Bristol officials are now taking applications from candidates who want to be the next city manager, and they plan to split the city manager and city attorney roles between two employees.
Last week, longtime City Manager Randy Eads announced he was leaving the job he’d held for nine years to serve as general counsel for Jay Jones, Virginia’s new attorney general. Eads served as both city manager and city attorney.
“I do think we [council members] have all wanted to split those roles, it’s just that the cost to do so was cumbersome with everything that’s going on,” said Mayor Jake Holmes. “I think this is the opportune time to do that.”
Both Holmes and Vice Mayor Neal Osborne said separately this week that Tamrya Spradlin, the assistant city manager who is now serving as interim city manager, is a good candidate for the job, but they added they did not know yet if she plans to seek the permanent position.
Spradlin said Thursday that she’s “still evaluating” whether she will be a candidate for the job. She was named assistant city manager in May 2023 and was the city’s chief financial officer for more than five years before that. She is a certified public accountant.
The city is conducting its own search rather than hiring an outside firm to handle it. The Virginia Municipal League has provided some guidance, according to Holmes.
Osborne said the financially strapped city doesn’t have the money to hire someone to conduct a search. He added that there’s a lot going on in the city, including the ongoing landfill woes, and the city council needs to fill the position quickly.
He also noted that Spradlin was named interim city manager for 60 days and the plan is to fill the job before that time expires.
So far, the city has spent $32 million on landfill-related projects and another $79 million is expected to be needed over the coming years. The city has also committed to building a baseball stadium that will bring the Appalachian League’s Bristol State Liners back to the city.
Over the last few years, Eads also took the lead on trying to get something done with the burned-out property that was once Virginia Intermont College. The owner, Magis International, paid off the property taxes owed on the site last summer and its attorney says the owner is now committed again to opening a college there. The oldest buildings on campus were destroyed in a huge fire in December 2024.
The city has also made some recent financial progress, including increasing its credit rating several times, which council members have attributed to Eads’ efforts. But Eads recently emphasized that the city is in a negative net position of about $82 million, meaning its total liabilities exceed total assets.
The former city manager was leading an effort to try to get a bigger cut of the gaming tax revenue from the Hard Rock Casino. Currently, the city and 13 other localities in Southwest Virginia get an equal share. Because the casino is in the city, Bristol officials have said they must provide services such as police and fire protection and infrastructure improvements and so deserve more of the revenue. However, most of the other localities want the funding formula to remain the same.
Holmes and Osborne also said the city’s budget season will soon begin, and a city manager, who drafts the spending plan, will be needed.
Once a new city manager is hired, the city will then focus on hiring its next city attorney, Osborne said. He added that the city council will consider hiring an outside law firm to represent the city in the meantime, during Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
The city posted the city manager job opening on Friday and is accepting applications through Feb. 6.
The city manager is the CEO of Bristol and is appointed yearly by the council. He or she oversees daily city operations, enforces laws and ordinances, manages departments and public projects, prepares and administers the annual budget, provides financial reports and advises the five-member council.
The job requires strong leadership, government management expertise, strategic planning ability, extensive local government experience and excellent communication skills, according to the job description. A bachelor’s degree in public administration is required, and a master’s degree is preferred.
Once all the applications are in, council members will choose their top picks and go through an interview process, the mayor said.
Osborne said he feels it’s important that the next city manager has experience working with a locality in Virginia.
“I think we also need somebody who can work with five strong-willed individuals, because that’s what we have on council. And then you also need someone who is going to be very good with the political side of it, because a lot of Bristol’s bigger, expensive issues will be solved via state funding or via legislation,” he said.
He added that the candidate must also be a strong communicator and have excellent budgeting and financial skills, with the city’s high debt and costly problems.
The mayor said that Bristol has some unique challenges and its citizens have been through a lot.
“I want somebody that is aware of those challenges, that kind of knows the background, at least to some extent. And also somebody who’s got some good executive experience, good leadership experience that knows how to handle a larger organization … with issues and concerns that need to be addressed,” said Holmes, who added that the city’s new manager must be “the right fit.”
The salary is negotiable, according to the job ad. For both jobs he performed, Eads’ annual salary was $193,543.
