Oak Ridge City Manager: Randall Hemann
City manager candidates Aretha Ferral-Benavites, left, and Randall Hemann, right, pose with Oak Ridge Mayor Pro Tem James Dodson after a forum event at Oak Ridge High School, Wednesday, Aug. 16. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The vote was taken at a special Friday, Aug. 18, meeting at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building Courthouse.
Hemann will run the city departments on behalf of the City Council, and replace the interim city manager, Jack Suggs, who in turn replaced former City Manager Mark Watson.
Oak Ridge Senior Communications Specialist Lauren Gray told The Courier News the city will need to negotiate a work agreement with Hemann before he can start.
Warren Gooch, Mayor Pro Tem James Dodson and City Council members Charles Hensley, Charles Hope and Sean Gleason voted for Hemann. Council members Ellen Smith and Derrick Hammond voted instead for Aretha Ferral-Benavites.
Hemann has worked in government administrative positions in different North Carolina cities, including recently in Mooresville. All the City Council members who voted for Hemann praised him before the vote.
“I identify with his model of servant leadership,” Gooch said, which he described as “giving broad parameters and discretion” to employees.
“The fact that he would give specific answers for every question, and he did so every time,” Hensley said regarding his reason for choosing Hemann.
“Evey time that I talked to people that had worked for Randy or with Randy, I got positive comments,” Hope said.
Dodson praised Hemann on education, and said his decision was based on “not who would not do a good job, but who would be the best fit.” Gleason praised what he said was Hemann’s commitment to public safety, downtown development, transparency, diversified housing, and a diverse workforce.
While the consulting firm Gov HR USA originally presented more candidates, the final vote was between Hemann and Ferral-Benavites.
Ferral-Benavites had worked in several states including Texas, Virginia, the District of Columbia, California, Illinois and New Mexico. Smith said this experience was better than Hemann’s more-limited experience with North Carolina’s government.
She said he had not learned “how bizarrely different other states can be.
“Aretha Ferral-Benavites has the outward-facing leadership,” Smith said, regarding the ability to communicate with the state of Tennessee and U.S. Department of Energy.
Hammond said the other council members had misunderstood some of Ferral-Benavites’ answers to questions. He said they had not understood her desires to meet with lower-ranking employees and be an agent of change as positive things.
“I could clearly look around the room and see that they were misinterpreted,” he said of her statements. “There were biases that absolutely played themselves out in this process.”
All the citizens who spoke at the meeting’s time for public comments and endorsed a candidate favored Ferral-Benavites over Hemann, with several praising her energy.
“I feel like Randy is more of a continuation of Mark Watson,” Oak Ridge resident Kowetha Mack told the council. “Mechanically, he had good answers. However, I did not see them as being imaginative or forward thinking.”
Another resident, Ann Garcia, echoed those words.
“What this town really needs is a new look, a new energy,” she said. “We need a change here in Oak Ridge. We need something different, and she is so very qualified.
“I’m tired of white men leading this city,” another citizen said.