{"id":138213,"date":"2026-07-08T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-countys-top-administrator-resigns-search-begins-for-new-leader\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:00:11","slug":"montezuma-countys-top-administrator-resigns-search-begins-for-new-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-countys-top-administrator-resigns-search-begins-for-new-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County\u2019s top administrator resigns; search begins for new leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Travis
Travis Anderson, Montezuma County administrator, is leaving the role on Saturday. (Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montezuma County is searching for a new county administrator after current leader Travis Anderson gave notice he is leaving.<\/p>\n

Through the county\u2019s public information officer, Anderson said he cannot comment to The Journal<\/em> because he\u2019s busy finalizing projects before the last day of work Saturday.<\/p>\n

County spokeswoman Vicki Shaffer said Anderson is leaving to pursue a job in the private sector, which will allow him to travel more and spend time with family, whom are spread out across the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Travis
Travis Anderson (Courtesy of Montezuma County)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIn the interim, the commissioners plan to divide the responsibilities of that position between themselves,\u201d Shaffer wrote in an email. \u201cThe county attorney will be drafting a resolution for the interim administration duties that will be discussed at the workshop next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the job was posted<\/a> to multiple forums.<\/p>\n

According to the listing, the salary for county administrator ranges from $140,000 to $160,000. The county administrator directly oversees department directors and is in charge of implementing policies established by the elected board of county commissioners: Jim Candelaria, Kent Lindsay and Gerald Koppenhafer.<\/p>\n

The responsibilities of the job are many: The administrator develops the annual budget eventually approved by the board, tracks pertinent legislation, prepares weekly meeting agendas and public notices, evaluates or hires staff, and represents the county at public-facing events.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontezuma County is seeking an experience, forward-thinking county administrator,\u201d the job listing states. \u201cThis position plays a critical role in the effective administration of county departments, strategic planning, budget development, and ensuring high-quality public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

No deadline for applying is given; rather, submissions are being accepted until the role is filled.<\/p>\n

It is possible after a sabbatical, Anderson could return in September on a short-term contractual basis until a new administrator gets hired or trained.<\/p>\n

Finding an adequate person for the job is a concern of commissioners. County attorney Stephen Tarnowski said state statute allows the board to take on Anderson\u2019s workload during the two-month time frame. Lindsay said replacing Anderson will be hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding an administrator for a job like this seems to be more and more difficult all the time,\u201d Lindsay said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cTalking to different counties, they appoint sometimes an interim from inside the administration and that doesn\u2019t seem to work too well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay reminded commissioners to be careful divvying those responsibilities and oversight, making sure no decision-making occurs outside public meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s got to be a captain of this ship,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cBut I think it can be done. And I think we should ask the attorney to draft a resolution providing those specifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another note Tuesday, the board appointed Heath Higgins as the Road and Bridge Department\u2019s superintendent; he has trained for the position for about six months, county officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commissioners feel that he is ready to take on the responsibilities of that role,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to have promoted someone from within the department to lead it.\u201d<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travis Anderson to pursue a job in the private sector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,896,28,60,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138213"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}