NEWS RELEASES from the Mayor's Office City of Knoxville, Tennessee Bill Haslam, Mayor

Mayor Names Massey New Neighborhood Coordinator

May 8, 2008 - Mayor Bill Haslam announced today that David Massey has agreed to become the City of Knoxville’s Neighborhood Coordinator. Massey, who has extensive experience working on neighborhood and community issues, succeeds Jason Woodle, who has accepted an offer to join the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Corporate Responsibility and Diversity Organization. Woodle became the city’s first neighborhood coordinator last year after Haslam created the position on the recommendation of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Task Force. The group determined the new post would help city government be more responsive to its neighborhoods. The office is part of the City of Knoxville’s Community Development Division and Massey will report to its Community Development Director Madeline Rogero. Rogero said she is disappointed that Woodle is leaving the city but knows that Massey will be a great addition to her department and the city. “We’ll miss Jason. He’s done a great job and he got the office off to a wonderful start,” Rogero said. “But David has extensive experience in organizing and working with neighborhood groups and I know he will build on the momentum that Jason started.” “David will ‘hit the ground running’ and make a positive difference for our city,” she added. Massey, a longtime Knoxville resident with a long history of working on community issues and with neighborhood groups, was the executive director of DiscoverET.org, formerly known as KORRnet, from 2000-2007 and a member of the city’s Better Building Board from 2005 - 2007. “Under Mayor Haslam’s leadership, Knoxville is working hard to support and revitalize all its neighborhoods,” Massey said. “I am honored to join this effort and look forward to working with neighborhood leaders. My job will be much easier because of their commitment and because of the foundation laid by Jason Woodle.” Prior to his work with Discover ET.org, Massey worked for many years as an editor and reporter for publications ranging from a newsletter covering the coal industry to local newspapers to theological publications. Massey has been very active in neighborhood issues, including serving as president of the Fourth & Gill Neighborhood Organization, and he organized and led the Alliance for Incinerator Review in its successful battle to stop the location of a proposed Knox County Incinerator on Baxter Avenue in the late 1980s. Since last year he has been a partner in Harris-Massey Words & Design, which offers copywriting, proofreading and graphic design services to its clients. Massey said his roots are deep in Knoxville, and he has spent much of his life working with organizations dedicated to making their neighborhoods, and Knoxville, better places to live and work. “I have always loved community organizing and helping people find common ground,” Massey said, “and this position offers those opportunities in public service and in a larger arena.” He will begin in his duties on May 12. Massey is a 1970 graduate of Emory University and he also did graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Massey is married to Barbara “Jamie” Harris, a graphic designer. They live in Rocky Hill and have one son, Kevin, who is a producer at WBIR Channel 10.

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