The Alexander City Outlook

Council interviews candidates

The search for Alexander City’s new finance director is nearing an end.

The top three candidates for the newly created position – Scott Watson, Steven Hays and David Johns – sat down with the city council Tuesday night to vie for the coveted spot.

In typical interview fashion, Mayor Barbara Young asked each candidate a list of the same questions and then the council asked follow-up questions based on their answers.

From inquiries regarding qualifications to how the candidates balance their work and family life, the council left little unasked as they inch closer to making their final choice.

Watson is a lifelong Alexander City resident who currently works as a project manager at Madix Store Fixtures. He also recently retired from the U.S. National Guard.

“I think one of my strengths is not just creating financial reports, but in the analysis of the financial reports,” he said when asked what he believes he can bring to the position. “At Madex I’m really involved in two fields: partially financial accounting and the other part is industrial engineering … and I’d really like to focus more on the financial side.”

Hays is also a local Alexander City resident. He last served as chief financial officer at Wellborn Forest Products here in Alexander City, where he worked 15 years.

“I think working in the private sector, where it’s basically you have to cut costs or you die or go away and you have to survive – I think if were looking at ways to reduce a budget in some areas, I may have great insight in how we’ve done it in the past,” Hays said during his response when asked why he believes he’s qualified for the position.

Johns is a Brewton native who currently works as an audit manager at Jackson Thornton and Co., a certified public accounting and consulting firm based in Montgomery.

“This sounds like very interesting work,” Johns said in the interview. “I welcome the challenges … I’m ready to settle. I’ll miss traveling a lot but there’s advantages and disadvantages to everything and there’s a lot of advantages to settling down in this city.”

The city council unanimously voted to create the new finance director position to oversee all of Alexander City’s finances at its regular meeting held Monday, April 19.

The finance director will act as a chief financial officer for the city by overseeing the city’s budgets, expenses and money for special projects. He will also help the council determine what the city can afford to spend. Currently, the city clerk/treasurer oversees the city’s finances, but the addition of the new position will now separate those roles.

Mayor Young said a total of 27 individuals originally applied for the position. She said a committee then dwindled the applicants down to the top eight candidates to interview and, based on those interviews, the top three candidates were chosen and invited back.

She said she thought Tuesday’s interviews went very well and – although it will be up to the council members to make the final decision – she hopes it will be soon.

“We’ve been very fortunate,” she said. “We’ve had good candidates from the very beginning and I think these are three of the best. That’s the reason the committee brought them here… I hope a decision will be made very soon. That’s my personal hope.”