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Aspen City Manager Sara Ott is a finalist for the city manager position in Louisville, a suburban city between Denver and Boulder.
Ott is one of four finalists, a Louisville city spokesperson confirmed. Ott released a statement to the Aspen Daily News on Wednesday afternoon.
“I have been named a finalist for the position of city manager in Louisville, Colorado,” the prepared statement says. “This is an exciting opportunity to continue building my career in public service and to bring my experience and passion for community engagement to a new setting.
“I appreciate the Louisville City Council’s thoughtful approach to this hiring process,” Ott’s statement continues. “I look forward to the opportunity to share my experience and qualifications with the elected body, staff and the Louisville community. This will aid both me and the Louisville council in determining if we are a match. There are many more steps to this process.”
Ott also said she remains “focused on the work at hand and committed to supporting Aspen.”
“We have big things happening in our community that need to move forward everyday. It is a privilege to serve this remarkable community and to work alongside such dedicated colleagues,” the statement concludes.
The Front Range city — notable for the Marshall Fire in December 2021, the most costly and destructive in Colorado history — began a national search for a new city manager in August. It released a list of finalists, including Ott, on Wednesday. Recruitment opened for the position in October and the city began reviewing applications in the fall, according to the city of Louisville’s website.
Finalists will be invited to Louisville the week of Jan. 20 for interviews, including a public meet and greet session with residents and city staff. The Louisville City Council will meet on Monday, Jan. 27 to discuss the finalists and select a candidate, according to a city press release.
The Aspen City Council promoted Ott from assistant city manager to city manager in September 2019. She agreed then to a base salary of $203,000, the Aspen Daily News previously reported.
As city manager, Ott serves as the chief administrative officer of the Aspen government. The council has the final hiring authority for the city manager.
Ott was the township administrator in Dublin, Ohio for three years before taking the role as assistant city manager in Aspen in 2017. She also held administrative roles in Kansas and Missouri. Ott received a master’s degree in public administration and local government management from the University of Kansas.
She was appointed Aspen’s interim city manager in early 2019 after longtime city manager Steve Barwick resigned at the city council’s request.
Ott was officially named Aspen city manager later in 2019, after a nationwide search that attracted 64 applicants.
Only six months after she assumed the role, Ott was faced with handling the city’s COVID-19 pandemic response. In 2020 she helped implement pandemic-era programs like establishing a mandatory mask zone and a $6 million COVID-19 response and recovering package that provided funds for mental health services, COVID-19 testing, small business assistance and more.
In 2021, under Ott’s leadership, the city hired new executive directors for the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority and the Wheeler Opera House.
At the end of 2023, the city council approved a 4% salary increase to $267,824 after an annual council evaluation of her job performance. Over the past few months, the city council has held several executive sessions to discuss the city manager review, one as recently as Tuesday.
Mayor Torre said he was informed Tuesday that Ott was a finalist for the Louisville gig. He also said the city council made an offer to retain Ott.
“I’m super supportive of everybody that we have working at the city, and I hope the best for them and in their career path,” Torre said. “We’ll see what happens with the interviews in Louisville. Sara’s been a great servant with the city of Aspen, and we have made an offer to retain her, so we’ll just see how it works out.”
Three of the four Louisville city manager finalists, including Ott, currently work as city or county managers in Colorado. They are Jay Harrington, county manager of Routt County; and Jason Rogers, city manager of Commerce City. Diana Langley, the other finalist, is the city manager of Yuba City, California.
In July, Louisville City Manager Jeff Durbin offered to resign from his position after he was under investigation for several weeks for “an unspecified personnel matter,” BizWest reported at the time. Samma Fox, who was the deputy city manager, took over as interim city manager.
The salary range for the Louisville position is $232,459.22 to $330,186.98, according to the job posting on the Colorado City and County Management Association website. It has a population of about 20,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.