William Whitson

William graduated from the University of West Florida with a BA in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Upon graduation, William was selected as a Presidential Management Intern (PMI) by the US Office of Personnel Management, begin-ning more than 30 years of combined management experience at the local and federal level.

William served in the US EPA from 1983 to 1993. He spent time at EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC and helped establish the Gulf of Mexico Program Office at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

William has been a professional local government manager since 1993, serving in Milton, Pensacola, Port Orange and Panama City in Florida; Cairo and Hapeville in Georgia; and East Ridge in Tennessee. He has been an ICMA Local Government Credentialed Manager since 2002. He has served in an EOC Operation for seven Hurricane events.

William was elected to be the president of the Florida City/County Manager’s Association for the 2005-2006 term. During his tenure he organized a coalition of local governments, involving twelve jurisdictions in Florida, to assist with the long-term recovery effort on the Mississippi Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. He was selected as the ICMA repre-sentative to the National Emergency Management Network (NEMN) and served on the Post Katrina Action Report Committee. William was also selected as the Florida League of Cities Municipal Employee of the Year in 2006.

In his local government career, William has served as a City Manager, Assistant City Man-ager and Department Head. He most recently served as City Manager of Hapeville, Geor-gia, where he still resides. Hapeville is a full-service city near the Atlanta International Air-port with a population of 6,800 and a budget of $23M with 140 employees. Mr. Whitson now serves as Managing Director of his own private consulting firm, Local Government Visions, LLC, supporting local government operations since 2014. He has been active as a senior advisor & technical expert in the Long-Term Recovery efforts for Aransas County, Texas since October of 2017. Hurricane Harvey represents the seventh Long-Term Recov-ery Operation in his career.