BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Los Alamos County Council in a special December 15 session voted unanimously to appoint current Deputy County Manager Anne Laurent to the position of County Manager effective Mar. 3, 2024, the retirement date for current County Manager Steven Lynne. Council also approved Laurent’s new employment agreement, which includes an annual salary of $261,151.
Laurent’s resume and employment agreement may be seen at A – Anne Laurent Employment Agreement, and B – Anne Laurent resume.
Opening the special session, Council Chair Denise Derkacs said the Search Working Group for the county manager position consisted of herself as Council Chair, Vice Chair Theresa Cull and former chair Councilor Randall Ryti. She said the working group had developed the brochure for the job ad collectively, and that there were 30 applicants of whom 14 met the minimum requirements for the position.
Derkacs said Council hired a consultant (Sarah McKee with Gov HR USA) who conducted initial interviews with all the applicants who met the minimum requirements via Zoom. Interviews were held by the Search Working Group to select the semi-finalists and recommendations were made to the full Council, Derkacs said.
Councilors then determined the three finalists were invited for in-person interviews, however one of the three dropped out, leaving Laurent and Tracey Jerome, Deputy City Manager for the City of El Paso, Texas.
Derkacs explained that each Councilor submitted names of individuals to be considered for the Community Panel. The final selection for that panel was made by County Manager Lynne Deputy County Manager Linda Matteson and Derkacs as chair, she said.
Derkacs said it was Council who determined all of the questions to be asked of the candidates by all three panels – the Community Panel, the County Senior Management Panel and the Council itself.
The Community Panel reportedly included:
Lauren McDaniel, LACDC
Andrea Determan, LAPS
Barbara Calef, League of Women Voters
Laura Crucet, Business owner
Antonio Jaurigue, LAPS Board
Judy McKenzie, LAPS Foundation
Bryan Feary, LANL retiree
Brett Simpkins, LANL Associate Director
Mike Holtzclaw, UNM-LA Chancellor
David Hampton, member of several County Boards & Commissions
Robert Gibson, former Los Alamos County Councilor
Community Panel members were reportedly told that Council developed different interview questions for all panels and that those were the questions to be asked. They were advised that they did “not have to formulate any questions”. The Community Panel members were also told they would not be scoring the candidates and/or voting as a group, but that Council would ask for their “individual feedback (good and bad) on the candidates”.
According to current County Manager Steve Lynne, the questions for all three panels were initiated by the Search Working Group and included input from the consultant. He said all the questions were to be reviewed and approved by the the full Council in closed sessions.
The community had a chance to meet both finalists at a reception at the Los Alamos Nature Center during which both finalists spoke briefly and spent time chatting with members of the public. Attendees were invited to submit their opinions electronically to the County.
Prior to the vote Laurent’s appointment, Councilor Ryti said he was looking forward to Council approving the motion and to working with Laurent as County Manager.
Chair Derkacs said she would like to echo others’ sentiments.
“I think we had two highly-qualified candidates for the County Manager position and I believe Ms. Laurent is the best candidate. She has a lot of management experience in various positions in county government, her management skills, her personal skills and more. I look forward to working with her in her new position,” she said.
Laurent is expected to spend a couple of months transitioning into the position prior to Lynne’s Mar. 3, 2024 departure, however due to her experience and background in Los Alamos County government, it is expected to be an easy transition.