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College Park has hired a new city manager in Kenneth Young, filling a vacancy that had been open since late December 2020. It’s also a job that had almost been filled by another candidate who was fired by city officials before her first day on the job.
Young’s hire was announced during College Park’s Sept. 21, 2021, City Council meeting. His first day is scheduled for Sept. 27, 2021. In announcing the hire, city officials praised Young for his “vision and skillful management” needed to lead a city during its recovery from the pandemic.
Young most-recently worked as the county administrator for Goochland County, Virginia. He worked in that job for less than a year, hired September, 2020, and resigning in early July 2021. As the top-ranking non-elected official in the county, he led a government with an annual budget of more than $141 million and more than 175 employees. From January 2015 through March 2020, Young worked as the assistant county administrator for Loudoun County, Virginia, with more than 4,100 workers and a budget of more than $3 billion.
Young also has ties to local government in Prince George’s County. He was the assistant town administrator of Capitol Heights from September 2011 through August 2012.
Before that, he held several senior roles in an 11 year career with the city of North Las Vegas in Nevada. In 1999, he was hired to be a redevelopment and neighborhood services manager for the suburban town. By the time he left, he was the acting assistant city manager, a position he held for five months from June 2010 through October 2010.