City begins interviews for interim city manager role

The city of Homewood has begun the first round of interviews for the interim city manager role

A City Council ad hoc committee has been tasked with hiring a candidate for the role, and applications were open from Dec. 13, 2024 to Jan. 13. The committee is made up of council members Barry Smith, Jennifer Andress, Carlos Aleman, Nick sims and Andy Gwaltney.

Interviews with the first five candidates took place on Jan. 22-23 and were live streamed. The videos can be found on the city's YouTube channel.

First up was Glen Adams, a former interim Town Manager of Purcellville, Virginia and City Manager of Santa Fe, Texas. He was the Chief of Staff for White Sands Missile Range as a Department of the Army Civilian, a unique government organization congressionally required to be 45% reimbursable. He owned his own company, Property Magic, LLC, after retiring from the U.S. Army. He served a combined 26.5 years of Active and Reserve service as an officer in the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment.

Watch his interview below:

Next was Phil Spence, the current risk manager for the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. The Georgia native has served in that role since 2021. Prior to that job, Spence was a human resources generalist for the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government. He received a bachelors degree in business administration, with a focus on business management, from Georgia College and State University, and he has recently earned a masters in public administration form Old Dominion University.

View his interview below:

Up next was Florida native Chris Edwards. Edwards earned a bachelors degree in public administration from the University of Central Florida and went on to get his masters in business administration. Throughout his career, Edwards has served as planning technician for the city of Oviedo Planning Department, a neighborhood coordinator and community redevelopment manager for the city of Leesburg, an economic development liaison in the County Administrator's Office in Marion County, a business advocate for the city of Tallahassee and a deputy director for the Office of Economic Vitality for the city of Tallahassee/Leon County Government. He is currently the owner of Align Business Logistics, LLC, a courier service based out of Dayton Beach, Florida.

Watch his interview here:

Josh Johnson, who currently serves as the director of development services for Jefferson County, also applied for the role. Johnson has been in his current position for over one year and previously worked as a senior research associate for the International City/Council Management Association. He has also worked as a director of economic development for Prattville and Madison, and a director of planning and development for the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority. Before that, he spent time as a senior planner for the city of Birmingham, was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and was a county planner for Shelby County.

His interview can be seen below:

Kevin Owens is the final candidate that has been interviewed on the live stream, as of 3 p.m. on Jan. 24. Owens is currently the city administrator for Fayetteville, Tennessee and previously worked as the chief administrative officer for the Mayor's Office in Birmingham for 20 years. He obtained a bachelors degree in business administration before earning his masters in public administration, with a concentration in urban administration.

Watch his interview below: