File photo
Tony Petelos, the former county manager for Jefferson County, at the Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Birmingham on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Petelos is now retired after 34 years of public service in the Birmingham and Hoover area.
As Homewood prepares to hire an interim city manager following voter approval to change the city’s government structure, a veteran political figure who led Jefferson County through turbulent change has expressed interest in the role.
Tony Petelos, the former Hoover mayor and county manager of Jefferson County, told The Homewood Star he would consider coming out of retirement on an interim basis to lay the groundwork for a permanent hire.
“I’m a lifetime resident of Jefferson County and was able to set up a new form of government for Jefferson County, and would be able to do it for the City of Homewood,” he told The Star on Thursday, two days after voters approved the referendum authorizing the change in government.
Petelos, 71, retired from the county manager position of Jefferson County in 2021. Asked directly if he had talked to representatives from Homewood or interviewed for a role, Petelos declined to answer. He did tell The Star he would be happy to talk with Homewood’s City Council and learn more about their needs, and clarified he has no interest in the permanent city manager role.
Homewood voters on Tuesday authorized the city to change its form of government from a mayor/council format to a city manager/council structure. As part of that transition, the council plans to hire an interim manager to initiate changes and prepare for a full-time hire to be made by the next council and mayor. New leadership will take over after city elections in 2025.
Tuesday night, former Homewood mayoral candidate Chris Lane posted on Facebook that Petelos would be the choice to lead the transition.
“I've had several people ask me (about his name being linked to the role on social media),” said Petelos, a UAB graduate whose career in politics also includes serving in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1986-97. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I don't know.’ I need more information before I can make any statement (on whether he would officially apply for the role).”
The city has not publicly outlined the selection process. It has not posted a job description or an opening for the role on its website. Council President Alex Wyatt told The Star that the council must first approve a budget for the city, which is expected to occur at Monday night’s regularly scheduled council meeting. He said several potential candidates have already expressed interest in the position since Tuesday’s result.
He said there is not an established timeline for filling the interim position, other than the city hopes to do so in advance of next fall’s elections. The selected candidate’s availability to start could impact the timeline as well.
Petelos would bring decades of experience to the role. He served as Hoover’s mayor from 2004-2011, leading the city through a period of dynamic growth. He then left to become Jefferson County’s first county manager in 2011, a move that stunned many observers considering the county was mired in controversy and lacking public trust after 22 county officials were imprisoned on corruption charges in the preceding years.
“We inherited a mess,” Petelos told the Hoover Sun in 2021, just before his retirement. “It was a challenge.”
Jefferson County went through bankruptcy as he took office, made a controversial decision to eliminate inpatient care at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, closed the county nursing home, cut 1,000 jobs and was held in contempt of court in a decades-old federal court case regarding the county’s hiring practices — all within an 18-month period of time.
“It was about as bad as I expected,” Petelos told The Sun, referring to the county’s condition when he came into the job. “The first six years were chaotic — issue after issue after issue.”
But by the time he retired, the county had emerged from bankruptcy and was in a much better position financially, with more than $100 million in general fund reserves and another $16 million in a “catastrophic” contingency fund, Petelos said.
Whomever fills the interim city manager role will take over at a time of significant transition and public scrutiny of the city’s government. The former finance director was convicted of stealing $950,000 of city funds earlier this month. Current Mayor Patrick McClusky has announced he will retire in November with a year remaining on his term, and Wyatt will officially replace him on Nov. 1 while telling The Star he does not intend to seek reelection in 2025.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:59 p.m. to correct information about the person convicted of stealing $950,000 of city money. It was the city's former finance director, Robert Burgett.
