The Los Alamos County Council in New Mexico voted unanimously last week to hire current deputy manager Anne Laurent, to become the new county manager effective March 3, 2024.
The 7-0 vote during a Dec. 15 special meeting means Laurent will succeed her boss, Los Alamos County Manager Steven Lynne, who is retiring after more than 28 years with the local government, the county said in a press release.
During the 10-minute meeting, the council approved a contract to pay Laurent $261,000 per year, according to a copy of the document posted online.
Gretchen Cassini, transportation surtax administrator for Broward County, Fla., along with Tracey Jerome, senior deputy city manager for El Paso, Texas, were the other two finalists for the position.
The council hired Sarah McKee with GovHR USA, a national executive recruitment firm, to assist in the hiring process, according to the county press release.
There were 30 applicants in total and 14 of them met the minimum requirements for the county manager position, Los Alamos County Chair Denise Derkacs said during the meeting. An online link to the meeting video and related materials is available here.
Laurent has 11 years of municipal government experience in Los Alamos County and four years in Park City, Utah, according to the county press release. She is a member of the Department of Energy’s Northern New Mexico Citizen Advisory Board for Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to her resume. Laurent also worked for many years as a manager and architect in Michigan and Arizona.
The DOE lab, site of Manhattan Project nuclear development and featured prominently in the movie “Oppenheimer,” employs around 14,000 people in a county with a population of only 19,000, according to 2020 federal census figures.
Laurent’s appointment was first reported by the online Los Alamos Reporter.
