The Camp Verde Town Council voted unanimously to offer a contract to Tedmond “Ted” Soltis for the position of town manager during its Wednesday, July 12 meeting.
The city narrowed an initial pool of 31 applicants down to five, including Soltis, by early June, and the leading candidates interviewed on June 20 and 21.
Soltis has nearly 20 years of experience as a town and city manager and says that he is passionate about helping smaller Western communities achieve their goals. He has worked with the communities he lived and served in by helping revenue strapped communities balance their budgets, promoting economic development, overseeing a variety of construction projects and obtaining and managing grants.
Soltis received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Montana State University in Bozeman and his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Montana in Missoula.
Prior to his career in public management, Soltis worked as an avionics technician in the U.S. Air Force. After college, he was hired as town administrator of Georgetown, Colo., in 1993, before working as a manager in the hospitality industry in Virginia and for six years at the Hunan Tax College in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, where he and his wife both taught English.
Returning stateside, Soltis served as the town manager for Kremmling, Colo., from 2007 to 2012, before his contract was terminated. Kremmling’s mayor at the time, Tom Clark, noted that it was a friendly termination.
Soltis then became the city manager of Castle Pines, Colo., in the fall of 2012, before resigning shortly after his six-month anniversary to become the city manager of Willcox, a town of about 3,000 people in Cochise County, starting in June 2013. He was terminated in March 2018 for unspecified reasons, later reported as a “difference of opinions,” by then-Willcox City Attorney Ann Roberts.
Soltis most recently served as the city manager of Holbrook, a city of about 5,000 residents in Navajo County, beginning on March 4, 2019, where he focused on cleaning up abandoned properties on Main Street, starting renovations to City Hall and cleaning up the town’s recreational center.
He also serves on the Northern Arizona Council of Governments Economic Development Council.
Soltis will begin work in Camp Verde on Monday, Aug. 7. His contract is for a two-year initial term with the option to renew it for additional two-year periods.
