City of Valdosta welcomes new city manager

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - City council members in Valdosta are welcoming their new city manager after all seven members unanimously voted him in to oversee day-to-day operations.

Richard Hardy, who has been employed with the city of Valdosta since 2014, is now overseeing the city’s 10 departments, 600+ employees and budget.

“From day one when I was appointed at the interim right away, I started looking throughout the city to see what are some of the processes that we needed to work on, and then building relationships throughout the community. Whether it be city organizations, city partners, the county. Just working on building those relationships so that we can move forward,” Hardy said.

Hardy says his strengths are problem-solving and building relationships. While he spent three months working in the city hall as the interim city manager, he planned efforts to strengthen community partnerships to benefit residents.

“Our infrastructure needs a lot of attention. That’s the first and foremost thing that I’m starting to concentrate on. We can’t do anything until we get our infrastructure in place,” Hardy said. “We have some dead ends that we need to move out so that we can continue to expand some of the housing communities. Both for commercial builders, and residential homes.”

Hardy would like to thank the mayor’s council for believing in him, and the city of Valdosta’s employees and residents for their support.

“He is an outstanding leader, and I believe he will leave his mark as the next great city manager of the city of Valdosta,” Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson said.

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