CSHLRA to open executive director search

Published 12:30 pm Friday, July 21, 2023

After months of discussion, the Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority (CSHLRA) has begun the search process for a new executive director. 

The board charged with revitalizing the former Central State Hospital campus, now called Renaissance Park, voted at its regular monthly meeting Wednesday to empower the search committee to begin the process. The posting is expected to go live Monday or sometime early in the week, according to discussions at the meeting. 

The executive director handles the day-to-day operations of the Authority, answering inquiries about properties, scheduling events (mainly for the Chapel of All Faiths/Grove Events Center), and finding potential business partners to come to the campus, thus creating jobs and economic development opportunities locally. 

Since its creation more than a decade ago, CSHLRA has only had one full-time executive director. Michael Couch held the role until his retirement at the end of 2020. He continued working on a contractual basis while the board sought a full-time replacement. 

Milledgeville City Councilman Walter Reynolds was brought on as interim in July 2021. He took on the job as a contractor, separate from his city alderman duties. 

Reynolds was interim for nearly a year and a half before he and the Authority ended their relationship with one another last December. Reynolds wanted the position full-time and the protection that comes with being an employee rather than a contractor. CSHLRA Chairman Johnny Grant said at the time that the board was not ready to extend a job offer – to anyone. 

Formerly funded by the City of Milledgeville, CSHLRA is now financially self-sustaining through leases and sales of former state hospital properties. At the time of Reynolds’ departure the Authority was footing the bill for a loan that paid for improvements to the Bobby Parham Kitchen resulting from the kitchen’s previous tenant, Food Service Partners, going belly-up into bankruptcy last summer. Grant, in December, cited financial uncertainty as a major reason for not moving forward with an executive director search. 

The financial uncertainty has since abated. 

Since sales are nearly impossible to predict, the board budgets based on regular operations (executed leases), and treasurer Bill Jones gave a good report Wednesday. 

“We feel like we should be able to cover the executive director salary out of the normal operations without having to rely on real estate sales,” Jones said.

The board passed its fiscal year 2023-24 budget in June. In it, the executive director’s position was budgeted at $99,600. 

The search committee — made up of CSHLRA board members Dr. Joycelynn Nelson, Randy Peters, Owen Pittman and Calvin McMullen — will now begin the process of finding a new full-time executive director. 

Nelson told The Union-Recorder the job will be posted online through the Georgia Economic Developers Association, Department of Community Affairs, and the Georgia Local Government Access Marketplace, among other potential sites. The posting was live as of Tuesday here: https://www.geda.org/news/executive-director—central-state-hospital-local-redevelopment-authority-cshlra.

Though the process has kickstarted, it’s still likely to be months before a candidate is extended an offer. The board’s adopted search process states the job will be posted for at least 45 to 60 days. Twenty days after posting, applications will be shared with the full search committee to begin initial screening. From there, interviews will be scheduled and credentials verified before a finalist or finalists are presented to the full board. The process also includes a 14-day period for a finalist’s name to be made available to the public for comments. 

CSHLRA’s work has been carrying on nicely in the absence of an executive director, be it interim or full-time. The board has moved closer to the sale of Parham Kitchen to new partner Peach State Kitchen, and there was the recent $425,000 sale of the hospital’s old staff dorms and apartments to a businessman from Canada who plans to renovate them into modern apartments. During discussions about the open executive director’s position the past few months, board members have also said the role needs to be filled in order for the organization to realize its full potential. 

In other business Wednesday, the CSHLRA board also approved a resolution to request that the property at 174 Bostick Road be conveyed from the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) to the Authority because there is an interested buyer. Chairman Grant also shared that the Chapel/Grove Events Center will play host to a couple of upcoming community events. Saturday at 6 p.m. the new documentary film, “Central State Hospital: An Oral History” will be shown. The weekend of Aug. 11 the Milledgeville Players will also present three showings of the stage play, “Steel Magnolias.”