After a months-long process, Portsmouth City Council voted 4-3 last night to appoint Angel Jones as the next city manager.
Jones beat out several other finalists for the job, including former councilman and mayoral candidate Danny Meeks.
Meeks was briefly appointed city manager before the council reversed their decision, saying he never applied to the job. Council members changed their mind about another candidate, Sunshine Swinson, when it came to light she faces welfare fraud charges in Suffolk.
Jones previously served as the city manager for Gaithersburg, Md. before resigning in 2012.
Some Portsmouth council members said they heard concerns from citizens about that resignation at the special meeting held to officially appoint Jones.
Mayor Shannon Glover and council members Bill Moody, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Mark Whitaker voted in favor of the appointment.
Vice Mayor De’Andre Barnes and councilmen Paul Battle and Christopher Woodard voted against.
Jones will take the place of former city manager Lydia Pettis Patton, who resigned last year amid fallout over the city's response to the vandalism of a Confederate monument.
Council approved Jones' start date for April 12 with a salary of $200,000.
Other details of her contract, including the length of her appointment, still need to be worked out.
