by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The stage is set for Richard Wallace to become the next City Council auditor, succeeding longtime auditor Bob Johnson, who’s retiring after 35 years of service.
Monday afternoon, the Council personnel committee — with three of five members present — voted unanimously to approve Wallace, who’s been an assistant Council auditor since 1974. In a 20-minute meeting with one agenda item, Council president Jerry Holland and Council members Warren Alvarez and Doyle Carter (Dr. Gwen Chandler and Council vice president Lad Daniels were absent) all briefly questioned Wallace about his reasons for wanting the job and his ideas for the office.
Interestingly, after a four-day internal posting, Wallace was the only City employee who expressed interest and met the stringent qualifications. This fact seemed to suit the personnel committee just fine as they all generally approve of promoting current employees if there are quality applicants as opposed to conducting sometimes lengthy and expensive external searches.
“I have always believed we should promote from within,” said Carter, who chose not to run for reelection and will be succeeded by Daniel Davis.
With 29 years of service, Holland wasn’t as concerned with Wallace’s qualifications and plans for the office as much as he was with wanting to know how long Wallace intended to stay on the job. Wallace assured Holland he would work through the next Council term and groom his potential successor in the process.
“There are a lot of people we are developing,” said Wallace. “They all have less tenure than I do and they will be able to stay longer.”
The next step is to draft legislation that will first go before the Council’s Finance Committee for approval and then to the full Council.
Wallace is succeeding a virtual legend, especially since Johnson is the only Council auditor the City has known since Consolidation in 1969.
His 35 years aren’t the most for a City employee, but he is longest tenured Council employee in City history. Wallace said he has no plans to overhaul a department that’s working just fine and appreciates the opportunity to work under Johnson for the better part of the last three decades.
“Bob keeps everyone involved in the process and that would be my challenge,” said Wallace. “Bob is a consensus builder and I will rely a lot on what he has done. I think this is something I will look forward to. For the past 29 years I’ve been able to work with some of the best people in City government.”
Wallace joked after the meeting that he and Johnson will probably continue to play golf about once a week and not talking shop may be impossible.