Hamp named interim city manager

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham
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Assistant city manager Mike Hamp will serve as the interim city manager when the clock strikes midnight on June 30-July 1.

Hamp was named to the interim post by a unanimous vote of Waynesboro City Council this evening. The council met in closed session to discuss the appointment before announcing Hamp’s ascent to the role in open session.

Hamp will step in for Doug Walker, who resigned under intense political pressure last week. Walker’s resignation takes effect at 11:59 p.m. June 30.

The resolution naming Hamp the interim city manager makes his appointment effective at midnight on July 1 and runs through 9 a.m. the morning of July 1. The new city council will take office at an organizational meeting at 9 a.m. on July 1, and will have to deal with the issue of who will serve as the interim city manager from that point forward at that meeting.

It is expected at this point in time that the new city council will have Hamp continue in that role until a new city manager is named. Rumors have been swirling around town the past few days that the new city-council majority of Tim Williams, Frank Lucente and Bruce Allen are looking to put someone favorable to their interests in the position in advance of naming a full-time replacement. The name of former Hershey Chocolate of Virginia plant manager Tom Reider had surfaced in reference to those reports due to Reider’s affiliation with Williams-Lucente-Allen ally Reo Hatfield.

Another name has surfaced as a possible top candidate to replace Walker on a full-time basis – former Waynesboro city manager Jerry Gwaltney, who resigned from his current job as city manager in Danville on May 28, a day after Walker annnounced his resignation in Waynesboro.

Hamp himself could be a candidate for the manager post. He has served once before as the interim city manager, for six months in 2002 following the retirement of former city manager Schuyler Giles and immediately prior to the hiring of Walker.