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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Council interviews final candidate for planning director
May 17—Planning director candidate Clifford Cross wants to return to the South for his final years before retirement, he told the Decatur City Council on Wednesday. Cross, director of Economic Development, Planning and Zoning in Belleville, Illinois, was the final applicant to go through a public interview with the council for the planning director opening. The City Council has two applicants, Lee Terry, economic and planning director for TARCOG (Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments) in Huntsville, and Steve Hohulin, former director of Land Planning for Quiddity engineering and planning, The Woodlands, Texas, still considered candidates for the opening. The council added Cross, who like the other two is a certified planner, when it reopened the search after interviewing Terry and Hohulin and bringing them back for an informal reception. Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin ran the interview and asked about 20 pre-scripted questions. Council members then asked follow-up questions before opening up at the end for Cross to ask any questions he might have and to make a statement. Cross, 52, has spent most of his 25-year career in Illinois, but did work two and a half years in Duluth, Georgia, as director of planning. He also worked in University City near St. Louis, Missouri. "I love the South," Cross said. "Quite honestly, you can only take so much of Illinois with everything that goes on there between Chicago and down state." Cross said he is a direct appointment of the Belleville mayor, and the mayor who appointed him lost in the recent election. He said the new mayor hasn't decided whether or not to reappoint any of the directors, so they're all working on a day-to-day basis. Cross said he expects a decision in June, but he has already made his own decision. "If she offered me the job, I would not accept," he said. Cross said he is completely vested in the retirement system, so it wouldn't benefit him financially to stay in Illinois. "This is a perfect opportunity for me to come South where I want to be to finish out my career for the next 10 to 12 years and retire," he said. "I'm done. I don't need to deal with that (getting reappointed) every four years now." Cross said his educational background and experience make him uniquely qualified for Decatur's opening. He said he's mostly worked in communities of between 25,000 and 50,000 residents. "Obviously, when you're in communities of that size you have to multitask," Cross said. "You just don't have all of the players that you need to do everything day to day." He said this has allowed him to become familiar with all aspects of planning and development, community development, housing rehabilitation, grant writing and overall economic development. Cross said he's even been a code enforcement officer, a fire marshal and a flood plain administrator. "By doing that, it's really well-rounded me in the growth-management field," Cross said. "And it's really given me that great background that I feel makes me a great candidate for the position." If hired as planning director he would be taking over a Planning Department with one planner and an administrator. Councilman Billy Jackson pointed out that the department hasn't had a certified planning director since one left in 2008, and previous councils did not fill the position. "Luckily, this council has been seen that it's an important position," Jackson said. Cross said it's important to report the department's work to the council, mayor and residents. He said he's a big believer in accountability by being structured in creating a work plan. He also believes in cross-training everyone so they know all of the jobs in the department, but he makes it clear he's the department leader. "I basically treat everything like a five-year capital improvement plan," Cross said. "I create a plan at least for a year, and then I have my quarterly reporting that shows what's working and what's not, how do we readjust it and how do we fix the problems." Cross said one of the first things he would do is go over the city's One Decatur comprehensive plan. He said communities create comprehensive plans, but then sometimes planning or development department will forget about them. "They write it because they have to and then it goes up on the shelf," he said. Cross said he doesn't believe in a static comprehensive plan. Instead, he would report annually on what's working and what's not. "You have to give the community the opportunity to comment on it, and we have to readjust it to make sure that it is continuing to meet the demands of the community," he said. On the issues of zoning and planning, Cross said he's amazed how many young planners don't know the difference between the two. He said a planner and a zoning administrator are different jobs. "Long-range planning is the vision. It's the road map of how you move forward. It's how you set policy," he said. Cross said zoning is the regulatory control, and "if you don't put those long-range plans in place, how do you get a unified cost to make sure you get where you want to be?" For example, he said short-term rentals, such as as Airbnbs, are a hot-button topic in most cities now as they are in Belleville. He said Airbnbs acted "as a camouflage" as some people were trying to get around Illinois' occupancy permit requirement. Short-term rentals create a problem for a community that wants to develop hotels as a destination for visitors. There has to be a perfect balance between the number of hotels and short-term rentals, he said. "You don't want Airbnbs ruining your opportunity to bring in a hotel," Cross said. Cross said he's "not anti-rental, but I am a supporter of a perfect balance of rental to home ownership. Renters can choose who they live next to; your homeowners cannot always choose who lives next to them." Cross said it's important to know the city's housing stock and the community's demands. For example, there are neighborhoods with dilapidated housing in which there may be some infill opportunities. He