A new county manager for Henry County government should be named within a few weeks, as the Board of Commissioners announced Monday that three finalists had been chosen for the position.
Last fall Fred Auletta moved from county manager to finance director, and the board enlisted the assistance of the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government to conduct a nationwide search that attracted more than 50 candidates. In February the board set three special called meetings and interviewed about ten of those candidates to narrow the list to three: Lyndon L. Bonner, Michael C. Harris and James “Jim” Walker, Jr.
Bonner has more than 20 years of government administration experience in rural communities and large urban jurisdictions. He was most recently the city manager for North Miami Beach where he managed 422 employees and oversaw a budget of $111 million. Elsewhere in Florida, he has served as county administrator for Okeechobee County and interim assistant county administrator/special projects manager for Sumter County, as well as city manager in Bunnell and director of public services in Dunnellon.
Harris is currently the interim county manager and has been with Henry County for 15 years, beginning as a civil engineer and moving up to development plan director and then public works director. Before moving into the county manager’s office he was the county’s Community Development Division director where he oversaw several departments including Building, Planning & Zoning, Environ-mental Compliance and CDBG.
Walker, who has 16 years of experience in government, most recently was state liaison for the Gulf Coast Claims Facility for Alabama and Mississippi in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. He also served for several years as the Director of Homeland Security for the state of Alabama and previously as a strategic consultant for Public-Private Strategies, Inc. He served in the United States Army from 1981 to 2002 where he was an infantry lieutenant colonel and Airborne Ranger.
State open records law requires a 14-day waiting period after the release of the finalists’ names before the commissioners can make a decision, but they are expected to announce their selection soon after that.