Litzenberg will leave City Hall better off
Santa Fe hasn’t seen the last of Erik Litzenberg. The resignation of Mayor Alan Webber’s right-hand guy came out of the blue Tuesday. We’re sorry to see Litzenberg go, but we predict more accomplishments ahead in the months and years to come. He has been an effective, no-drama leader skilled at handling rapid change.
Just 13 months into the job on a permanent basis after a period as interim, Litzenberg decided he had accomplished one of his chief goals — building an accomplished executive team to serve the residents of Santa Fe. He had formed a productive working partnership with the city’s first full-time mayor. He and administrators, as well as the mayor and City Council, are engaged in improving Santa Fe in ways both large and small.
“Now things are in place for a couple of years for successful growth to happen,” Litzenberg said.
Yet, at the back of his mind, Litzenberg came to a realization: “Over the last yearand-a-half, I was totally thrilled to work with
the team — but the things that continue to light me up continue to be public safety.”
Litzenberg spent 21 years in the Santa Fe Fire Department and served as chief from 2013 until he became first interim and then city manager in 2018. He volunteered at fire departments in Santa Fe County for several years before that. Public safety is part and parcel of his DNA.
He has family obligations, including a wife, parents and children. On top of all of that, he still wants to complete his doctoral dissertation in sports administration. “If nothing else, if there isn’t something obvious, I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and finish that.”
The time had come to step away as city manager.
What happens next in running the city will be up to the mayor and Litzenberg’s successor. There’s no resignation date set yet, but the city manager is committed to a smooth transition. The search will start immediately.
It’s a complicated job, with 16 departments under the manager, as well as another four direct reports. The manager also handles the concerns of City Council members. They are not shy about advancing their ideas for city government. The manager also works with the mayor — under the city charter, the city manager is one of the few hires the mayor can make, with consent of the council. The others are city attorney and city clerk.
It’s an essential partnership, one that Webber is pleased he got right: “I can go home every night and show up every morning thinking, ‘I’ve got the best partner going.’ That’s a hard loss,” he said.
One gift Litzenberg can leave Santa Fe on the way out is to discuss how to structure city government for better results. He believes having a full-time mayor was the right move: “I don’t know how we did it through a part-time mayor.”
In the coming weeks and months, we expect to hear his ideas on possible changes to how government could be structured to work more efficiently. Some can be done without much to-do, although all changes would need a broad discussion and input from councilors and citizens.
Other ideas might mean revisiting the city charter.
For now, Litzenberg will be on the job as the mayor seeks his replacement.
Whether he goes back into firefighting, takes his expertise in management and fire to become a consultant, writes that dissertation or simply retires — he can with 21 years — Litzenberg will keep helping make Santa Fe a better place.
If, in the weeks before he leaves, he can make sure additional potholes are filled and weeds pulled, that would be a plus. Because at its basic level, city government is about services — those functions of providing public safety, picking up trash, maintaining infrastructure and creating a pleasing environment in which people go about their daily lives.
The city manager makes all of that happen. Now, the team Litzenberg helped assemble will continue that important work. Santa Fe is better for his, and their, contributions.