The Paso Robles City Council officially appointed Chris Huot as its new city manager. Huot most recently served as the city’s interim manager amid controversy between the former city manager and a current City Council member.
In a 4-1 vote, the City Council voted on May 6 to appoint Huot as city manager, with Councilmember Chris Bausch opposed, for a four-year term and an annual base salary of $269,000. At the meeting, Bausch didn’t say why he voted that way, and he didn’t respond to New Times‘ request for comment on his vote.
Huot told New Times that he sees this as an exciting opportunity to advance the City Council’s goals, enhance organizational stability, and improve the city’s customer service.
He was appointed as the assistant city manager in 2022 and as the interim city manager in 2024 and said his experience helps him to start work immediately.
“That’s given me a really great opportunity to get to know our staff and get to really dive deep into the operations,” he said. “So, I speak a lot about those goals, and I speak a lot about the alignment between council and staff because it’s really important to make sure we have clear and measurable objectives, and we’ve got clear priorities that we’re trying to achieve. So that’s kind of the big picture.”
Huot’s appointment followed former City Manager Ty Lewis’ retirement in January, when Lewis and the city reached a mutual settlement over Lewis’ August complaint against sitting Councilmember Bausch for allegedly creating a toxic work environment and causing Lewis to go on medical leave. Huot stepped in as interim city manager during Lewis’ absence from August to November 2024.
“I’m not coming in as a new city manager, per se, in terms of having to get to know the organization. I’ve got a little bit of that background already, which is really exciting for me, because it allows me to kind of start in a bit different of a spot than maybe some others that would come into the position brand new in terms of goals,” he said.
Despite Lewis’ retirement, the controversy lingers, with The Tribune filing a lawsuit against Councilmember Bausch and the city in March, alleging that the two violated the Public Records Act by not turning over documents The Tribune requested in its attempt to uncover what happened. Bausch responded with a lawsuit of his own against The Tribune and the city, and the city, in turn, filed a suit against Bausch.
Huot said his intentions for the future are not to focus on these issues, but to focus on the city’s service to its residents.
“No matter what is happening really anywhere in the world, or anywhere in the community, roads still need to be repaved and repaired, 911 calls still need to be responded to, we have wastewater that needs to be treated, garbage that needs to be picked up—and all that still needs to happen at a really high level,” he said. “And so, my focus, especially during my interim stance, was to make sure that our staff understands that continuity of services … that the city provides, that’s where our focus will remain.” ∆
This article appears in May 8-18, 2025.