PANAMA CITY — City Manager Jeff Brown will not hire a Community Redevelopment Agency director for at least a year, saving about $60,000.
Instead, Brown has appointed Stephen Cox as the program manager of the downtown district Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and former administrative assistant Onya Bates to fill Cox’s current position as Millville district program manager.
The CRA director position was formerly held by William Whitson, who resigned in August.
Cox’s first objective is to replace 92 lights along Harrison Avenue with brighter, more energy-efficient LED lights by the end of the new fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. He still is in talks with Gulf Power to work out the cost of the replacement.