Tablack offered job in bankrupt Alabama county

YOUNGSTOWN

Former Mahoning County auditor and administrator George Tablack is being offered a job that will require him to wrestle with more than $4 billion in debt.

With his background though, he appears to be well-suited to become the new chief financial officer of Jefferson County, Ala., County Manager Tony Petelos said Wednesday.

“We filed for the largest local-government bankruptcy in the history of the United States,” Petelos said, adding that November’s bankruptcy filing came on the heels of “generations” of corrupt and mismanaged government.

The state legislature required the county to restructure its government from a commission that handled both legislative and executive duties to a county-manager form of government.

Petelos became county manager in October, he said, and the CFO post is new.

He said he likes Tablack’s style: “It’s similar to mine.”

“It’s been difficult over here,” he said.

Petelos said the county hired a company to do a national search for someone to fill the CFO post.

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