{"id":39182,"date":"2022-07-30T01:35:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T07:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/travis-anderson-hired-as-new-montezuma-county-administrator\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:43","slug":"travis-anderson-hired-as-new-montezuma-county-administrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/travis-anderson-hired-as-new-montezuma-county-administrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Anderson hired as new Montezuma County administrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Travis
Travis Anderson, the newly hired Montezuma County administrator, responds to a question from the audience during a meet-and-greet event. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma County has a new county administrator.<\/p>\n

Travis Anderson, a former Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigator, was hired by Board of County Commissioners to fill the position. His annual salary will be $103,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has master\u2019s degrees in public administration and good management experience,\u201d said Commissioner Kent Lindsay. \u201cBeing the county administrator is a complex job. During the all-day testing and assessments of candidates, Travis rose to the top, handling all the different scenarios we threw at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will replace Shak Powers, who now works as a project manager with the Cortez office of the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado Inc.<\/p>\n

Anderson introduced himself at a recent meet-and-greet, took questions from the audience and met with news reporters.<\/p>\n

He was raised in his birthplace of Delta by a war veteran father who owned an auto body shop and a mother who worked in the county clerk\u2019s office. He is married and has four grown kids and seven step-children.<\/p>\n

Anderson had a 31-year career in law enforcement. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in law enforcement administration and masters in organizational management and public administration from Ashford University in Chandler, Arizona.<\/p>\n

He worked for the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office from 2009 to 2016, and from 2019 to the present. During his tenure, he served as a deputy, patrol sergeant, SWAT team leader, staff sergeant and detective. He was the chief of the Brush Police Department from 2016-2018, was an officer for the Delta Police Department from 1995-2008 and in the Nederland Marshal\u2019s Office from 1992-1995.<\/p>\n

Anderson has seen firsthand the problems of the opioid epidemic, and won an award for saving a man who overdosed on heroin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpioids are having a major impact on our community and is something we need to address,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

His leadership style is to work as a team with county staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody accomplishes anything by themselves. We all have mentors. My goal is show staff they are valued and part of the team, and that together we can be successful,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe in quality management that allows us to learn and move forward, ensuring services we provide to the community meet the expectations of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does not believing in the status quo, \u201cThis is how it was always done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat mindset is static, and not progressive movement. By inspiring positive change, we energize the team to innovate,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ultimate goal with this position is to work with the commissioners, the citizens, community leaders and municipalities to address progressive growth,\u201d he said. \u201cExamples are addressing housing needs, infrastructure and working toward a balanced budget. I want to look at where we are spending money and see if we are duplicating efforts anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

A citizen asked how he will transfer his experience in law enforcement to government administration.<\/p>\n

Anderson responded that both jobs are about working with people to solve problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have people skills, and that has been part of my career for 31 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the economy, Anderson said there are many fronts to address. Affordable housing is needed for workers and to attract employees to move here. Broadband internet service is needed to attract larger companies. Infrastructure, such as an industrial park, would set the stage for more businesses to move here.<\/p>\n

Anderson wants to persuade a manufactured-housing factory to locate in the county. He said the county\u2019s central location to areas that need affordable housing that business creates makes it an ideal location.<\/p>\n

Homes constructed on an assembly line are more affordable, he said, and are in demand in Montezuma County, La Plata County, Ute Mountain Ute reservation and on the Navajo Reservation.<\/p>\n

Another plan for Anderson is to promote passage of a county sales tax, which the county has said is needed to offset falling revenues from the oil and gas industry. The county is considering one for a 2023 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we put together a fair proposal and market it right, we will get support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Identifying what the tax would be used for is essential for it to be supported by the public. The way the Montezuma County Hospital District passed its tax measure recently, by also reducing property taxes, was a good strategy, Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Other important issues are to improve the aesthetics of the county, particularly south of Cortez, which has seen deterioration and graffiti, and is the gateway to Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u2018When a window is broken, get it fixed, or the problems will get worse,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

The water shortage and drought also are on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to maintain our water rights here, and see what we can do to make what water is available go further,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anderson said he would comply with Colorado\u2019s open meeting laws and open records law.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheriff\u2019s Office detective has degree in public administration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84253,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39182\/revisions\/84253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39182"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}