Interim City Administrator Jeff Hancock was officially sworn in by Fayette Mayor Greg Stidham at the April 7 regular meeting of the city council. He was hired March 11 on a temporary basis.

Hancock reported to the council that apart from working to untangle the mess left at City Hall by the former city administrator, Robin Triplett, his focus will be on the upcoming budget as well as recruiting a permanent city administrator and city clerk.

The positions had previously been combined when Triplett, then city clerk, was promoted to city administrator in 2004. Since then a lack of checks and balances, among other issues at City Hall, have resulted in fines in excess of $151,000 imposed on the city when Triplett failed to meet filing deadlines for financial reports with the state.

“Just to keep the organization running has been a challenge,” Hancock said.

Hancock suggests the city once again separate those jobs. He is working to begin advertising for both positions by April 10 with a first review of resumes on May 1. His goal is to have people hired and on the job by July 1. “This is an aggressive schedule,” he said.

Mayor Stidham said he prefers to have the city’s 2020-21 budget put together before making offers to applicants. “Our revenues are going down. Our sales tax is going down. Our utilities are going down,” he said. “Certainly if we hire a city clerk, that’s a separate position. That's a new expense as well. So we have to balance that in with the loss of revenue that’s going to happen because of the coronavirus.”

Ultimately it was decided to push the process back a couple of weeks so that the city will have a better understanding of its budget moving forward.