JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor-elect Lenny Curry announced Wednesday that Sam Mousa has accepted his offer to serve as the city's chief administrative officer.
Mousa, who served in a similar capacity for Mayor John Delaney, has nearly four decades of public administration leadership and private-sector experience. In addition to working in the Payton administration, he previously served as director of Jacksonville's Public Works Department.
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Mousa currently serves as executive director of Curry's transition team and is heading up budget hearings this week.
News4Jax learned that Mousa will be paid $300,000 annually. Mayor Alvin Brown's CAO makes $225,000 and has an assistant. The Curry administration said Mousa will be paid more, but will not have an assistant.
"From the start of our transition process, I have been witness to Sam's ability to get his arms around the budget challenges and financial disarray our city faces. It has become abundantly clear to me that as a loyal friend, a trusted adviser, and a city leader imminently qualified to serve that there is no one better positioned to work with me to help lead our team setting our city on a path for fiscal certainty," Curry said. "I know that Sam will accomplish big things for Jacksonville as we restore public safety to ushering in a new era of economic prosperity for every neighborhood."
Mousa is a graduate of the University of Florida and is a licensed engineer in both Florida and Georgia.
"Through the successful campaign and the mayoral transition, it has been my honor to work with Mayor-elect Curry," Mousa said. "We are building the team and setting in motion the policies that will address Jacksonville's challenges and implement the mayor-elect's vision. I wholeheartedly agree with the mayor-elect that our best days lie before us."