{"id":49451,"date":"2021-01-08T20:19:36","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T03:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-manager-john-dougherty-announces-resignation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:47:26","slug":"cortez-city-manager-john-dougherty-announces-resignation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-manager-john-dougherty-announces-resignation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Manager John Dougherty announces resignation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=0c8d3e2f-a4e4-4aa2-941e-ef0120afa66a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1583\" height=\"1003\" alt=\"Cortez City Manager John Dougherty, shown in 2019, has announced his resignation, effective April 30.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Cortez City Manager John Dougherty, shown in 2019, has announced his resignation, effective April 30.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Cortez City Manager John Dougherty announced his resignation Friday, effective April 30.<\/p>\n<p>Dougherty\u2019s resignation comes after an arduous 2\u00bd-year term that involved a multiyear financial audit process, which was hampered by an embezzlement investigation. Dougherty intends to stay on until April 30 to help ensure a smooth transition to a new city manager.<\/p>\n<p>The desire to spend more time with his kids was a motivating factor in his decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy kids basically said, Dad, it\u2019s time, and we want you closer to us. I will miss working with all the hardworking men and women of the City of Cortez, but it is time for me to move on and be able to spend more time with them,\u201d Dougherty said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Mike Lavey expressed his feelings about Dougherty\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn has served the City of Cortez well in his time here. Cortez City Council is sad to see him go but understand that family must come first,\u201d Lavey said. \u201cHe has done an exceptional job working through the challenges that were presented to him from day one. We appreciate his willingness to stay on during the transition to a new City Manager and help us have as seamless a changeover as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn has served the City of Cortez well in his time here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s former finance director, Katheryn Moss, pleaded guilty to a Class 5 felony charge of embezzling $63,642 from the city of Cortez between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado Bureau of Investigation\u2019s probe further delayed ongoing city audits, threatening to cut Cortez off from state funding.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Cortez intends to work with the Colorado Municipal League and other organizations to find a suitable candidate for the position.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:anicotera@the-journal.com\">anicotera@the-journal.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dougherty plans to spend time with family after 2-plus years in the position<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[386,13,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-breaking-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451","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=49451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87586,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451\/revisions\/87586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49451"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}