Anthony Emanuel is the mayor of Trenton, Ga.
Trenton, Ga., officials’ decision to eliminate the position of Better Hometown manager led six of the seven members of the city’s Downtown Development Authority board to resign as one last week.
Trenton Mayor Anthony Emanuel said city officials had little choice but to eliminate the position in the face of needed spending cuts. The job oversees a self-help community development program aimed at revitalizing the downtowns of small cities.
“When I came in office in January, we were very deliberate in reviewing financial information on a line-item basis,” Emanuel said Monday. “Nothing was sacred.”
The city was almost $500,000 in the red just a few months ago, he said, and “in that analysis it pointed us very quickly toward the direction of expenses.”
He said officials had to break city spending into essential and nonessential programs and prioritize the necessities, and Better Hometown manager Peter Cervelli’s job was nonessential.