said a subdivision south of Belleville had this issue, so he contacted builders and worked with them to get it annexed. Part of the agreement included incentives such as sewer, streets and other infrastructure, he said. In Duluth, Cross said he worked on a downtown redevelopment plan in which they identified dilapidated properties within the downtown square and got them taken out even though some had environmental concerns. Cross said he's also worked on TIF (tax-incremental funding) districts to redevelop three areas of University City. These areas had a lot of old auto sales and repair shops where a Target, Costco, Chick-Fil-A and a number of other new retail businesses and restaurants now sit. Cross talked about an infill program he started in Belleville in which he sold empty lots for $1 to developers who then handled the red tape of getting finance and then building the homes. "We now have 10 new homes that are being built in neighborhoods that haven't been built in for over 25 years," he said. Council President Jacob Ladner said Thursday that he thought Cross "did a really good job with the interview," and he is impressed with Cross' planning and code enforcement experience. He said he thought they had three good candidates, and the council made the right decision in bringing in Cross. He said he thinks the City Council will discuss the next move at Monday's 10 a.m. meeting. "It's time to get this thing wrapped up," Ladner said. — or 256-340-2432
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Morgan County EMA preparing Hazard Mitigation Plan for 2027
Mar. 12—The Morgan County Commission will pay $25,000 for an Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Plan to be completed that in the past has always been paid for by a federal grant, however the grant has been frozen by the federal government at this time. Jonathan Warner, Morgan County Emergency Management Agency director, said the Hazard Mitigation Plan is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency every five years. "What they want to know is how are we mitigating that hazard; how are we preparing for that hazard that's coming," he said. "The weather is a big one. Also, they look for our chemical hazards and our hazardous materials that flow through the county. Of course, since we're in Morgan County, our hazard of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. With the river running through, with the railroad running through, main interstates running through." Warner said it even takes into account gas pipelines like the one running parallel to Interstate 65 through the county. "Every kind of hazard like that goes into our mitigation plan, and we prove to FEMA in that plan how we're prepared for these hazards, and how we plan to deal if something goes wrong with these hazards," he said. The plan is due in 2027, however, it takes about a year to complete, Warner said. He said it is a regional plan which covers 10 counties in Alabama. Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments (TARCOG) has been hired to complete the plan, which was about 1,000 pages in 2022, Warner said. The total cost for all 10 counties, Warner said, is $250,000. Split evenly among the counties, each one pays $25,000. At Tuesday's Morgan County Commission meeting, the commission approved paying the $25,000 out of the general fund for completion of the plan. "The reason it's on the agenda now is typically we get a grant from FEMA. The state applies for the grant and gets the grant, and then the state pays TARCOG to do this Hazardous Mitigation Plan," Warner said. "The state applied for the grant this year, the grant was allocated for this, and the new administration came in and froze everything." Warner said, although the money has been allocated for the plan, the money is untouchable currently. "We don't know if we're going to eventually get this money or not," he said. Warner said the plan is federally required through FEMA, even if the county has to pay for it. "We've always gotten reimbursed for that; it's just a federal thing," said Commission Chairman Ray Long. "So many of the federal dollars are held up right now while they're going through this thing with (Elon) Musk and looking at all the federal contracts, all the appropriations. It's held up in that right now." Long said he is confident the funds will be reimbursed. "EMA is something that Congress has always supported us having money to do our job," he said. "That's not something they're going to cut out. It's just frozen right now, so we can't get it." Long said they have to keep the ball rolling, despite frozen funds. "We can't wait for everything to unfreeze to do what we need to do," he said. "We don't need to sit and put it off three, four, five months, whatever it is. It needs to keep rolling. So, we'll front the money. And, if we don't get reimbursed, then it's still something we need to do. We've got to have a Hazard Mitigation Plan; we've got to have it." — or 256-340-2460.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Decatur planning director interviews scheduled
Feb. 18—Starting Wednesday, if the weather cooperates, the Decatur City Council will interview two applicants from Texas for the newly recreated planning director opening and then next week talk with a former city planning manager seeking to return as director. Steve Hohulin, former director of Land Planning for Quiddity engineering and planning, The Woodlands, Texas, and Corin Hooper, senior noise analyst, BB&E Inc., San Antonio, Texas, are scheduled to be interviewed Wednesday. Lee Terry, economic and planning director for TARCOG (Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments) in Huntsville, will interview Feb. 25 at 3:30. All three are certified planners. Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin sent out an email Monday that says, "Unless weather patterns change drastically," the planning director interviews will continue as planned. She says Hohulin will go first at 10:30 a.m. with Hooper following at 1:30 p.m. After bringing back the planning director position, the City Council authorized Sandlin in November to hire formerly GovHR, for $40,000 to conduct a search for planning director candidates. Sandlin said Thursday that MGT received 16 applications and chose four finalists, but two withdrew from consideration. MGT presented two finalists, Hohulin and Hooper, for the Decatur job. Sandlin said Terry, who was Decatur's planning manager for three years before leaving for TARCOG, applied directly to the city. His interview is scheduled for 3 p.m., Feb. 25. Councilman Carlton McMasters said after Monday's council meeting that he is impressed with the applicants. "Of course, we know one of them," McMasters said. "And the other two from Texas look like good candidates. I'm curious to see what they have to say." Council President Jacob Ladner said there are not many applicants being reviewed, but he pointed out certified planners are difficult to find. "Three is not very many, but hopefully we can find one out of those three," Ladner said. "We've been able to find people for the other roles we've hired. If it's not the right three, we'll keep looking. We're not going to just settle on somebody because it's time to interview." The Decatur Daily obtained the three resumes and applications Monday through an open records request to the city. According to his resume, Hohulin has been in urban planning for 36 years with mostly private companies in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Hohulin writes that he led private development in 25 states. He has done over 100 comprehensive master plans, created education and medical campus planning designs at close to 30 colleges and hospitals, and led water and wastewater planning across the country. Hooper analyzes land use and noise in the context of the National Environmental Policy Act for BB&E. He writes in his cover letter that he also has an "extensive background" in GIS, transit planning and federal comprehensive planning. He started in the planning business in 2016. Hooper writes in his cover letter that he interviewed with the city of Decatur once before. "It's a place I would want my family to call home," Hooper writes. A former city employee, Terry writes in his resume that he "has been a planning professional with over 10 years of experience in urban planning, transportation planning, comprehensive long-range planning and data analysis." Terry worked for Decatur-area Metropolitan Planning Organization under Director Dewayne Hellums for eight years before moving over to the city Planning Department in 2021 as a planner 3. He was promoted to Planning manager but then left for TARCOG in July 2023. — No director since 2009 Decatur has been operating without a planning director since Michelle Gilliam-Jordan left for Huntsville in January 2009. The City Council and mayor then chose to operate with a planning manager at a lower pay scale than a director. The director of development has been running the Planning Department since 2009. Karen Smith retired as planning manager in 2020, and Terry followed her, but since his departure the city has had trouble filling the position. The city has been operating for more than a year with only one planner in the Planning Department. Former city Director of Development Wally Terry returned to work part time last year. Sandlin led two job searches this year for a planning manager but ran into several obstacles. She told the council in September that pay was an issue for some candidates while others were more interested in the "prestige" of the director's position. The city pays a planning manager a minimum salary of $72,834 and maximum of $109,305. In September, the City Council approved changing the manager position to that of a director, increasing the salary to a minimum of $87,523 and maximum of $133,178. All three finalists are certified by the America Institute of Certified Planners, which the city only had briefly since Gilliam-Jordan left. Terry earned his AICP certification in May 2023, just before leaving the city. City Councilman Billy Jackson has repeatedly expressed his concern with not having a certified planning director. Jackson said after Monday's council meeting that the city lost 14 years of planning by not replacing Gilliam-Jordan with a certified planner when she left in 2009. "Councils and mayors substituted and put themselves in the place of planner even though they don't have that background and training," Jackson said. "Without that planning background it was easy for us to guess, but, when you're guessing on projects that cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and it fails, then you've just wasted a lot of time and money." Jackson said he is looking for someone who can "re-seed" the Planning Department, so the city can make up some ground for that lost time. He pointed out that Decatur's neighbors — Athens, Madison and Huntsville — all have certified planners on staff. "Are we going to be able to recapture all of what we missed in one fell swoop? No, we can't, but we have to have the person that's most qualified to try to make up valuable time that we lost," he said. McMasters said he 100% agrees with Jackson. He said having an AICP certification as a planner is like an attorney passing the bar exam because of the advanced training received. "We've had excellent staff pull more than their weight, but a certified planner is just essential," McMasters said. "I'm not saying that just because a person has an AICP they're right all of the time, but they understand the position and the needs of the city." McMasters said he's interested in the candidates' views on the zoning ordinance rewrite the city has been working on for several years. He also wants to know their vision on residential growth "and how to make Decatur more inviting." Ladner said he's looking for the candidates' "vision and methodology from a growing city's standpoint. I want to know their thoughts on developers, and how hard or easy should we make it for developers." "My stance has always been pretty clear on developers, and that's go, go, go, especially when it comes to residential growth. Part of my questioning is where do they stand on a city that needs to be really aggressive on residential growth," Ladner said. Councilmen Kyle Pike and Hunter Pepper were absent from Monday's council meeting. — or 256-340-2432
