Thomas, whose tenure with the county will fall two months short of six years when he serves his final day Oct. 31, said the opportunity to “move to the next level of management” was too much for him to turn down.
“If this hadn’t been such an excellent opportunity for me, I wouldn’t have considered leaving Albany,” Thomas said. “I’ll be leaving behind a well-run organization that I’ve really enjoyed being a part of.
“But I’m excited about the possibilities in Macon. They have their own challenges, but they have a lot of positive things going on. They have a new mayor (Robert Reichert), and there is a new positive outlook in the city. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Thomas grew up in Albany but moved to Long Beach, Calif., in his early teens. He returned to Albany to attend Darton College and finished requirements for his master’s degree in public administration at Georgia College and State University.
County Administrator Richard Crowdis said Thomas had served the county well during his tenure.
“He did a good job for us, but this is a great opportunity for Thomas,” Crowdis said. “I’m certainly proud for him.”
Crowdis said the county would “go through the process” of finding a replacement for Thomas.
“Of course, I only found out about this about five hours ago, so it’s not like I’ve sat down and planned everything out yet,” he said. “I will say we’re not going to rush the process; we don’t have a deadline. We’ll go through the normal process, and in the meantime (staff and Crowdis) will increase our workload to take care of the projects he’s working on.
“We’ve done it before; we’ll get the job done.”
