Mecum on his way out as U.S. Marshal

ATLANTA - President Barack Obama has nominated the former Atlanta police chief to serve as the U.S. Marshal in north Georgia... meaning the end of former Hall County sheriff Dick Mecum's tenure in the post is apparently close at hand.

Obama named Beverly Harvard as his nominee on Wednesday. Harvard, who was head of the Atlanta Police Department from 1994-2002, works as director of transportation security coordination for the Transportation Security Administration.

She graduated from Morris Brown College in Atlanta and then got her master's degree from Georgia State University.

The U.S. Marshal is responsible for many tasks, including federal court security, the transportation and housing of prisoners and arrests.

The person in the post serves at the pleasure of the president and is routinely replaced when a new administration takes office. Mecum was appointed to the job eight years ago by then-President George W. Bush.

(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)