Henderson city manager Jacob Snow to leave earlier than planned

Henderson City Manager Jacob Snow will leave his job April 23, months earlier than originally planned, the city announced Monday.

The City Council will hold a special meeting Thursday to accept Snow’s resignation. The same night, the council could also appoint an interim city manager and approve a search process for a permanent replacement, who could be in place by July.

In a letter to the council, Snow wrote that happy family news caused him to move up his departure: His daughter just got engaged. Snow’s oldest son was already planning his wedding for May.

Snow came to the city in early 2012. In a February memo to employees, he said he planned to leave in the summer. Snow and his wife will be empty-nesters with their youngest son heading to college, and he wrote that “the timing is right for me to make a change.”

Snow and council members have said his replacement — at least on an interim basis — could be one of Henderson’s two assistant city managers, Bristol Ellington or Fred Horvath.

But the interim manager is not expected to eligible for the permanent job, which could affect who is willing to take the interim post.

The names of finalists for the permanent job will be made public, and the council will publicly deliberate before voting. The names of applicants who don’t become finalists will remain secret, according to a recruitment brochure developed for the city.

“I want it to be as transparent as possible,” Marz said, though he added that some qualified people might hesitate to apply, knowing their names could be made public even if they don’t get the job.

If the council approves a proposed process, a California-based executive search firm, Ralph Andersen & Associates, will collect applications and give a list of finalists to the council. City officials didn’t respond to inquiries Monday about how the firm was chosen or how much the city is paying it.

Before coming to Henderson, Snow spent more than 20 years in senior posts with other local government agencies, the Clark County Department of Aviation and the Regional Transportation Commission.

Council members credited him with leading the city through a difficult time as it recovered from the recession.

“That was a tough job,” Marz said. “Jacob didn’t have the luxury of having the money to do all the different things the city wanted.”

In his resignation letter, Snow wrote, “I feel the City of Henderson is in a better position than when I came on board three years ago.” The letter was dated March 30, but not made public until a week later.

In an interview, Snow said he’s proud of having balanced the city’s operating budget for this year and next, following a deficit of almost $25 million.

But he said the city has not put enough money into infrastructure, including roads. That will be an increasing challenge for the city in years to come, Snow said.

Some city officials have called for consideration of a property tax increase to pay for such infrastructure spending. But that has drawn criticism, since city employees are paid more than those in other local governments.

There were 291 Henderson employees with base pay of more than $100,000 last year, not counting overtime or benefits, according to public records collected by the Nevada Policy Research Institute.

The city of Las Vegas, with more than twice the population and about the same number of employees, had 204 six-figure workers. Unlike Henderson, Las Vegas does not have its own police department.

Clark County, with a far larger workforce, had 277 employees with six-figure base pay.

Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley