By Louie Graves
News-Leader Staff
By a split 8-2 vote in a called meeting, last Thursday, the Nashville City Council hired a successor to city finance director Jimmy Dale who had submitted his resignation in October.
The new finance manager will be Kimberly Green, a graduate of Texas A&M experienced in banking and finance, who is now a deputy in the Howard County Circuit Clerk’s office.
Green is expected to join the city within weeks.
At Thursday’s called noon meeting, Mayor Billy Ray Jones told the council that the selection was a recommendation of a four-person committee which sifted through eight applications. The committee was made up of veteran council members: James Parker, Carol Mitchell, Nick Davis and Monica Clark.
Of the committee members, Davis was the lone vote cast against hiring Green. He hastened to say that he was not opposed to Green, but tended to be in favor of promoting the city’s own employees. One of the applicants was a city employee who is familiar with the office’s financial system.
The other vote in opposition was council member Jimmie Lou Kirkpatrick. Voting for council member Carol Mitchell’s motion were Mike Milum, Andy Anderson, Kay Gathright, Donna Harwell, Matt Smith, Clark, Parker and Mitchell.
Green will start at $36,000 annually. She will be the third person in the job since the city created the position. She and her husband, Gabriel, have a son. Lenyx, 4, and a daughter, Laylah, born Sept. 1. She is a native of Sulphur Springs, Texas.
Mayor Jones said the reason he called the meeting to act on the recommendation was to get more time for Dale to train Green.
