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Durham's Voorhees finalist for Maryland city manager post

13 JUN 2008  •  by Lisa Sorg, lsorg (at) indyweek (dot) com

Durham Deputy City Manager Ted Voorhees is a finalist for the city manager position in Gaithersburg, Md., according to officials there.

Angel Jones of Eugene, Ore., is the other finalist.

Voorhees, who has been Durham's Deputy City Manager since 2002, is one of 11 applicants for the post; six were chosen for interviews. He is scheduled to appear at a meet-and-greet session Tuesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Gaithersburg.

Voorhees has also served as assistant city manager of Wilmington, N.C., and city manager of King, N.C.

The previous Gaithersburg City Manager, David Humpton, retired in October 2007. He had served in the position for 12 years. Jim Arnoult, Director of Public Works, has been serving as Acting City Manager in the interim.

Gaithersburg's is a city of approximately 58,000 southwest of Baltimore.

In an e-mail to the Indy, Voorhees wrote: "Every day I continue to be challenged and excited by the many wonderful things going on in Durham, a community where great things happen... Nevertheless, from time to time it is in the best interest of my career as a local government professional to seek other opportunities where my talents and understanding can be used, and where my experience can grow in new ways."

Voorhees noted that he also has family living in suburban Maryland.

The Indy criticized Voorhees earlier this year for his public comments regarding how the city of Durham would deal with the drought.

Durham "is not going to be in the business of helping provide water to citizens if the taps are turned off," he told a public forum in January. "I think there's enough infrastructure in the retail capacity of our marketplace to provide enough drinking water for folks to drink. Now if you want to take a bath, that's another matter."

1 COMMENT

Wow. I heard a lot of positive feedback about my many comments at the water forum referenced in the article, yet only my comment about the "doomsday" scenario of completely running out of water was cited - and critically. That's a pretty narrow read on my comments and my service to Durham. Frankly, I'll stick by the comments, though. The City of Durham is not set up to be the emergency manager of a disaster of state-wide proportion. That's where the State and federal government come in. In the end, though, all of this is moot. Durham didn't run out of water thanks to many factors, including conservation by our citizens, good planning, and hard work by our staff. Ted Voorhees, Deputy City Manager
by Ted Voorhees (theodore.voorhees@durhamnc.gov) Durham 16 Jun 2008, 4:52pm Report this comment
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