Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward has notified the City Council that he will retain and reassign Rusty Wells, effective Jan. 1, 2016.
Wells was the city attorney from 2008-2011. Hayward let him go when he took office. Wells was brought back in June 2014, when the mayor abruptly fired the council executive, Dr. Lila Cox. The council rejected him becoming the council executive, but agreed to him serving in the role of assistant city attorney and council liaison. For the past 18 month, he has assisted council members with some of their agenda items and lobbied them on the behalf of the mayor’s office on various issues.
The memo for the mayor didn’t make it clear what Wells’ new role will be in his administration, only saying, “to attend other matters.”