The Summit County Council ended a months-long search for the county’s first manager when the new appointment was announced Wednesday night in Coalville.
County Councilman John Hanrahan said Bob Jasper is scheduled to begin the job Jan. 4. Since June, Jasper has served as interim county manager for Teton County, Wyo.
“He has an enormous wealth of experience in county management,” Hanrahan said.
Before moving to Jackson Hole, Wyo., Jasper worked for 10 years as county administrator of Mesa County, Colo., and 12 years as assistant county manager for Washoe County, Nev., which includes the Lake Tahoe area.
“He has been in rapidly growing counties,” Hanrahan said. “He has had that tension of growth between maintaining historical, cultural and ranching components, as well as tourism components.”
Voters decided in 2006 to create the county manager position when they voted to change the form of government in Summit County from a three-member commission to the five person council/manager model.
Jasper will fill the county’s top administrative position. His yearly salary is roughly $130,000 plus benefits.
“It’s great to be here. I’m excited and I really feel privileged,” said Jasper, who is 61 years old.
In his career, Jasper has overseen budgets ranging from $182 million to $472 million, in rural communities and metropolitan areas with roughly 400,000 people.
“He’s got a crack knowledge of budgets, finance and capital projects,” Hanrahan said.
Jasper will manage a budget of roughly $45 million in Summit County. As supervisor of day-to-day operations in the county, Jasper’s management skills could be put to a test when he begins overseeing more than 320 full- and part-time employees.
“We have found someone who will be able to work with everybody in the county,” Summit County Councilwoman Sally Elliott said. “[Jasper] is just such a nice guy to get along with.”
The proposal to change the form of government was not popular among many residents on the East Side of Summit County mostly because they didn’t feel the County Courthouse needed an appointed chief executive. Jasper, who will report to the Summit County Council, will oversee six departments including community development, health, public works, information technology, personnel and the library.
He will also interface with the county’s elected officials, some of whom did not want the government to hire a manager.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Jasper said he has had to bridge the divide between farming communities and recreation-based economies in his career. In the eyes of county government, people in more rural communities in Mesa County, Colo., always felt their needs were second to the needs of the city of Grand Junction, the area’s major commercial hub, he explained.
“So I spent a lot of time personally going out to city council meetings, and the board of county commissioners actually started holding meetings in each of the communities,” Jasper said. “People believe that they need to be heard and that they need to be understood. It’s worth the effort to go out and hear and understand.”
The election to change the form of government was close and many people on the East Side of Summit County, which is the seat of county government, were against the proposal.
“Change is unsettling and lots of people will approach change cautiously. It doesn’t have to mean that we’re totally divided and people have drawn lines in the sand,” Jasper said. “I want to make sure I understand what is behind people’s concerns and see if they can be addressed.”
One of his first undertakings next year will be to understand the county budget.
“These are hard times for local government everywhere. Our revenues have been dropping and I’ll want to get a good understanding of that,” Jasper said.
Capital projects Jasper has overseen have included construction of a justice center and health and human services complex. He has also supervised the construction of new bridges and arterial beltways.