People

Jay Johnson, town manager for the town of Oakland, will retire from his position on June 30 after a 50-year career in city administration. Johnson has been the town manager of Oakland since 2020. Before coming to Oakland, Johnson has served in numerous city management roles in Tennessee and...

Lisa Teel, a police officer with the town of Collierville, has retired after 30 years with the Collierville Police Department. Teel began her career in 1993 as a dispatcher for CPD and then became a police officer two years later. She has served as a field training officer, crime scene investigator...

Tom Daugherty has been selected as the new city manager for the city of Fairview. Daugherty has served with the city since October 2013 when he was hired as the city recorder, and was quickly promoted to serve as the chief finance officer of the city. He has been serving as the city’s interim city...

The Franklin Fire Department welcomed four new firefighters into its ranks during a graduation ceremony.  Tanner Augello, Matthew Cheatham, Austin Patterson, and Hunter Tenpenny graduated from the department’s 18-week Recruit Academy.  The ceremony took place at the Eastern Flank Battlefield Park...

Don Friddle has been selected as the new chief of the Jackson Fire Department, bringing more than 35 years of experience to the role. Friddle has been employed as the deputy chief of operations for the department since 2019 and prior to that, served for five years as the fire marshal for Madison...

Kevin Breeding has been selected as the new city manager of Cedar Hill and will continue to serve as city manager of Orlinda. Breeding has served as the city manager of Orlinda since 2000, and for much of his nearly 23 years with the city has pulled double duty as the director of economic...

Brooklyn Sawyers Belk has been named deputy director for professional standards by Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel. Belk most recently served as a law professor at the University of Tennessee, where she obtained her law degree, and is a former federal prosecutor. Prior to teaching at the...

Loretta Garner has been hired by the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service (UT-MTAS) to serve as a municipal finance training specialist. Garner will be based in the Nashville office and most recently served as the finance director and city recorder for the city of Mt...

Kari Bates has been hired by the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service (UT-MTAS) as a municipal finance training specialist. Bates will be based in the Knoxville office and most recently served as the city recorder for the city of Rocky Top for six years. Prior to her work...

Danny Smith has been selected as the new police chief of Greenfield. Smith has been with the city for 30 years and has spent 29 of those years as the city’s assistant police chief. Smith has been serving as interim police chief since the retirement of former Chief Joey Radford in January. Smith...

Bryan Chandler has been selected as the new chief of police for Dresden. Chandler takes over the role from former chief Chris Crocker, who recently accepted a position with Tennessee Highway Patrol. Chandler has been serving as the interim chief for Dresden for the past three months since Crocker’s...

Ron Oestreich has been selected as the new director of parks and recreation for the town of Farragut following the retirement of longtime director Sue Stuhl in January. Oestreich comes to Farragut from Bolingbrook, Ill., where he served in their park district for 27 years, most recently as its...