversaw development projects totaling over $13 million that included working with contractors and governmental agencies while at Killearn, Inc. Shead is a graduate of Piedmont College with a BA in Business with a concentration in Accounting and is expected to graduate from the MBA program this fall. She is a current member of the Habersham Chamber of Commerce’s Leadship Habersham. She is from Rabun county and currently lives in Tiger with her son, 12, and daughter, 17.
The second applicant is Steve Lindsey from Macon. Lindsey is currently an Executive Director with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Lindsey has served in the postition since 2002 where he oversees 9 professional licensing boards. Prior to the Office of Secretary of State’s position, Lindsey was with the Georgia Department of Revenue where he was responsible for the collection of over $ 5 billion dollars in state withholding taxes from over 200,000 accounts. One of Lindsey’s programs was recommended by KPMG Peat Marwick as a “Blueprint for Modernization.” Lindsey is a 1982 graduate of Georgia Southern. He and his wife, Kathy, have three children ages 18-25.
The public has a state-mandated 14 day time period to review the candidates and make comments before the Council can make an appointment.
