Anne Laurent
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos County Council unanimously appointed Anne Laurent as the new County Manager during a special meeting this morning.
Laurent serves as deputy manager, along with Linda Matteson and will take the reigns from County Manager Steven Lynne who is retiring in March.
“I just want to thank the council,” Laurent said after the vote. She also put a plug in for the Leadership Los Alamos program, which she graduated from in 2010.
Council Randall Ryti made the motion to approve Laurent as the new County Manager.
“I just wanted to say I am looking forward to approving this and working with Ms. Laurent as manager,” Ryti said.
Council Chair Denise Derkacs agreed.
“We had two highly qualified candidates for the position and I believe that Ms. Laurent is the best candidate with her broad management experience in various department head positions in our county government, her project management skills … and more and I look forward to working with her in this position,” she said.
Derkacs outlined the process council followed to arrive at its decision. She said the hiring process specified in the council procedural rules was used as well as the schedule published in a pervious council meeting agenda. A search working group was formed, which included the council chair, vice chair and the former council chair. They developed a brochure to advertise the position, 30 applicants responded and of those 14 met the minimum requirements.
Derkacs said a consultant was hired to conduct interviews and the search working group conducted the initial interviews with the semi-finalists before making recommendations to council. Council determined the finalists to invite to in-person interviews. The finalists were interviewed by three committees: senior management, council and a community committee, which was made up of individuals identified by each councilor and ultimately selected by Derckas, Lynne and Matteson. Council also determined the questions that each panel would ask.
Laurent will begin her new position as County Manager March 3.