FOCUS: Meet Teck’s team

Staff reports | With a new mayor comes new staff members who will guide the city. We thought you’d want to learn more about five new senior staff members who will work for Mayor John Tecklenburg to manage the city of Charleston.

Planner Josh Martin and longtime arts executive Rick Jerue will serve as top advisers for Tecklenburg, who reportedly will delegate more projects to them to allow him to keep on top of the big picture and major projects. Martin and Jerue essentially fill roles formerly held in the administration of former Mayor Joe Riley by Lawrence Thompson, who will work through spring in the transition, and Mary Ann Sullivan, who has retired. Rounding out Tecklenburg’s senior team are Jack O’Toole, Mike Whack and Robin Griffith.

Martin

Martin is a senior adviser who served as the city’s director of planning, preservation and economic innovation from 2006 to 2008. In the mayor’s office, he will focus on issues related to economic development and planning. He will earn $120,000 a year.

Since 2012, Martin has served as director of planning and strategy and managed U.S operations for Turnberry Consulting US, a global management real estate and planning consultancy. For seven years before that he worked for seven years in community outreach and community-based planning as senior planner, community development director and then town manager of Bluffton. In 2009, he was named one of 30 young professional planners by Next American City.  Martin has a bachelor’s degree from Wofford College and a master’s degree in planning from Clemson University.

Jerue is a senior adviser who will help Tecklenburg direct and coordinate the administration of city government. His duties include serving as an “action officer” and providing executive-level and administrative support. When necessary, he’ll represent the mayor at official functions and meetings. Jerue, who will earn $100,000 a year, also will focus on arts, humanities and education.

Jerue holds, who recently was director of education, outreach and strategic initiatives during the construction of the Charleston Gaillard Center, has served in a variety of government and nonprofit executive positions, including director and counsel to two U.S. congressional subcommittees. The first executive director of the Art Institute of Charleston from 2006 to 2012, he also has served on numerous community boards. He has a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and a law degree from Suffolk University School of Law.

O’Toole is the city’s new director of communications and will supervise communications roles currently held by Barbara Vaughn, the city’s longtime media relations director who remains to provide continuity before retiring sometime in the next three months. O’Toole, who now earns $78,899, served as Tecklenburg’s campaign spokesman. A communications professional for more than 25 years, he has worked on projects for corporate and political clients in the United States and abroad. He is a former vice president of Phil Noble and Associates in Charleston. O’Toole attended the College of Charleston.

Whack

Whack holds a newly-created position — special assistant for quality of life and community outreach. A native Charlestonian with a media relations career, he has served most recently as diversity outreach and recruitment coordinator for the American College of the Building Arts. Prior to returning to the Holy City in 2005 to care for aging parents, he worked at the St. Petersburg Times in circulation starting in 1987. Whack holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. He earns $65,000 a year. His first day on the job is today.

Griffith

Griffith is a special assistant who will manage Teckenburg’s schedule and provide administrative and project management support. Founder and CEO of Epicuity LLC, a company to help businesses transform into long-term success, she has more than 25 years of experience in the constituent, customer and hospitality services areas. She’s served as a manager of the National Restaurant Association, scheduler for a U.S senator and longtime staffer for a U.S. congressman. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Johnson and Wales University. She earns $57,688 annually.