Michael Kovacs, named the assistant Park City manager in early November, is scheduled to start working at the Marsac Building on Monday.
He will become the first assistant city manager City Hall has employed since the period surrounding the 2002 Winter Olympics, a time when the municipal government’s workload shifted toward the Games and the Park City manager at the time, Toby Ross, desired help at the top levels of the government.
The current city manager, Tom Bakaly, secured funding for the position during budget talks earlier in the year, contending that the workload at the Marsac Building again necessitates someone serving in an assistant city manager role. Bakaly had been the assistant city manager in the Olympic era before his promotion to the top staff position at City Hall.
Kovacs had been the city manager in Port Aransas, Texas, a community on the Gulf Coast of Texas close to the popular resort of South Padre Island, Texas. He has also been an executive in the government of a South Carolina resort community called Surfside Beach.
Kovacs will occupy a third-floor office at the Marsac Building close to Bakaly and Mayor Dana Williams.
In a prepared statement announcing the selection in November, Kovacs called Park City the “premier U.S. ski tourism destination.” Bakaly at the time, also in a prepared statement, said Kovacs is a “seasoned public administration professional” with a string of successes in legislative and fiscal matters. Kovacs has grown the tourism numbers in the cities where he has worked previously, Bakaly said in the statement.
Kovacs won the job over nearly 200 others who applied for the position, with people from across the U.S. and from abroad submitting their names for consideration.
He studied political science and criminal justice as an undergraduate and holds a graduate degree in public administration, according to a City Hall release.