The La Plata County Planning Department suffered another blow to its ranks when Senior Planner Dan Murphy, a staff member of nine years, announced his resignation on March 23.
Like many employers, the department has struggled to retain staff in recent years.
But with four new staff members slated to start work in the next 2½ weeks and growing applicant pools for other vacant positions, County Manager Chuck Stevens says the progress is encouraging.
A new natural resource planner will start on May 8, alongside a planning tech and an office manager. A planner 1 will start April 24.
The community development director position, currently occupied on an interim basis through May by Kevin Hall, remains vacant. However, the county’s consultant is vetting 10 qualified candidates for the role; final in-person interviews will occur June 8.
With four new employees starting soon and a strong pool of applicants for the director position, four positions remain unfilled out of the 13.75 full-time equivalent roles.
Christy Kost, former natural resources planner who left in early March, is now working in the private sector. Murphy declined to comment on why he left the county or where he would be employed next, but he did say it would be in the planning field.
Murphy became the target of harsh personal criticism during the time he spent as the county planner working with Scott Roberts, the developer seeking approval for a luxury RV park in the Animas Valley.
County officials have previously noted the shockingly personal nature of the attacks lodged by members of the public against Murphy. Stevens called the comments “really disturbing” and said they were an aberration from typical civil discourse.
As the number of vacant positions continues to drop, Stevens said things are starting to look up from a hiring perspective.
“We're starting to see our applicant pools increase again and it's really encouraging,” Stevens said. “The last 2½, three years have been really challenging and applicant pools across the board for the county are starting to get back up to pre-pandemic levels.”
He added that the quality of applicants is on the rise as well.
The county is also looking to hire a director of La Plata County Public Health, the new department that will take over from San Juan Basin Public Health upon the latter’s formal dissolution on Dec. 31. Stevens said the county has already received over 20 applications for that position.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
