After bringing new General Services director Joel Reitzer to Durham from outside the City government, city manager Tom Bonfield has looked inside the administration to two interim appointees to plug vacancies in the Bull City's administration.
Kevin Dick takes over the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, while Germaine Brewington assumes permanent leadership of the Audit Services group.
Dick has led OEWD since Alan DeLisle left for Louisville, Ky.'s top downtown development post at the end of 2008. Dick, who holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown and a master's in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida Atlantic, has particularly big shoes to fill, given DeLisle's long service in the role.
Much of Dick's work before and after he joined the City administration in 2006 has been focused on workforce and job development, a point that Bonfield noted as an asset in a press release announcing the personnel moves. He also has played a key role in neighborhood revitalization efforts, including the streetscape planning projects and economic development initiatives in targeted neighborhood commercial districts.
BCR has learned that Dick was one of two finalists for the position, and the sole internal candidate finalist. While we don't know much about the other finalist, the big question in many OEWD stakeholders' minds will likely be how effective the administrator will be in comparison with longtime economic development vet DeLisle -- whose close relationship with DDI head Bill Kalkhof has been widely credited with success in building public-private partnerships.
Brewington joined Durham's city government in 2007 as an auditor, after previous experience as an auditor with NCSSM, Ernst & Young, and her alma mater of Duke. She formerly owned and managed her own CPA firm in Wilmington, according to the city's press release.
Google searches suggest that a person with the same name was involved in real estate in the Wilmington area in the 1980s.
With Reitzer just getting started and Brewington and Dick just promoted, it's a bit early to be able to speak on the quality and nature of Bonfield's staff hires -- though the manager's ability to fill roles with strong candidates will clearly be a focal point of attention for how he succeeds in his second year as manager.
The next search to get Bonfield's attention may just be the new Transit & Parking directorate, proposed in the FY10 budget... and pulling these two areas plus taxicabs out from under Public Works' Katie Kalb, whose exchange with the manager during last week's work session showed that Bonfield clearly isn't afraid to call out staff when he perceives that a line is crossed.
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