In one of his first acts as mayor of Jackson, John Horhn announced the team that will help him lead the city, including several new faces and some holdovers, at a packed meet-and-greet at the Two Mississippi Museums Thursday. 

Leading the appointments as the city’s interim chief administrative officer, Pieter Teeuwissen, a former Hinds County Court Judge who served as city attorney under former mayors Harvey Johnson and Frank Melton. 

The chief administrative officer is a vital position in Jackson City Hall as Teeuwissen will essentially serve as the deputy mayor, with most of the city’s departments reporting to him. So far, Teeuwissen said the job has mostly entailed a lot of reading in preparation for the city’s intensive budget process. 

“How do we craft a budget with audits that are now three years old?” Teeuwissen said, referring to the city’s failure to complete timely audits in recent years. “That would be the issue, and if you ask me next Monday, that’s gonna be the issue. Next Tuesday, next Wednesday, until we get a budget done.”

Willie Bozeman, Horhn’s campaign manager, will serve as interim chief of staff. Horhn’s appointments can serve in an interim capacity for 90 days, and Horhn must put their name on the agenda to be confirmed by the Jackson City Council before that time period is up.

Other new faces in the administration include: 

• ReSean Thomas, a former leader of the firefighters union who helped secure pay raises in recent years, will serve as interim fire chief;
• Von Anderson, who oversaw communications for Horhn’s transition team after serving as the chief commercial officer for the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, will be the interim director of planning and development;
• Grace Fisher, a former communications director at the Mississippi Department of Corrections and editor at the Clarion Ledger, will serve as interim communications director;
• Pearlean Campbell, former victim services director at MDOC, will serve as interim constituent services director;
• Nathan Slater, a local technology consultant, will oversee the IT department;
• and Jamal Sibley, a staff on the Horhn campaign, will serve as interim special assistant to the mayor. 

Slater has already started working on the city’s website and said he hopes to roll out a new one within 30 days. 

Of the directors Horhn has retained from former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s leadership team, the most notable is Fidelis Malembeka, the chief financial officer. 

Other holdovers include City Attorney Drew Martin, Municipal Clerk Angela Harris, Police Chief Joe Wade, and Director of Human Resources, Toya Martin. 

Emad Al-Turk, the contractor for the city’s public works department, will stay on with public works director while Horhn launches a national search for a new one, WLBT reported.