Collierville to offer town administrator job to Missouri city official. Here's what we know

Collierville could soon appoint Town Administrator James Lewellen's successor.

Collierville to offer town administrator job to Missouri city official

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen met Tuesday afternoon in a work session to discuss applicants for the town administrator position.

Lewellen said he will offer the position to Molly Mehner, deputy city manager in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Although he will offer Mehner the position, nothing is official until the board votes to appoint her, which could happen at the Oct. 10 board meeting or in a special-called meeting.

Lewellen announced last year he planned to retire after turning 65 years old, so the town went on a search for his successor.

A year later and the board is one step closer to appointing a new town administrator after 27 years with Lewellen.

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Lewellen said the town received more than 40 applications for the position but the board narrowed the choice to two candidates — Mehner and another option who recently dropped out.

"I think y'all will like working with her," Lewellen said to the aldermen and mayor. "I didn't see any kind of abrasiveness... none of her answers kind of triggered a negative reaction anywhere along the way. This is all blind dating, you have no idea what you're going to get when she gets here but the folks in Cape Girardeau love her, and everybody has a lot of great things to say about her."

The aldermen along with Lewellen seemed fond of Mehner, who has held the deputy position in the Missouri city since July 2015.

"Molly would be really good P.R. wise," Alderman Billy Patton said at the work session. "I could see her being a better-polished version for the Town of Collierville... than the other guy."

Patton also brought up that Mehner needs to be "strong-natured" and know how to say no sometimes.

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"I do like Molly," Lewellen said. "I do think she's got the temperament and I think she has the knowledge... having to stand up to people and having to say no, she's been the city planner in Glendale, Arizona, that was growing 20 times faster than anything Collierville was doing... so she's got some battle scars."

The other aldermen nodded in agreement with Lewellen's decision to offer the position to Mehner.

Before officially hopping off his town government duties, Lewellen plans to help Mehner settle in and train her on her new position.

Dima Amro covers the suburbs for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at Dima.Amro@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @AmroDima.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Collierville to offer town administrator job to Missouri city official