After months of deadlock over who should be the Fulton County government’s top administrator, the County Commission has finally settled on Dwight Ferrell, former deputy general manager and chief operating officer for MARTA. Ferrell will be paid a salary of $240,000, which is $40,000 more than his predecessor, Zachary Williams, earned.

Fulton has been without a county manager since Williams left in December to become chief operating officer in DeKalb. The other finalists were Fulton County Finance Director Patrick O’Connor and Morris E. Williams III, chief of staff of DeKalb Commissioners.

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Mathew Palmer, a former Delta Air Lines employee, at his home in Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.  Palmer was fired less than two weeks after writing a post on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Natrice Miller/AJC)