Memphis Mayor-elect Jim Strickland is taking an outgoing city council member and the council’s longtime administrator with him when he becomes mayor next month.

Strickland has tapped outgoing Memphis City Council member Alan Crone to be special counsel to the mayor. Crone, who leaves his interim appointment to the city council on Jan. 1, is one of four appointments to Strickland’s inner circle announced Thursday, Dec. 10.

Crone is an attorney, a founding member of the Crone & McEvoy PLC law firm and a former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. He also served as chief counsel for the Tennessee Department of Employment Security during Gov. Don Sundquist's administration.

Strickland also announced Thursday he has appointed Lisa Geater, the veteran administrator of the Memphis City Council office, to be his chief of staff. Geater has been with the council office for 27 years.

Ike Griffith was appointed as special assistant to the mayor for youth. Griffith comes to the post from being an electronic media instructor at Hamilton High School.

And Ken Moody, former city Public Services director during Mayor Wilile Herenton's administration and a former University of Memphis basketball player, is special assistant to the mayor for community affairs.