Bill Reynolds

Bill Reynolds
Occupation	Pensacola City Administrator

William H. (Bill) Reynolds is the current Pensacola City Administrator. He was named to the position by Mayor Ashton Hayward on July 28, 2011, and began his service on August 1. He is the first permanent city administrator under the "strong mayor" city charter passed in 2009.

Born in Hillsboro, Illinois, Reynolds attended Greenville College and received a bachelor's degree in history, political science and sociology in 1988. He received his juris doctorate from DePaul University College of Law in 1991 and served as a prosecutor in the United States Marine Corps, becoming the senior legal advisor to the 1st Marine Division. In 1999 Reynolds left active duty and attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, graduating with a master's in Public Administration in 2000. He became press secretary to Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter and later became the senator’s Chief of Staff and Director of Communications. He took a leave of absence of Senator Specter's office in 2004 to serve on a military deployment in Iraq's Al Anbar province and was named the senior civil affairs and reconstruction advisor to the province’s Iraqi governor.

In June 2007, Reynolds accepted a position as the first county administrator of Chippewa County, Wisconsin. He resigned from the position in April 2010, saying he had laid a foundation that his successor would be better suited to build further. "There’s a time and a place for everyone to move on, when they look and see the value of them in the position isn’t there anymore. From my perspective, we’ve reached a plateau here.”

In 2010, Reynolds was hired as deputy county administrator in Washtenaw County, Michigan. He went on medical leave in April 2011, citing post-military issues, and resigned from the position in June.

Mayor Ashton Hayward selected Reynolds for the administrator position, with an annual salary of $130,000, following a search process conducted by New York-based Gilbert Tweed International. Hayward said in a press release, "Bill has a wealth of knowledge and experience in building and improving organizations, whether it's helping local tribes in Iraq transition to democracy or working with local governments here in the United States facing budget challenges. I think Bill is going to help us move City Hall to a new level of efficiency and help us build a customer-friendly, citizen-first culture."

Soon after starting his duty as city administrator, Reynolds sent an email to the city's department heads saying he respected their expertise and did not wish to micro-manage their operations, and he stressed that they were expected to show professional loyalty to the mayor's office — "No hidden agendas, game playing or gossip brokering" — and to resolve any problems through open and frank communication with himself.

Reynolds is married with two sons.

References

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