Missouri City has found its fourth full-time city manager in three years.

The city council last week unanimously selected Angel Jones, the former city manager of Portsmouth, Virginia, as the person to replace former City Manager Charles “Tink” Jackson, who was fired in May.

“She describes her management style as ‘collaborative’ and says she is looking forward to hearing the concerns of the experts on Missouri City – the residents,” according to a city social media post after the decision.

Mayor Robin Elackatt is negotiating with Jones on a contract to serve as city manager, according to Rachelle Dickerson, spokesperson for Missouri City. Dickerson declined to provide financial numbers from those discussions.

Jones was one of two finalists named for the open position. James Palenick, the former city manager of Middletown, Ohio, was the other.

The city manager spot has been something of a revolving door in Missouri City over the last few years.

The council in May opted to fire Jackson less than five months after his tenure began. The move came after an investigation into allegations about Jackson’s hiring and firing practices with the city.

A whistleblower alleged that Jackson fired city employees in order to install his preferred candidates in those positions, and provided interview questions ahead of time to people he wanted to hire, according to documents the Star received through a public information request.

Attorneys for the city sought to withhold a copy of that whistleblower complaint by filing an appeal with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, but state officials eventually sided with the Star and required the city to release the document to the public.

Before Jackson’s hiring, however, Missouri City also paid almost $1 million in severance payments to Jackson’s two predecessors, Anthony Snipes and Odis Jones, who were fired by the city council in February 2020 and May 2021, respectively.

The Missouri City council named Angel Jones the newest city manager less than a week after she filed a lawsuit against Portsmouth, Virginia, that included corruption allegations against former council members there after they fired her in May, according to an article in the Virginian-Pilot.

She accused several councilmembers of taking bribes from a former member of council in exchange for them hiring him for the city manager position, according to the article.

Angel Jones was fired in May with a 4-3 vote from the Portsmouth city council, according to the story.

Sedrick Cole, Missouri City’s former IT manager, has been serving as interim city manager while the council has advanced through a search for a full-time replacement.