[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish hires new community development director

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish hires new community development director

Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on April 11, 2014 at 2:03 PM, updated April 11, 2014 at 3:22 PM
 
St. Bernard Parish government has hired a new community development
director. Michael Albert will replace Candice Watkins, who left several
months ago to become a disaster recovery specialist with the state Office of
Community Development.

Albert, previously a planner with the Guilford County Planning Department in
Greensboro, N.C., is scheduled to start Monday (April 14), according to
Parish President Dave Peralta. Albert has a master's degree in urban and
regional planning from the University of Florida.

He will move to St. Bernard, Peralta confirmed. A December 2012 referendum
approved by parish voters requires that all new parish government employees
live in, or move to, the parish.

After Watkins resigned, then-St. Bernard Parish Chief Administrative Officer
Jerry Graves took over her her duties. But, Graves also resigned about a
month after Watkins. In the interim, Peralta has been running the
department.

Watkins, the former mayor of Covington, was hired as the St. Bernard
director of community development upon Peralta taking over as parish
president in January 2012.