Carson City Human Resources Director Ann Silver has been fired due to "philosophical differences" in business styles between her and City Manager Larry Werner, according to the city manager.
"We tried to work it out over the four months I've been here, but I just didn't see that occurring," said Werner, who was hired by the board of supervisors in February after former City Manager Linda Ritter was pressured to resign. "I felt that we just needed to make a change."
Budget cuts and short staffing during the slow economy have made coordination among city departments especially important, he said, and Silver and he were "just not heading down the same path."
The city is in the process of looking for Silver's replacement, he said.
"I was not happy with the level of service being provided to the operational departments (by Silver) " the timeliness (and) the level of what we needed there," he said.
Efforts to reach Silver were unsuccessful.
Human resources staff declined to comment on Silver and referred questions to Werner.
Mayor Marv Teixeira said the decision to fire a department head is completely up to the city manager, who is in charge of city staff and operations, but "personally I think she was a very bright and very talented lady."
Leading the human resources department " which handles 680 regular employees, 125 retired employees and 250 temporary employees " is a hard job, said Supervisor Pete Livermore, who called Silver "very professional and very courteous."
Both Teixeira and Livermore, however, have praised Werner's work and neither criticized his decision to fire Silver.
Supervisor Robin Williamson said the board is there to make policy and not interfere with the city manager's personnel decisions.
The last department head to leave the city was Vicky Fogelman, who resigned in April as health director after eight months of the job. The city named Marena Works, the community health services program manager, as the new health director Tuesday.
Silver, who had been human resources director for several years, has a doctorate of law degree from Notre Dame University and a bachelor of psychology from Cornell University.
- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212. Staff writer F.T. Norton contributed to this article.