By Barry Wise Smith
Photo by Brit Huckabay
Growing up in Shelby County, Neal Wagner, the City of Alabaster’s first ever Public Information Officer (PIO), couldn’t have predicted that this is where he would land. “I thought I might retire from the University of Montevallo,” Wagner says. “But then my dream job came open.”
Wagner graduated from Pelham High School in 2003 and went on to study journalism at Auburn where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 2007 (while at Auburn, Wagner worked on the staff of the award-winning Auburn Plainsman student newspaper). After graduation, he started his career at the Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Mississippi, where he stayed for two years before returning home. In 2009, Wagner returned to Shelby County to take a job at the Shelby County Reporter.
For 10 years, Wagner covered the City of Alabaster for the paper. “From my first day to my last, Alabaster was my coverage area,” Wagner says. “I developed good relationships with Alabaster officials and the City Council. If the doors were open, it felt like I was at City Hall.”
In 2019, Wagner left the Shelby County Reporter for the University of Montevallo where he was named their Communications and Media Relations Manager, with the aforementioned plan to possibly end his career there. But in 2021, Wagner learned from several people in Alabaster that the city was planning to create a PIO position. When the position was officially announced, Wagner jumped at the chance to serve the city where he was now a resident (Wagner and his family moved to Alabaster in 2017).
As the city’s first PIO, Wagner has the monumental task of developing the job. “I am the liaison between the city and the residents and the media,” he says. “I am tasked with keeping residents informed of events that are happening and important projects in the city and managing the city’s social media. The city is committed to being transparent, and this position plays a big part in that.”
Wagner serves as the point person for all city departments, including the police and fire departments, to get their messages out to the residents and local media outlets. “There was a big learning curve when I went to Montevallo just moving from the reporting side to the media relations side,” Wagner recalls. “But that job prepared me well for this role.”
Since coming to work in Alabaster in October, Wagner has been pleasantly surprised at the working relationships within the city. “The biggest surprise in this job is learning how well everyone works together,” he says. “Alabaster is like a family, and there is a lot of teamwork that goes on here. There is a hometown feel in Alabaster, with everyone working toward a common goal.”
Wagner’s short-range plans are to fully implement the city’s rebranding project and to just make sure the residents and media know he’s here. Long-range plans include working with the IT Department to overhaul the city’s website to make it more user-friendly for residents. Wagner would like to add an upcoming projects page where residents could track city projects. “I think we need an outlet to keep people posted on the progress of projects going on in the city.”
Wagner is married to his high-school sweetheart Christie, who is a third-grade teacher at Creek View Elementary School, and they have a four-year-old son, Hudson. In his free time, Wagner loves photography (see his impressive cover photo of the State Champion THS Warriors), running, and spending time in the outdoors. He serves on the Alabaster City Schools Foundation Board of Directors and is an alumni of Leadership Shelby County, Class of 2015, with whom he still volunteers.
“This is truly my dream job,” Wagner says. “Being a resident here, raising my family here, and working for what I consider my hometown—I could not be happier to be here.”