Assistant manager leaving city post
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on July 26, 2015 1:50 AM
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Angel Wright-Lanier
After nearly two years as assistant city manager, Angel Wright-Lanier is headed for Mooresville. Her last day was Thursday.
Mrs. Wright-Lanier began her tenure as assistant city manager in September 2013 and made the decision to leave Goldsboro about two months ago. She said she is leaving to become a deputy town manager in Mooresville, where the area provides better career opportunities for her husband.
"The main reason is because the opportunities for my husband -- he's a Realtor -- he'll be able to sell houses in Charlotte and Mooresville and Lake Norman," Mrs. Wright-Lanier said.
She said she plans to stay in Mooresville "for a while," eventually seeking to become an assistant city manager or city manager in a large municipality and earn her doctorate so she can work as a professor at a college.
"I'm not sure about becoming a city manager just yet, but that's kind of the long term goal," Mrs. Wright-Lanier said. "I need to get a feel for my new position, but eventually I'll apply for a Ph.D. program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in public policy, so long, long term I want to be a professor."
She said she believes her biggest contributions during her time in Goldsboro is the work she has done to bring the UNC School of Government program to Goldsboro, as well as the effort she has put forth to further the city's economic development.
"I really enjoyed the economic development stuff that I've worked on with Shycole (Simpson-Carter), you know, things like revitalizing neighborhoods and having council look at that and support it, as well as the six block focus area we developed (around downtown) that we've been working in, and Allen (Anderson) and Jimmy (Rowe) have really stepped up code enforcement, so those kinds of things where we were trying to make the neighborhoods better are what I enjoyed most," Mrs. Wright-Lanier said.
City Manager Scott Stevens said he will not be looking to fill Mrs. Wright-Lanier's position immediately, but will be looking to either fill or restructure her position for a new hire by August or September.
"Whatever we decide to do, we will of course post it online and open it to internal candidates as well as external candidates," Stevens said.
He said when Mrs. Wright-Lanier was initially hired, having two assistant city managers, her and Randy Guthrie, made sense.