After a roller coaster week regarding the hiring of a new city manager, the Craig City Council voted on Thursday to extend a contract to former Moffat County Sheriff, KC Hume.

However, the final vote to approve the contract resulted in an evenly divided city council. It took Mayor Chris Nichols’ vote to break the tie and approve extending a formal job offer to Hume.

The hiring saga began last Monday when a resolution to hire Hume, along with a formal contract, was listed on the City Council’s agenda. However, the council unanimously voted to amend the meeting agenda removing the hiring resolution and contract.

An executive session of the City Council was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. When contacted by the newspaper on Wednesday March 11, Mayor Nichols stated, “The hiring of a city manager is the most important thing the council does. The council received the contract Monday afternoon and my impression is that they wanted more time to review it.”

The proposed contract would have paid Hume $156,000 in his first year of employment, which would have commenced on April 20.

Following the executive session on Thursday, a motion to approve the contract was made by Council member Joe Herod and seconded by Council member Derek Duran. The City Council then held a discussion prior to voting.

Council member Randy Looper expressed reservations about approving the contract, noting that Hume lacked experience related to the position that might affect his ability to hire key staff, particularly an assistant city manager/economic development director.

Council member Duran echoed Looper’s concerns.

Council member Herod pushed back on Looper and Duran’s concerns and said one of the council’s priorities should be hiring someone who would make the city look good.

“You want people who make you look good,” Herod said. “I just feel like he’s got enough knowledge and enough leadership skills that that’s what will happen. If it doesn’t, then we can fix the mistake, but I don’t think it’s a mistake.”

Nichols then outlined the reasons he was supporting the hiring of Hume.

“We had discussions. We all recognized KC has weaknesses in experience with economic development and multi-department leadership,” Nichols said. “But in the contract, the negotiating team tried to complement or set the city manager up for success in those areas, knowing that the council has a goal to approve the assistant city manager and economic development manager position. That should help that co-position pay what it will take to attract talent in that field, so I think we are covering those areas.”

He went on to state that the contract gives the city “certain outs” that made him feel “a little bit better about it.”

“I feel that KC’s weaknesses are kind of the biggest issues for the next two years,” said Duran. “That is my only concern. I think he’s a good leader and stuff, but economic development and other things are the biggest issues we have coming up.”

Following discussion, council members Gottschall, Linsacum and Herod voted “yay,” while Duran, Tucker and Looper voted “nay.”

Nichols, laughing, cast his vote after saying, “It comes down to the deciding vote here, huh?”

“You know, I’ll say ‘yay,'” he said. “I think we addressed the issues the best we could in the contract.”

Following the meeting, the newspaper reached out to Derek Duran, Luke Tucker and Randy Looper for comment on their vote against approving Hume’s hire. Only Randy Looper responded to the inquiry.

In explaining his vote, Looper said, “I feel like KC has a lot of passion for Moffat County and Craig and would do anything to help us continue to move forward. I also feel like he has developed some great leadership skills in his years at the Sherriff’s office and with the Fire District. All that being said, it doesn’t mean he is qualified to be our next City Manager. I think KC will do everything in his power to learn everything he can as fast as possible and make whatever contacts he needs to speed that process along. In 3 – 5 years I think he would probably make a great City Manager. However do we have the time to wait while he is doing his best to learn everything he does not currently know?”

Looper went on to say, “My concern is Craig and Moffat County is going to go through a lot in the next three years and do we want to just get through it while KC is learning what he doesn’t know? Hiring an Economic Development/Assistant City Manager will help but in my opinion that type of position is usually for someone to help and learn from the City Manager not the other way a round.”

“If we do this again in the future, I really feel the candidate needs to have some direct City Manager experience. Someone who has done it in a smaller community that wants to grow with a bigger budget and more staff. I think we always will need someone with some project management, public works, legislative contact and hopefully economic experience.”

On Monday morning, when asked if Hume had signed the contract, Mayor Nichols said, “Not that I know of yet. The last I heard, KC was still reviewing the contract before he made his decision.”

Also contacted on Monday regarding the status of Hume’s contract, Kathleen Carmody, human resource director for the City of Craig, said “I have no update on the city manager position.”

Hume did not respond to inquiries from the newspaper as of Monday morning.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

John Camponeschi contributed to this article.