The Mancos town board voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a contract with Heather Alvarez to become the new town administrator.

Alvarez has served as interim administrator, in addition to her duties as town clerk and treasurer, since the resignation of Andrea Phillips on April 17. On Wednesday the board approved a one-year contract that will drop the “interim” from her title, while allowing her to continue her clerk and treasurer job. But according to a Wednesday email from Mayor Pro Tem Fred Brooks, the board had already offered the job to Alvarez after a personnel executive session on Oct. 25, in an item that was not posted on the agenda.

The contract states that Alvarez’s employment as administrator began on Nov. 1 and will automatically be renewed on Nov. 1, 2018, unless terminated by the town. The position will be part-time, with a salary of $1,500 per month, in addition to Alvarez’s $58,000 yearly salary as clerk and treasurer. The board agreed to pay her with a single monthly check, at Alvarez’s request. Mayor Queenie Barz said Alvarez had asked for that payment schedule before the meeting, in order to save the town some of the fees required to process paychecks.

“Here she is, just doing what we’ve asked her to do–just another reason why we promoted her,” Barz said.

Brooks said in his email that Alvarez “has the support of the mayor and the entire board of trustees.”

That support was shown Wednesday, as all the board members voted in favor of the contract with little discussion, except a few compliments for Alvarez.

“She rocks,” Cindy Simpson said.

Alvarez did not attend the meeting, since she was on a week-long planned vacation.

The decision came after a workshop in which the board discussed a preliminary 2018 budget that included significant cuts to administrative spending in several departments. In the general fund, funding for administrative personnel costs decreased 26 percent from $246,487 on the 2017 budget, to $181,682 on the preliminary 2018 budget.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the town board also:

Passed an ordinance changing the Mancos municipal code to conform to the election deadlines set by state law. The ordinance requires write-in candidates to file their affidavits of intent no later than 64 days before a local election, and allows the town to cancel an election if, by that deadline, there are no issues on the ballots and no more candidates than vacancies. State law allows local governments to mail ballots to voters 22 days before an election.Canceled the Nov. 22 meeting due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Brooks suggested board members return half their salary for the month, since they would only meet once, but when other board members expressed their disagreement, he declined to make a motion to that effect.

This story was reposted on Nov. 16 clarify that Heather Alvarez was offered the job of town administrator after the executive session.

Passed an ordinance changing the Mancos municipal code to conform to the election deadlines set by state law. The ordinance requires write-in candidates to file their affidavits of intent no later than 64 days before a local election, and allows the town to cancel an election if, by that deadline, there are no issues on the ballots and no more candidates than vacancies. State law allows local governments to mail ballots to voters 22 days before an election.Canceled the Nov. 22 meeting due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Brooks suggested board members return half their salary for the month, since they would only meet once, but when other board members expressed their disagreement, he declined to make a motion to that effect.