By Valerie Morgan
Rockdale County Chairman Oz Nesbitt commended the work of his transition team, which included 30 citizens who spent several weeks interviewing county department heads and key administrators to develop strategies and goals to move the county forward under a new administration.
Nesbitt takes the helm as the county’s top leader and will hold his first Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Jan. 3, 10 a.m., in the Rockdale Assembly Hall, 901 Main Street, Conyers.
Nesbitt said Corey Hambrick, who served as chief of the transition team, set the tone for a cohesive group focused on collaboration.
“I want to personally thank each member of our transition team for their time, talent, and resources in assisting with moving Rockdale County forward,” Nesbitt said. “The 2016 Transition Readiness Team (TRT) represented a broad spectrum of our community including all demographics. Their work confirmed the actual size of the mountain we must climb and depth of how deep we must dig in order to stabilize the foundation of our local county government from the inside out,” said Nesbitt. “Communications, human resources, and overall employee morale were the top three concerns across all county departments.”
Hambrick said Nesbitt plans to share the transition team’s findings with Commissioners Doreen Williams and Sherri Washington.
“The teams and coordinators worked extremely hard and took time out of their personal schedules to conduct these interviews, structure their data, and develop layouts for presentation to the chairman-elect,” said Hambrick.
Below are the names of each transition team member and his or her area of profession:
| Melissa T. Mims | The Event Professionals, Inc. | Executive Associate |
| Ahmad Muddessar | Ahmadiyya Community | CEO |
| Tanya Cobb | Georgia Cyber Academy | District Guidance Director |
| Dan Ray | Georgia Association of Tax Officials | Executive Director and Retired Tax Commissioner of Rockdale County |
| Jamaal Wesley | Emergency Service Estimating and Consulting, LLC | Owner/Property Loss Estimator |
| Anika Inman | Inman Consulting Group | CEO |
| William Campbell | Impact Counseling and Consulting, LLC | Owner/CFO |
| A.Nicholas Brown, Jr. | Internal Revenue Service | Revenue Agent |
| Sonya Travis | IDLife | Area Director |
| Katie Vaughn | Arts Association of Newton County | Finance Director |
| Tommy Morgan | Retired from Rockdale County Fire Dept. | Retired Chief |
| Fred Straub | Straub and Associates, Inc. | Owner |
| Jason Witcher | Edward Jones | Financial Advisor |
| Ronnie Godwin | Retired from Conyers Police Department | Retired Lieutenant |
| Eric L. Jackson | First Responder | Fire Captain |
| John McDonald | Delta Airlines Inc. | New Hire Facilitator |
| Julie Mills | Hospital Authority of Rockdale County | Executive Director |
| Dewey Blaise | Focus Receivables Management | VP of Information Technology |
| Celina Hutchinson Knoblock | Translator & Interpreter | |
| Tina Ulmer | Keller Williams, Atlanta Metro East | Realtor |
| Jay Grover | Corey Companies | V.P. Special Projects |
| Derwin Davis | Davis Law LLC | CEO |
| Jason Witcher | Edward Jones | Financial Advisor |
| Terry Moore | Barloworld | V.P. (Retired) |
Additional members of the team included Lee Carter, Kenneth Walker, Willie Taylor, Gayle L. Salam, and Karen James.