Los Alamos County Manager Steven Lynne. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos County Manager Steven Lynne announced during Tuesday evening’s County Council meeting that he finalized and formalized his retirement plans earlier in the day.

“I’ve talked to many people individually but not Council as a body and I haven’t really discussed it publicly. I wanted to share that with Council together tonight. I’ll be sending an email to staff as soon as this meeting is over so that they’re aware of my plans.” he said. “It’s not that quick but given the way these positions work, I thought it was appropriate to give Council as much notice as possible. My planned retirement date is a little over a year – next July 31. However, there is a fair bit of leave I would take before that, so my last planned day of work would be Mar. 1, 2024. That gives Council just over seven months to go through a recruitment process.”

Lynne said he knows that process can be a little bit of a challenge.

“I’m certainly willing to help with that as much as possible. At some point I’ll probably have quite a bit to say about retirement. For tonight I just want to express gratitude and say thanks, certainly to Council and everyone I work with. Twenty-seven years so far – close to 28 ½ by the time I’m done. It’s just been great. It really has, and I’m still enjoying it and really thankful for that. I just wanted to get that out there since I turned in my letter today,” Lynne said.

Lynne joined the County in 1996 and spent his first 14 years with the County’s Office of Management & Budget and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in 2000, and added the Administrative Services Director position to his duties in 2010.

In 2011, Lynne became one of two Acting Assistant County Administrators and later promoted to Deputy County Manager and Acting County Manager following the retirement of Harry Burgess. Lynne was appointed County Manager July 14, 2021.