Deputy City Manager

Responsibilities


The Deputy City Manager promotes and evaluates efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness within City departments and services. This position manages the Health and Human Services portfolio, develops and coordinates the docket and agenda review, and formulates policy for the centralization of complaints and complaint resolution. Additionally, the Deputy City Manager oversees the Public Library system, Department of Media & Community Relations, Information Technology Department, and serves as a liaison between the City of Suffolk and the Health Department.

Azeez Felder Biography
Interim City Manager Albert Moor, II, announced November 10, 2020, the appointment of Azeez Felder as Acting Chief of Staff effective January 1, 2021. The position was reclassified by City Council on July 7, 2021 to Deputy City Manager. Suffolk City Manager Albert Moor, II, appointed Felder as Deputy City Manager effective August 22, 2021.  

Experience
Felder had previously served as the Director of the Suffolk Department of Social Services since June 2013.  Felder has over 30 years of experience in the human services field, which includes 14 years of working for the Administration for Children’s Services in New York City.  Upon relocating to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Felder served as the Child Protective Services (CPS) Sexual Abuse Unit Supervisor for the Chesapeake Department of Human Services.  For 16 years, he served the citizens of Suffolk in various supervisory and administrative capacities while at the Department.  In 2008, he was selected as the Assistant Director of Financial Services and was responsible for Social Services Benefit Programs, the Workforce Development Center, and all local CPS appeals as the Local Appeals Hearing Officer. Under his leadership in 2011 and 2012, the Suffolk DSS Benefit Program area was named among the Top 15 Best-In-Class Social Service agencies out of 120 in the Commonwealth, and one of the Top 5 in the State among large agencies.  

Education

Felder entered college at age 16, completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at Binghamton University in upstate New York, and earned his Master of Arts degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Brooklyn College at age 22.