City welcomes new City Manager Aaron Palmer

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The Canyon Lake City Council approved the appointment of Aaron Palmer as the new City Manager at the Wednesday, March 2, City Council Meeting. Palmer comes to the City with more than 18 years of experience in local government.

Over the last eight years, he has served as a city administrator and deputy city manager. He is reputed to have “strong interpersonal and negotiation skills along with a deep background in public safety.”

In January, Interim City Manager/City Clerk Ariel Hall informed the City Council that her family is moving out of state and she wouldn’t be asking for a renewal of her contract. At the January 13 Special City Council Meeting, the City Council began exploring options to fill the positions.

With the hiring of Aaron Palmer, Ariel has agreed to stay on as city clerk long enough for him to get settled and decide how he wants to staff the position in the future.

Mayor Tim Brown noted that Ariel has been “a great city manager and will be sorely missed.”

At the February City Council meeting, a mid-year review of the City budget revealed that the City likely would end its fiscal year in the black, the first time since 2007-08. In recent years, the rising costs of public safety have resulted in dwindling reserves. Thanks to the passage of the utility user tax in November 2014, the City has a had a temporary reprieve as it received close to a million dollars from the UUT this year and likely that much or more in the future.

Ariel also noted that it appears building in the City has increased, so there may be some smaller increases to property tax revenue and building/planning fee revenue. Also, the City contracted with a new contractor for Building, Planning, Engineering, and Public Works, and should see a decrease in the cost of providing those services, which is positive.

She adds, “The City’s fire consultant is still in the analysis phase of the study regarding the feasibility of starting a fire department, so we will have to see if there are any significant changes to that budget.”

Asked about the consultant’s findings as of March 2, new City Manager Aaron Palmer says the consultant has not finished the draft report, but Palmer anticipates receiving it next week. Once he has a chance to review it, a special meeting is expected to be scheduled the week of March 14.