Brandon Leuallen, The Business Times

The City of Grand Junction has begun outlining how it may proceed with hiring a permanent city attorney. The action follows a discussion stemming from the Grand Junction City Council’s Jan. 5 decision to appoint Assistant City Attorney Jeremiah Boies as interim city attorney after the retirement of longtime City Attorney John Shaver.

During a Feb. 2 City Council workshop, council members discussed potential options for the process and timing of filling the city attorney position on a permanent basis.

City Manager Mike Bennett told council the workshop was scheduled at council’s request to discuss “if, how and when” to conduct a permanent hiring process. He noted the city attorney is one of the few positions that reports directly to the city council rather than through the city manager.

Bennett emphasized the council is not under immediate pressure to act.

“We are not in a rush,” he said. “We have some time.”

Bennett also told council that no hiring process will begin without explicit direction from council, describing the workshop as a threshold discussion rather than a decision point.

Clarifying which positions council appoints

During the discussion, council member Scott Beilfuss asked whether the hiring of the assistant city attorney should be compared to the assistant city manager position, noting the assistant city manager had gone through a national search. He questioned why a similar process was not used in that case.

Council member Anna Stout and Mayor Cody Kennedy responded by explaining the council does not determine the hiring process for those positions. Neither the assistant city attorney nor the assistant city manager is appointed by council. Both are hired administratively by department leadership.

Boies added that while an application process was used when he was hired as assistant city attorney, it followed the city’s standard hiring procedures.

“It was just a standard job posting that’s on the city website like all the other city jobs,” he said.

Bennett further clarified that Shaver made the hiring decision for the assistant city attorney position, and the city’s human resources department handled the posting and application process. That came in the year before Shaver’s retirement announcement that led to Boies being appointed by council in a public meeting as the interim in January 2026. 

Council signals support for an external search

Multiple council members expressed support for conducting a full external search and using a recruitment firm to assist with the process.

“I would be supportive of a full external search,” Stout said, adding she participated in similar processes previously. “It has been extremely beneficial for us as a city.”

Other council members echoed that sentiment, including council member Ben Van Dyke who cited recent external recruitment efforts for the fire chief position.

Executive session proposed to define position, priorities

Stout said that once the council agreed on the broad framework, the next step should be an executive session to discuss specifics of the position and the recruitment process.

Stout said the council should move into an executive session to discuss details of the hiring process, saying the goal is to avoid giving potential candidates a competitive advantage, not to withhold information from the public.

Bennett said staff would support that session.

“We would likely have our HR director or a representative from HR in that executive session,” Bennett said, adding that staff from the city’s purchasing department could also assist with procurement-related questions tied to issuing a request for proposals for a recruitment firm.

Bennett said the executive session would focus on defining priorities and guardrails for the recruitment effort, with the resulting framework later returning to the public agenda as part of the formal hiring process.

The Business Times reached out to the city of Grand Junction to ask if Boies, a potential candidate, would be in attendance at the executive session. City Communications and Engagement Manager Kelsey Coleman responded that Boies would not sit in on that conversation.

Timeline: a months-long process

As the discussion turned to timing, Bennett said the process could take several months once initiated.

“You could easily be anywhere from a really swift three months to probably more like a four to six-month process,” he said.