At an Aug. 6 meeting, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) selected Jack M. Harper II as the new county manager in a 2-1 vote.
Harper has been serving as the interim county manager since May.
His appointment followed the departure of the previous county manager, Derek Woodman, from county employment after the BoCC declined to move forward with renewing his contract.
The BoCC announced Harper and Richard Bellis as finalists for the position on July 23, following interviews of three candidates by the BoCC the previous week.
According to his resume, Harper previously served in a variety of city manager and assistant city manager positions in Texas for 22 years, with his most recent position being as the city manager of Fulshear, Texas.
Harper was fired from this position by the city council in February after the city council heard complaints about him in executive session at a meeting before he was fired, according to documents supplied by the city of Fulshear in response to an information request obtained by The SUN.
Bellis’ resume states that he served as the city manager and deputy city manager of Taos, N.M., for a total of 12 years.
He departed from Taos in 2022, a departure which ultimately resulted in ongoing litigation between him and Taos over leave payments and the mayor of Taos requesting an investigation by the state auditor’s office into severance payments made to Bellis.
This investigation found no wrongdoing.
According to a communication from County Attorney Todd Weaver, the finalists were interviewed by county departments heads and other elected officials on July 29, although the BoCC declined to perform additional interviews of the candidates.
At the Aug. 6 meeting, the BoCC heard several public comments urging them to delay the selection of a new county manager or seek new applicants due to concerns about the transparency of the hiring process and other issues.
Following an executive session, the board briefly discussed the selection process and the applicants.
Commissioner Veronica Medina explained that the commissioners received one reference from each finalist, “some” letters of recommendation and that Harper had passed a background check since he was serving as interim county manager.
Commissioner Warren Brown commented that the hiring process has been “drawn out.”
“It’s always difficult to make sure that you bring the right people on board that represents to the community in the way that you would like to be represented and that’s able to get the most work out of our staff and also to encourage that work in a genuine way,” Brown said. “I think, for where we are and what has been submitted to this point ... I’ve heard a lot of comment, specifically with Mr. Harper. I’ve talked to a number of people. I’ve talked to Mr. Harper himself. And, looking at this just from a business standpoint of a risk benefit analysis — and this is same for Mr. Bellis from a risk benefit analysis — I realize and I can anticipate what the outcome might be, but I think we’re at a point where the folks that have cared to comment to me and have reached out to me, they would like to bring in someone without baggage if possible. And while I like both of the candidates — I found Mr. Bellis to be very engaging and I think Jack is a very genuine man — but, with those things in mind, I personally would not be able to support either one and I believe that we should go out for a readvertisement and even go to the extent of getting a recruiter in to bring us candidates that the community, as a whole, would support and feel comfortable with. Not that either one of these two gentlemen I don’t think may do a good job. I’m sure they can. Their qualifications speak for themselves.”
“I was in that position two and a half years ago, Warren, and I understand your passion,” Commissioner Ronnie Maez said.
When the BoCC hired Woodman as county manager in December 2021, Maez advocated for the board to readvertise the position and seek new candidates but was overruled by Brown and then-commissioner Alvin Schaaf, who voted to select Woodman as county manager in a 2-1 vote.
“But, we’re elected to make a decision,” Maez continued. “We need to make a decision. I pretty much know what your answer would be but, you know, the thing of the matter is, if there’s any of us without baggage, stand up.”
No one at the meeting stood up.
“Right. We all have some, you know,” Maez said. “Life’s like that. We have our things and we learn to … move on, and that’s the same for both of the candidates.”
Medina then opened the floor for a motion.
Maez moved to select Harper as the “preferred candidate” for the county manager position and to instruct Medina to serve as the negotiator to negotiate an employment contract with Harper.
Medina seconded the motion which passed 2-1 with Maez and Medina voting in support and Brown voting against.
Medina and Maez did not reply to requests for comment by press time Wednesday on what action was recommended by the county department heads and elected officials following their interviews with the finalists.
josh@pagosasun.com
