Honeycutt named new Burlington city manager

After two days of interviews with prospective city manager candidates, Burlington’s city council has formally named assistant city manager Craig Honeycutt to the city’s top staff level position.

Honeycutt, who previously served as Alamance County’s manager, had held the comparable post in Wanye County when he assumed his current position as Burlington’s assistant city manager for administration on July 5.

Honeycutt brings 29 years of local government management experience in North Carolina with cities and counties.  He has served at the cities of Fletcher and Laurinburg as well as Alamance and Wayne counties.

In announcing Honeycutt’s promotion on Tuesday, Burlington’s mayor Jim Butler noted that the former county manager had beat out 54 other applicants for the manager’s post – three of whom, other than himself, were also interviewed by the council.

Honeycutt holds an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from UNC Pembroke and a Master of Public Administration from Western Carolina University. He has also held the ICMA Credentialed Managers certification from International City/County Management Association since 2001. He served as the President of the North Carolina City and County Manager’s Association in 2016-2017.

Honeycutt has been married to his wife, Amber Honeycutt, for 26 years. They have three sons ages 20, 23, and 24 who are all graduates of Western Alamance High School.

Honeycutt responded with his usual graciousness when he accepted the council’s appointment at the end of a three 1/2 hour meeting that evening.
“I really appreciate the confidence of the board,” he told the council, “and I’m glad to be back home.”