City Council names City Attorney Craig Tindall as the new City Manager

The Murfreesboro City Council officially named City Attorney Craig Tindall, 57, Tuesday (June 5) to serve as the new City Manager. Tindall replaces Rob Lyons who resigned in December.

“I think in my opinion we have absolutely found the right person,” said Mayor Shane McFarland before Council voted unanimously to appoint Tindall as City Manager.

Tindall was hired by the Council in October 2015 to serve as City Attorney. He replaced the retiring City Attorney Susan Emery McGannon following a lengthy nationwide recruitment process. Tindall served as a city attorney for Glendale, Arizona, a city with a growing population and similar challenges to those in Murfreesboro.

At that time, Mayor Shane McFarland noted Tindall’s legal expertise and high ethical standards as a municipal attorney, including extensive work on critical issues such as transportation and intergovernmental affairs.

“I am grateful for the tremendous responsibility the Murfreesboro Council has entrusted me to help manage the budget, improve public services, and manage growth of this expanding City,” said Craig Tindall. “I believe there is great potential for economic development in the historic downtown and Historic Bottoms area and across the City as we continue to promote our quality of life, excellent school system, and economical cost-of-living. Effectively managing city government services and streamlining government structure will be a highest priority.”

Discussion of hiring Tindall began at the end of the regular Council meeting on May 17, when Councilman Eddie Smotherman offered a motion to negotiate a contract with Tindall to serve as City Manager. At that meeting, Smotherman expressed concern over managing the City budget, “I think our time with the City Manager’s position is becoming more and more critical as we go into budget time and look at some the tremendous challenges that our City is currently facing,” said Councilman Smotherman.

Unanimously, Council voted in support of Smotherman’s motion to begin negotiations with Tindall. Interim City Manager Jim Crumley recommended Tindall for the position and suggested attorney Sandra Trail negotiate the contract with Tindall as City Manager.

“In working with Craig I’m comfortable that he has the skills, organizationally and administratively, to pull this organization together in a direction that Council would set,” said Crumley. “I have known a lot of people in the city management position for a long time. I would put Craig right there in that group.”

Tindall has previously served as city attorney and deputy city attorney from 2001 to 2013 for the City of Glendale, Arizona, population 240,000. He also advised clients in the private sector while with two law firms and served as General Counsel for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League in Phoenix.

Tindall spent childhood years in Hendersonville and Memphis, Tennessee and Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated from Arizona State University with a business degree and the Southern Methodist Dedman School of Law in Dallas. Tindall, who will be paid $180,000 as City Manager, is married and has two sons.