While she insists she’s ready to “do everything I can to help Lonnie Ballard be successful,” Ward III City Commissioner B.J. Fletcher’s reaction to a vote that allows interim City Manager Tom Berry to hire Lonnie Ballard as deputy city manager seems to have exposed a chink in the Albany City Commission’s unified armor.

Berry announced in an impromptu news conference last Thursday that he planned to ask the City Commission to ratify the new position so that he could hire Ballard, who served as assistant Albany city manager under James Taylor for two years before leaving in May of last year to take a similar position with the city of Tallahassee, Fla. At that news conference, Berry made it clear that Ballard was taking the job “at risk,” but he also noted that he was confident Ballard could replace him in the city manager’s position.

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