Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley tapped a career Anne Arundel County auditor to replace the outgoing city manager.

Teresa Owen Sutherland, who served as county auditor for more than 20 years, will replace Tom Andrews, pending City Council confirmation. Sutherland would be the first woman appointed as city manager. Virginia Burke served as an acting manager before Andrews’ tenure.

Andrews announced his resignation earlier this month. The council will vote to approve Sutherland at the April 9 meeting, according to a city news release, and with approval, will start on April 19. Annapolis Fire Chief David Stokes will serve as acting city manager.

Sutherland is a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner. She led Buckley’s financial transition team and has volunteered with several local organizations, including the Hillsmere Shores Improvement Association, Start School Later and the YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.

As county auditor, Sutherland served as a watchdog over the executive branch and an adviser for the County Council. She extensively analyzed budgets, spending 420 hours over five weeks scrutinizing County Executive Steve Schuh’s fiscal 2016 budget.

Sutherland that year sounded the alarm on the county’s impending structural deficit in its water and sewer debt funds. She was known for independence from the executive branch and widely respected by members of the County Council.

“Life goes on. I’m sure the council will have a great auditor to serve us in the future,” said County Councilman Chris Trumbauer upon Sutherland’s departure in 2016. “But there’s only one and only ever has been one Teresa Sutherland.”

Sutherland left her county position for employment with Annapolis accounting firm Mullen, Sondberg, Wimbish and Stone. She has spent the last year with Gegorek & Company P.A., a Crownsville public accounting firm.

Annapolis faces its own structural challenges. In the upcoming budget cycle, Buckley faces challenges in unfunded pension and debt service liabilities. The city also faces rising costs of benefits for government employees and a weak transportation fund dependent on subsidies from parking and the general fund.

Annapolis housing authority picks developer

The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis has selected Pennrose Properties, a Philadelphia-based real estate development firm, as the partner in Newtowne 20 redevelopment.

Pennrose will serve as the development partner to rebuild the public housing property under the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s rental assistance demonstration, or RAD, program.

The program allows local housing authorities to convert their public housing properties, supported under the traditionally underfunded public housing model, to a more stable Section 8, voucher-based model.

Pennrose also redeveloped Obery Court and College Creek.

HACA director Beverly Wilbourn has said that under the RAD program, there will be no loss in housing units or families displaced when Newtowne 20 undergoes redevelopment.

The HACA board of commissioners voted to authorize Wilbourn to negotiate a contract with Pennrose during a closed meeting on Jan. 23. The authority now has a working document with Pennrose and legal counsel will continue to work out contact details, Wilbourn said.

The housing authority will apply for tax credits to fund the project by May. Demolition will tentatively occur in August 2019, at which time the authority will likely move the 58 families affected to other public housing properties.

“We look forward to working with HACA again,” Ivy Dench-Carter, regional vice president for Pennrose, said in a statement. “This redevelopment will allow us to lend our RAD experience to improving the living accommodations of the residents at Newtowne 20 and help to support HACA’s mission.”

The housing authority will put out a request for proposals to redevelop Morris H. Blum, the authority’s senior housing property.