Sevierville City Administrator Russell Treadway announces retirement

Long-time Sevierville City Administrator Russell Treadway has announced that he will retire on Friday, January 3, 2025.

Mr. Treadway has served twice as Sevierville’s top administrator, the first time from 1978-1993, and currently since 2012. In between those two periods, he was the city administrator/manager at Mauldin, South Carolina; Elizabethton, Tennessee, and Snellville, Georgia. All told, he has served over 45 years in local government, with more than 28 years being at Sevierville.

Mr. Treadway has also taught political science and public administration at East Tennessee State University and Milligan University. He also served as Assistant City Manager at Johnson City, Tennessee and Director of Human Resources and Director of Administration at Knox County government.

“Russell Treadway has been an incredible leader for Sevierville who epitomizes what it means to be a true public servant,” said Sevierville Mayor Robbie Fox. “We were very fortunate that he returned to Sevierville as city administrator. He knew Sevierville and Sevier County well from working here before, and he had a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to draw from. The past dozen years have been a very challenging and rewarding period, and we wouldn’t be in the great financial position where we are today without his leadership and dedication to our city.

“Among other attributes, I’ve always been impressed by his ability to balance the city budgets while maintaining and improving services for our residents, even in difficult financial times, such as during the recent pandemic. Mr. Treadway has always been a staunch supporter of our city employees and has stated many times that they are our greatest and most important asset.”

During Mr. Treadway’s tenure, he has overseen numerous public infrastructure improvement projects, including the downtown streetscapes project, police department headquarters expansion, new fire department headquarters, new downtown fire station, ongoing water and wastewater plant expansions, ongoing expansion of the community center and city park and development of a river blueway system, implementation of an advanced traffic control system, and significant increases in the number of police officers and firefighters. Partly as a result of these accomplishments, Sevierville was awarded the Tennessee Municipal League Excellence in Governance Award in 2022.

“This is truly a bittersweet decision. The last 12+ years in Sevierville have been the most rewarding of my career. I believe the time is right to pass the torch to a new generation. We have a great group of leaders in place to carry Sevierville to greater heights and I am confident they will do so,” Treadway said. “Janet and I will continue to call Sevierville “home” and will be staying here to enjoy a little bit of what we helped build and look forward to seeing what the future will bring.”

Russell Treadway holds the following advanced degrees:
Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Master’s degree in City Management, both from East Tennessee State University; Doctorate degree in Political Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.