Henderson City Manager Snow plans to leave city in summer

Henderson City Manager Jacob Snow will leave his job after three years and retire this summer, he said Thursday.

“My wife and I will soon be empty-nesters with our youngest son graduating and heading off for college, so the timing is right for me to make a change,” Snow wrote in an email to employees.

City Councilwoman Debra March said she learned of Snow’s departure Wednesday night and was surprised and disappointed.

“He’s certainly brought us through a very difficult time in the economy and our recovery,” March said of Snow, who came to Henderson in early 2012 after more than a decade as general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission.

Snow is expected to leave the city June 30, March said.

His successor hasn’t been named, and March said she hopes Snow will stay on while the city looks for a permanent replacement. The city manager is hired by and reports to the City Council.

The two assistant city managers, Bristol Ellington and Fred Horvath, are likely candidates. City Councilman Sam Bateman said Horvath’s experience in the private sector — he worked in the energy industry before coming to the city — helps make him a good candidate.

Snow’s base salary was $225,000 a year.

Snow, who didn’t return a call for comment Thursday, is a graduate of Brigham Young University, where he studied urban planning. He spent 10 years with the Clark County Department of Aviation, helping oversee McCarran International Airport.

In 1999, he was named general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, a job he stayed in for almost 13 years before the Henderson City Council voted to hire him in March 2012. While at the transportation agency, Snow won awards as “government official of the year” and “public administrator of the year.”

Mayor Andy Hafen, who recommended Snow for the city manager job, said at the time he was a good friend of Snow’s. Other council members, who voted unanimously to hire Snow, said they were impressed by his grasp of issues.

Council members have credited Snow with leading the city through tough times.

In his email to staff, Snow said the most important accomplishment of his term was balancing the city budget.

An official with a union representing almost 800 Henderson city employees said Snow’s approach was fair, even as the city sought concessions from workers.

“Anytime I went to him with an issue, it was always taken care of,” said Larry Griffith, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 14.

Snow’s tenure also included controversies, notably the fallout of the botched deal with a developer who said he wanted to build a sports complex on federal land near the M Resort.

After the developer, Chris Milam, declared the sports deal dead and said he wanted to sell the land for homes instead, the city sued him and alleged fraud. Milam, who denied wrongdoing and said he simply failed to draw an NBA team, settled the case in 2013.

U.S. Sen Harry Reid, whose son Key worked for Milam trying to recruit a Major League Soccer team to Henderson, later said the city should have done a better job of vetting Milam’s background. The developer had failed in two previous attempts to bring a sports arena to the Las Vegas area.

Milam’s dealings with the city started before Snow’s tenure, but Snow was the city manager when the proposal collapsed.

Snow won praise for his restructuring of city departments. Not long after arriving, he had to choose a new police chief, Jutta Chambers having retired from the job after the controversial police beating of a man who was in diabetic shock. The officers thought he was drunk.

Snow picked Patrick Moers as chief and decided he would report directly to Snow, not to an assistant city manager.

Asked about Snow’s leadership style, Bateman said, “He’s decisive. He’s willing to make changes. He doesn’t go along with ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it.’ You come in to make changes, that can make people uncomfortable. But sometimes change is needed.”