Council OKs new deputy manager

Denise Cardinal

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998 | 10:26 a.m.

Without public comment or discussion from the City Council, Ann Holland, former senior vice president of hotel and tower operations at the Stratosphere hotel-casino, has been named as a third deputy city manager for Las Vegas.

The new $100,000-a-year position, and Holland's appointment to it, was approved unanimously at Monday's meeting. Holland's first day will be Feb. 17.

City Manager Larry Barton had stated that the workload was too much for only two deputy managers, considering the city's growth. Barton recently announced his retirement from the city and will be serving as city manager on a month-to-month basis until his replacement is hired.

Holland was selected without the city having undertaken a national search for a candidate. The city is the only government in Clark County that doesn't conduct such searches to fill upper-management positions. Henderson and North Las Vegas, for example, use outside search firms and conduct nationwide searches when city manager or deputy city manager positions are open.

As the City Council voted on the issue Monday, no public comment was allowed. Council members as well refrained from discussing the matter before the vote.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones defended the decision.

"This is an incredibly talented and well-qualified individual," Jones said. She was visibly upset with the media's questions regarding Holland. Jones recently married Richard Schuetz, former president of the Stratosphere, where Holland last worked.

Holland herself admits the hiring process has been a "whirlwind," though she's slow to make any judgments about what the city needs in a third deputy city manager.

"I'm going to wait for the final report from Management Partners (a consulting firm hired by the city to look at government efficiency)," she said. "Then I want to make my own observations and try to get up to speed in all fairness."

Holland said she never anticipated getting into city government.

"I wasn't a 7-year-old girl thinking that some day I'd be deputy city manager," she said. "But then, there's a lot of turns in my career that have taken me on different courses."

Since last week's announcement of her candidacy, Holland said she expected that the lack of a nationwide or outside search would be an issue with the press.

But even with the scrutiny, she contends that Barton and the City Council made a sound decision.

"I really got the feeling from the City Council that they wanted this position to be filled from the private sector," she said. "They wanted to bring more of a business-like mindset to government."