By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

HOOVER — Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos has been offered the Jefferson County manager position and will start his new job Oct. 3, according to Pascal Caputo, chief of staff for Jefferson County Commissioner David Carrington.

Caputo said the Jefferson County Commission voted unanimously to offer the job to Petelos during the commission’s Sept. 27 meeting.

Petelos said he knows managing Jefferson County will be a challenge, but as a life-long resident, he looks forward to the task.

“We have all these issues going on in the county. This will give me an opportunity to work with the commission, with the employees and the department heads, even the Legislature, to try to solve some of these issues we’re facing,” Petelos said.

He said “there’s a very good chance” the Jefferson County manager position could be his last job.

“I serve at the pleasure of the county commissioners,” he said. “As long as I do a good job and work with them, hopefully I’ll be able to stay there for years.”

Petelos will turn in his resignation to the Hoover City Council at a council work session Sept. 29. The resignation will be effective at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30 or when the council selects an interim mayor, he said.

There will likely be a special called meeting later this week for the city council to vote on an interim mayor, he said.

The interim mayor will serve the rest of Petelos’ term, which will end in 2012.