Ouray City Administrator Silas Clarke is resigning from his position, indicating it’s time to pursue new challenges after nearly four years on the job.

In a July 8 resignation letter addressed to the mayor and City Council, Clarke did not identify an effective date of his resignation, saying he would like to stay on long enough to allow the city to search for a new administrator.

“It has been an absolute privilege to live in your community,” Clarke wrote in his resignation letter. “My decision is not about moving away from Ouray, but moving towards new places and new challenges.”

In a brief interview Thursday evening, Clarke said he and his partner, Sarah Gray, have been talking for a year about what a potential departure from Ouray might look like. He said his resignation isn’t related to the recent troubles at the Ouray Police Department, which recently underwent an audit that concluded the department is in a “crisis situation.”

Clarke’s resignation letter came the day before the city released the completed audit of the police department, which was prompted by turmoil and complaints from the public, including demands for the chief to resign or be fired.

Clarke fired Police Chief Jeff Wood on June 24 in the wake of three complaints and two internal investigations that led Clarke to conclude Wood was no longer fit to serve as chief.

Though the city will now be looking for a new top leader as well as a police chief, “I really feel positive about city staff,” he said in an interview. “We’ve got a wonderful team. It’s a good time to make a transition.”

Clarke said he ultimately would like to stay in municipal government but does not have another job lined up.

He said he told city councilors during his job interview that he would stay in the position for three to five years. He was hired in November 2020 after serving as the city administrator of Hickman, Nebraska, for four years.

Clarke’s tenure has been marked by substantial investment in public works projects and administrative staff. The city is nearing completion on new water and wastewater treatment plants — roughly $30 million worth of work for which Clarke secured millions of dollars in grants to help defer the city’s costs — and continues to work on finding long-term solutions to problems with insufficient hot water at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool.

Clarke also added several full-time department directors, including a tourism and destination marketing director, an information technology director, a parks and facilities manager and a parks and recreation director.

Look for a full story in the July 18 edition of the Plaindealer.