Hinesville City Council members have tapped the council’s “social worker” to be the next mayor pro tem.

Diana Reid, who represents District 1, was approved as the next mayor pro tem. Under the city’s ordinances, the mayor pro tem is chosen every two years and at the first meeting after election and qualification.

Reid succeeds District 3 Council member Vicky Nelson, who became the first woman to serve as mayor pro tem. The mayor pro tem serves as mayor in the mayor’s absence.

City Manager Ryan Arnold said he has begun interviewing candidates for the open assistant city manager job, which Arnold prior to his promotion. The qualifications for the job include a bachelor’s degree in political science, public administration or business administration with seven to 10 years of experience in public administration.

The city also is looking for a community development director.

The Hinesville Police Department will have new vehicles on the road, after council members approved the bids for 11 new trucks. The city is buying four Ford Rangers from J.C. Lewis Ford for just under $37,000 each for administrative use, plus five Ford F-150 marked police patrol vehicles and two F-150 police responder pickups from O.C. Welch Ford-Lincoln. The five patrol pickups are approximately $43,600 each and the responder trucks are just under $50,000 each.

HPD Chief Tracey Howard said O.C. Welch had the F-150s the department needed already in stock. The department also looked a bid for Ram trucks but those were rear-wheel drive, and the department sought all-wheel drive pickups.

Of the vehicles, all but two were in the HPD’s budget. Those two will be paid for out of special purpose local option sales tax proceeds directed toward public safety.

The HPD also is surplussing 17 vehicles no longer of use to the department and in various states of disrepair. Howard called some of them “Frankenstein vehicles,” meaning parts had been used from those vehicles to keep others running.

The vehicles getting surplussed range in age from nine years, which are two Ford Explorers, to 18-year-old Crown Victorias that had been handed down from the patrol division to the school crossing guards for use.

Howard said the HPD tries to make sure the vehicles it removes from its fleet might have another use in the city.

“We look at repurposing those vehicles to departments that might have a need,” he said. “Some vehicles are no longer to be used in patrol capacities and they will be repurposed. Those not driveable at all will be used for training.”

Training can include use by the fire department for extrication drills.

The surplussed cars will be available for bid on govdeals.com