The following letter was included in the agenda packet for the upcoming June 22 meeting of the Pagosa Springs Town Council:
June l6, 2023
Dear Mayor Pierce and Council members:
After much personal reflection and consideration, I have made the difficult but necessary decision to not seek a renewal of my agreement in August of 2023. As you know, have been serving as the Pagosa Springs Town Manager under an employment agreement since 2017. The current three-year agreement expires this August and due to personal circumstances, I will be stepping down from this role.
I anticipate my last day with the Town of Pagosa Springs to be August 4, 2023. Following that, I anticipate spending more time caring for family in Tucson, AZ and moving back to Mancos, CO.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the wonderful town staff, who are dedicated, hardworking and truly care about this community. I have also had the privilege of working with excellent Town Council members, advisory boards and far too many community organizations and stakeholders to count.
It has been an honor to serve Pagosa Springs in this role for the last six years. I am proud of so many things that we have been able to accomplish as a team. We have completed several capital projects, weathered a pandemic, ramped up our comprehensive street maintenance program and constructed a new consolidated town maintenance facility. We established a Main Street Advisory Board and are gearing up for a facelift of our downtown area streets and public walkways with the CDOT Main Street Reconstruction project.
We have been able stabilize our sanitation district pumping conveyance system and retrofitted two lift stations with better performing equipment. Through your support and that of our community partners, we have secured grants for key projects that reach beyond the core services of our town. Staff have been focused on reviewing and improving policies and procedures and we have developed ways to standardize our operations in key areas such financial management, purchasing, cemetery management, human resources, and more.
I am happy to help in any way that I can with the transition in this role over the next several weeks.
Thank you for this excellent opportunity to serve the Pagosa Springs community and wish you all the best of luck into the future.
Thank you,
Andrea Phillips
Speaking as a journalist focused on local politics, I will say it has been an unexpected pleasure covering Town politics with Ms. Phillips in the driver’s seat. I have found her to be hardworking, competent, honest, and transparent in her service to the Pagosa Springs community. Whenever I’ve asked for documents, Ms. Phillips and her staff have provided them promptly and without complaint. Ditto, when I’ve asked for explanations for this or that policy.
Observing her in her relationships with her staff and with the public, she always seemed willing to listen and willing to collaborate, for the good of the community, without compromising her own core values.
She was never afraid to offer her perspective, when asked her opinion by the Town Council or others, but when given direction by the Council, she followed through, even when she didn’t fully agree with the Council. (Speaking as an outside observer.)
Ms. Phillips and I didn’t always agree — and I’m thinking in particular of my somewhat difficult (and truncated) tenure on the Town Planning Commission — but at least we were, I believe, honest with one another.
Of the five Town managers I reported on, and came to know, during my 20 years editing the Pagosa Daily Post, Andrea Phillips has been my favorite, hands down. Replacing her with someone of the same quality will be a real challenge for the Town Council.
I wish her all the best of luck into the future.
Understanding that luck plays a significant role!