Rocky Top city recorder leaving for MTAS job
Kari Bates will be leaving her job as city recorder in Rocky Top soon to take a new position with the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service, which consults with cities across the state on legal, financial and human resources issues.
Her last official day is March 4.
Bates, who has been with the city for more than six years and is a certified municipal financial officer, will be joining MTAS as one of its municipal finance training specialists.
In that role, she will be one of two MTAS employees teaching the service’s certified municipal finance officer course. Under state regulations, cities must have a certified finance officer either on staff or on contract to manage the municipalities finances.
In a profile of her that ran recently announcing her new position at MTAS, Bates said she began taking classes to become a certified finance officer within two weeks of taking the job in Rocky Top, since it was a requirement of the position.
“The program has been invaluable,” she wrote. “I had a background in government finance, but the structure of the classes provided me with a solid foundation and gave me a deeper understanding of all of the topics I would encounter on a daily basis.”
At Rocky Top, her job has included overseeing the city budget, as well as taking minutes for City Council meetings and other administrative duties.
“It’s tough,” City Manager Michael Foster said. “She’s going to be hard to replace. I’m excited for her with her new position, but I hate to lose her at the city. She’s done an outstanding job making things better, improving our books and running things on the financial side.
Foster, who hired Bates for the city position, said that Peggy Watson, the city’s accounts payable and court clerk, will be moving into Bates’s position.
“She will start working on her CMFO,” Foster said.
Others has praise for Bates, too.
“Kari is one of the best recorders to grace our city with her talents,” former Mayor Tim Sharp said in a Facebook post on Bates’s change of employment. “She won several awards for her work in municipal government. I am proud to have worked with her. I also am sorry she is leaving.”
Sharp was mayor during most of Bates’s time with the city, as he only left office last Dec. 1.
“MTAS is gaining a valuable asset by hiring Kari,” former Councilwoman Denise Casteel said. “[I] just hate it for our city.”
Current city Councilman Richard Dawson echoed the sentiments of Sharp and Casteel, saying, “A big loss for our city.”
