Bulloch County Commissioners met for a called meeting at lunch on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. There was one item on the agenda which was appointing Bulloch County's new Public Safety Director, Randy Tillman as the interim Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director.
With the retirement of Public Safety Director Ted Wynn on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, the Board of Commissioners needed to name an interim EMA Director until the hiring process is completed to fill the vacated position by Public Safety Director Ted Wynn.
Ted Wynn held both positions, Public Safety Director and EMA Director. With the retirement of Wynn and his Deputy Director Lee Eckles, the County has decided to fill the EMA Director position with an individual who can solely concentrate on EMA responsibilities. This position will report to Tillman.
The EMA Director position is being advertised currently and they hope to have the position filled soon with a permanent EMA Director.
Randy Tillman
This is Randy Tillman's 38th year serving in public safety. Most of his career was spent in corrections.
Tillman retired in 2014 as the Director of Facility Operations which is the prison director for the Georgia Department of Corrections. In this position he oversaw daily operations of approximately 88 facilities, 9,000 staff and an annual budget of $800 million.
If you compare the Georgia Department of Corrections to all of the cities in Georgia it would be the 5th or 6th largest city in Georgia counting staff and incarcerated individuals. Like any city or town, the Department of Corrections has to provide all the services that would be found in a city. Corrections has their own fire departments and EMS services. Often in rural communities the corrections operations would provide fire services with inmate firefighters or other corrections staff.
Through his position with the Georgia Department of Corrections Tillman has always had a close relationship with law enforcement and fire services state wide. He looks forward to leaning on these relationships and building new relationships in Bulloch County Public Safety.
After retiring from the Georgia Department of Corrections Tillman did contract work with the department for a year. He then went to work for a private prison group and served as the warden at a U.S. Marshall's facility in LoveJoy for three years.
In August of 2018 Tillman came to Bulloch County to close the Bulloch County Correctional Institute (BCCI) and hand it over to Sheriff Noel Brown to use for additional inmate bed space.
After evaluating the Sheriff's needs and consulting with the County Manager and Bulloch County Commissioners they made the decision to keep the facility operational.
This allowed the County to continue to take advantage of the inmate work force used by public works and other county departments. They also realized the value that BCCI provides in teaching job skills to inmates to prepare them for the workforce when they are released. Tillman accepted the warden position in 2018 and has continued in that role until now.
As part of the restructuring of Public Safety will also bring BCCI under Public Safety.
Staff Comments
Venus White, Bulloch County Clerk gave an update on the selection process to fill the vacancy on the Bulloch County Planning and Zoning Board. The vacancy was created when board member Dr. Gary Edwards resigned from the board. White noted that she and Bulloch County Planning and Zoning Director, James Pope had sent out a questionnaire to the 17 planning and zoning applicants. As of this meeting only five have been returned. The deadline is January 31 to return the questionnaires. They will then be forwarded to the Commissioners to make a decision on the appointment.
Kristie King, Chief Financial Officer for Bulloch County announced to the commissioners that she has scheduled the budget retreat for March 11th and 12th at the Bishop Building at Paulson Stadium.
