Cortez City Manager Shane Hale pretends to rebutton his shirt as he returns to his office from having his photo taken by the Journal.
They made me get a little racy, he said jokingly to the office assistant.
Hale said a sense of humor helps in his line of work.
My personal philosophy is I take my job extremely seriously, but I dont take myself seriously, he said. I think you need to approach every day with a strong sense of humor because theres a lot of difficult meetings, theres a lot of difficult decisions, and thankfully, theres more good days than bad days.
The 37-year-old native of Canon City, Colo., won the nomination of a panel of city staff and the city council in August despite being pitted against candidates with more experience.
Since moving to Cortez, Hale has been busy meeting community members, learning the ropes, attending meetings and welcoming the birth of a second son.
He said the long hours and pressure of the city manager job are comparable to his time in the military. He served for the U.S. Navy on the USS Pensacola immediately after high school.
I dont know if most people realize just the long, endless hours you put in in the military, he said. Youre never off. You never clock out. The joke is on Sunday, you get to work a 12-hour day, and thats a half day.
Having obtained a bachelors degree in mass communication from the University of Southern Colorado and masters degree in political science with an emphasis in public policy administration from the University of Colorado, Hale said he initially wanted to become a lobbyist to advocate for political issues or join a campaign for an up-and-coming candidate.
That all changed after Hale took on an internship at the small town of Poncha Springs, Colo., and experienced the importance of local government.
You really get a chance to advocate for people, which I really do enjoy, he said.
Hale was hired on as an administrative assistant and later went on to serve as town manager of Grand Lake, Colo., for seven years.
Local government is primarily about providing services for the people, he said, adding residents today enjoy discretionary income, more rights, access to health care and store-bought foods.
I truly believe that we are blessed to live in this time, he said. If you were born a king, and youre the wealthiest king in the world 100 years ago, your quality of life would not be anywhere near the quality of life of the average citizen of Cortez today.
The Cortez city government provides services such as recreation, infrastructure, water, garbage collection, law enforcement, municipal court and animal control.
Theres all these ways that local government touches somebodys life every single day, Hale said. Its just about making sure all those interactions are positive and everythings working right.
If Im doing my job and the staffs doing their jobs, and were keeping up with stuff, people wont think about local government because everything works. Most the time, when people look up my number, its because somethings not working right. Its just about making peoples lives work and the places they live as pleasant as possible with the resources that we have.
So far, Hale said he has been impressed by Cortez and its people.
If we do a good job showing the world what Cortez really is, I think were going to have a problem of too much growth, he said.
However, the community faces the common challenge of access to quality education, health care and rising costs of operations.
Theres very little local government does that doesnt involve an actual person doing it, he said. From trash operations, to water delivery, anything building and planning, court its hard to imagine anything that happens in this city without an individual there doing it. And so, because of that, our costs are for service delivery.
Goals of the new city manager include promotion of the citys fiber-optic network and to make sure the enterprising spirit of the community endures.
I think the city has shown itself to be an innovative and progressive-minded community in terms of taking our destiny into our own hands and I just want to continue that tradition, he said. I love that spirit. I love the idea that instead of looking around for somebody to fix a problem, that the city just rolls up its sleeves and figures that out.
Previous City Manager Jay Harrington left the position to serve as town manager of Carbondale.
Outside of the office, Hale enjoys mountain biking, fly fishing, racquetball and camping with his family.
I want the city to grow and prosper, Hale said. I want it to have jobs out there and more small businesses and tech and things that can bring money and will impact the community and attract more people and more service.
Reach Reid Wright at reidw@cortezjournal.com.
