Mayor Bill Haslam announced today that Becky Wade has started work as manager of the City of Knoxville's Codes Enforcement Office.
Wade, who has extensive experience in community development, replaces the late Ken Flynn.
As part of her duties as the city's code enforcement section manager Wade will oversee the daily activities of the division.
Those include ensuring compliance with Knoxville's building codes and city ordinances; communicating with citizens, community groups and other city departments; and implementing the decisions of the Better Building Board.
"I'm very pleased that Becky Wade has decided to join us and I'm confident she is the right person to continue the work to achieve the goals we've set for that office," Haslam said. "She made major contributions to Knoxville and its citizens when she was at KCDC and I know that she'll have the same success with the city."
In 2005 the mayor initiated a reorganization of city's codes enforcement effort aimed at achieving four major goals including:
improving communications with citizens; establishing reasonable inspection or remediation timetables for citizens; establishing a chronic problem properties team to identify blighted or abandoned property and coordinate a plan to remedy the problem; implementing a system for tracking and recovering expenses associated with the city's cleaning up dirty lots and demolition of dangerous properties.
Wade retired earlier this year from Knoxville's Community Development Corporation after a 31-year career that saw her rise from her initial position as a counselor to serving as the agency's HOPE VI Director for nearly a decade.
In that role Wade was responsible for KCDC's ambitious $46 million revitalization of the Mechanicsville Neighborhood where the College Homes housing area once stood.
She also served as a public housing manager, a program administrator and as deputy to the KCDC director at various points during her tenure with the organization.
Wade is a 1974 graduate of the University of Tennessee.
She will report to Bob Whetsel, director of the Department of Public Service.