Los Alamos County Deputy Manager Anne Laurent, left, and Chief Deputy City Manager for City of El Paso, Texas, Tracey Jerome both spoke during Thursday’s meet and greet at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Community members, County Councilors and staff gathered Thursday evening at the Los Alamos Nature Center for a meet and greet with Tracey Jerome, Chief Deputy City Manager for the City of El Paso, Texas, and Anne Laurent, Deputy Los Alamos County Manager, who are interviewing this week to succeed Steve Lynne, current County Manager who retires in the new year.
Jerome said during the time she has been with the City of El Paseo they have experienced some incredible challenges.
“We have embraced those opportunities to provide shelter, care and comfort for those seeking refuge in the United States. We have navigated the surges; we are navigating perhaps another one coming soon,” she said.
Jerome noted that in recent years El Paso has been ranked one of the safe cities of its size, that it had a mass shooting in 2019. During the COVID pandemic El Paso landed on the cover of the New York Times as the most infected city per capita in the world, she said.
“Then we ended up back in the national news because we took the bull by the horns, and not doing what the state of Texas wanted us to do but using data we ensured that our people would be vaccinated and we were actually acknowledged for the success of our vaccine rollout by those at a federal level so we are pretty proud of that. We continue to navigate those challenges. As a city government I understand post-COVID – COVID’s never going away, although a very large municipality and different to this location buy with similar challenges with affordable housing, with what jobs look like, with making sure that we can provide and support small business and investments, making sure that everyone that comes into our community is welcomed and has a place to be and can succeed,” Jerome said.
Prior to her arrival in Texas, Jerome said she had the great, good fortune to have had worked and lived globally – in Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Singapore and spent more than a decade in South Korea.
“What I bring to the table to you is perhaps something you’re not sure about because I’m new and I’m different and I’m not from this community,” she said. She noted that most of those present made the choice to move here and stay here in Los Alamos County.
“I look forward to having the choice to come here and stay here and be a part of what’s happening here,” Jerome said. I view challenges as incredible opportunities. I’m pretty gritty when it comes to second, and third and fourth efforts. I look forward to being able to be a part of what we need to do here. There is so much that’s been accomplished. It’s not a matter of change, it’s a matter of amplification and if that’s what you want, I look forward to talking to you more about how we can do this together.”
Anne Laurent said she was approaching the opportunity to be county manager with two decades of her career in public service, dedication and commitment to the community.
“I work collaboratively, leading and implementing positive changes,” she said.
Laurent said she didn’t go to college thinking she wanted to be a county manager. When she selected a career path, she chose to become an architect. She said she was interested in buildings and design.
“My first job out of college was a planner at Arizona State Parks, and I didn’t know it at the time but that was where I started my journey of being a dedicated public servant. I’m here tonight because I have certainly nothing to lose. I have a wonderful job, I have wonderful community. I’m here tonight because I have so much more to give and there’s so much more work to be done,” she said.
Laurent noted that when she became an architect, she was drawn to public projects like transit centers and schools. “What I realized really quickly was the importance of public facilities and public improvements and the difference they can make in communities and the lives of people who use those facilities. Even thought I was an architect, where I excelled was going in and working on complex projects that had collaboration, that had funding from multiple sources – federal funding, state finding – that had a lot of grant documentation – things that traditionally you wouldn’t think an architect would be good at,” she said.
Laurent said she was so passionate about the projects that she worked to make those things happen.
“My whole career is visual. You can see the physical results of the implementation I’ve done on projects,” she said.
Laurent said the deeper meaning the buildings hold for her is that they are about community building, and coming together on something that isn’t easy to do. She said when the work is done it looks great and is appreciated.
“But we all know that getting there and getting the implantation is the hardest part. In addition to being an architect, while I was working here, I realized I needed more tools in the toolbox so I went back and got my public administration degree. That wasn’t an easy choice. I gave up a lot of evenings and weekends and summers with my family, but it was because I always just really loved the job. I’ve worked other places. It’s not just that I love my job and what I do. I love Los Alamos County and what I do here in Los Alamos County,” she said.
Laurent went on to describe what was happening in the County when she first came to work in 2008, after the Los Alamos National Laboratory operations were privatized and gross receipts tax was coming in. How to spend the money were not easy decisions to make and a lot of them were made. She mentioned the Municipal Building, White Rock Library, Justice Center and the Teen Center and other buildings that have been built.
“Although I didn’t do those alone and I had a lot of team support, did lead them, and I do certainly pride myself on the fact that we delivered them on time and under budget. That was very important to the community at the time,” Laurent said. She added that that is very important that the local government is spending money judiciously and paying attention to them.
The two women were to face interviews Friday with a panel of community leaders selected by the County and another panel of senior County staff. Panelists were informed that Council had developed different interview questions for all panels and that panelists and that those were the questions that would be asked.
Asked why panelists were not allowed to submit questions of their own, County Manager Steve Lynne said the questions for all three panels are initiated by the Council’s County Manager Recruitment Working Group with input from the hiring consultant.
“Then all are reviewed and approved by the full Council in closed sessions,” Lynne said.
He added that the process is very similar to the prior County Manager recruitment process.
“When staff have used multiple panels, including a community panel, for other recruitments (like Community Services Department Director), we have also used a similar process where the hiring manager determines the questions for all panels participating,” Lynne said.