Assuming a role he has fulfilled for several months, interim city administrator Claud Hanes is now the official top staffer in Fort Lupton.

    Working a duality of positions as both finance director and city administrator, Hanes’ working title in the new position is director of finance and administration.
    The learning curve shouldn’t be an issue for Hanes, who has been filling both roles since the ouster of former city administrator Mike Konefal by council vote in October. The council voted unanimously to immediately terminate Konefal without cause, following an executive session. The decision to end Konefal’s service came just three months shy of the end of his three-year contract, placing Hanes in the interim seat.
    Konefal’s tenure began after a similar dismissal without cause of Jim Sidebottom, city administrator from to 2004 through 2007.     
    Hanes plans to stay a bit longer than either of his predecessors. If Fort Lupton Mayor Tommy Holton has his way, Hanes’ tenure will be a long and fruitful one for the city as business and development opportunities open up.
    “I’m happy to get Claud in place and keep moving,” Holton said. “The team we have now in the city is working very well together. Everything is just clicking.”
    Hanes’ transition to the slot also saves the city a large chunk of change in headhunting costs, which came to roughly $25,000 in the search that netted Konefal, and in familiarization time.
    “He has the experience, not only with the city, but with water issues and water shares and some of the stuff the city has been dealing with over the years. Rather than have to bring someone in and start the learning process, we don’t have to go through that,” Holton said. “We already have someone who is more than qualified to handle that and let’s just pull the trigger and get it done.”
    For his part, Hanes doesn’t plan on rocking the boat as the city sails toward prosperity. Rather, he intends to retain the ultimate responsibility for both departments while promoting a staffer to a supervisory role in the finance section and hiring a junior accountant to help with the workload.
    According to Hanes, the adjustment will eventually save the city $33,000 per annum, another bonus to keeping the appointment in-house.
    “I think we need to be easily accessible, we need to be easy to work with, we need to try to get landowners excited about annexing with the city, which they are. Try to get some businesses excited about coming to town, because we need business to get the sales tax up,” Hanes said. “Finance is still my background, so I still want to see the money.”
    Hanes will see some of the money personally. The new position includes a pay raise of 4.6 percent, taking his salary to $107,141, including benefits. That outlay may only be for a few years, dependent on Hanes’ plans and the council’s wishes.
    “I told the council initially that I plan on about four years,” Hanes said of his plans for the future. 
    “I said, jokingly, given the past history of city administrators, that may be four days,” Hanes added, laughing. “The appointment starts in May and goes 18 months. I wrote the contract that if they were agreeable, I would be up for a two-year renewal and maybe beyond that.”
    Working with the short tenure places at least one goal firmly in the new city administrator’s mind.
    “My plan is to get people lined up in staff so that whenever I walk away or whenever anyone walks away from a job, we have people who can slide in,” Hanes said. “So it’s not a ‘start over’ every time.”

Contact Gene Sears at gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com or at 303-659-2522, ext. 217.