Council OKs $170,000 city manager contract
LaPan Hill was previously the chief of staff for Mayor Webber
The Santa Fe City Council late Wednesday approved the appointment of Jarel LaPan Hill as city manager and a contract that calls for her to receive a salary of $170,000 a year.
“I have accepted the terms of the contract, and it’s being circulated for signature right now,” LaPan Hill, who served as Mayor Alan Webber’s chief of staff before becoming interim city manager about four months ago, said in an email Thursday.
LaPan Hill, a 38-year-old married mother of two, is only the third woman in the city’s history
to serve as city manager.
“Having a chance to serve the city I grew up in, at this moment of change, is a true honor,” LaPan Hill said in a statement.
Under the contract, LaPan Hill will receive pay increases “commensurate with pay increases afforded to city employees in any fiscal year,” as well as a $5,000 retention bonus if she stays in the position until the end of Webber’s first term in two years. It also calls for her base salary to be reviewed annually at the beginning of each fiscal year.
LaPan Hill replaces Erik Litzenberg, who unexpectedly announced his resignation in July after a little more than a year on the job. Litzenberg, the city’s former fire chief, took a job as Santa Fe County’s fire chief soon after he announced his departure.
Litzenberg was paid $170,000 a year as city manager — the same salary the mayor proposed for LaPan Hill, who made $88,000 a year as his chief of staff. During her stint as interim city manager, her salary was bumped up to $155,000 a year.
“Santa Fe is very fortunate to have Jarel LaPan Hill as our city manager,” Webber said in a statement. “Having grown up here and graduated from Capital High, she has deep connections to our community. Her management skills, government experience, professional judgment, work ethic and core values are impeccable. As hard and demanding as this work is, I know that Jarel with do a great job because she has been doing a great job since September. I’m confident that under her leadership the city will continue to make life better for all of the residents of Santa Fe.”
City Councilor Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, chairman of the city Finance Committee, also expressed confidence in LaPan Hill.
“Having been in similar roles with both the city and county and having worked for several city and county managers, I have an intimate perspective for how taxing this position can be on somebody and the skillset it takes to be successful,” Abeyta said in a statement. “Someone once told me being city manager is like being the eye of a hurricane. There is havoc all around you with the staff, the governing body and public, yet somehow you need to keep calm and move it all forward.”
LaPan Hill is a 1999 graduate of Capital High School and received her bachelor’s degree in political science at George Washington University. She worked for eight years during the Obama administration as chief of staff for the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
LaPan Hill was among 52 applicants for the job, which she initially wasn’t expected to seek.
Last year, Webber said LaPan Hill would go back to being his chief of staff after he found the right person to fill the position.
“I’m confident that once we find a full-time city manager, her role as chief of staff will resume, and the work she was doing that was really critical for supporting both me and the city manager and the department heads will go back to the way it was,” Webber said at the time.
Asked earlier this week whether he planned to fill the chief of staff position, Webber said he didn’t know.
According to a résumé provided by the city, LaPan Hill has headed major projects during her time as interim city manager, including implementation of a software modernization system and the midtown campus project. As chief of staff, her role included managing the operations of the mayor’s office plus serving as a liaison for Webber with state and local officials. She also recruited and hired 14 department directors.