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Amid praise from the Hollister City Council, Ana Cortez was unanimously appointed as the new city manager on Jan. 5 provided she passes a background check.
Cortez is expected to start her new role on Feb. 2 with a base salary of $265,000.
Councilmember Rolan Resendiz and Mayor Roxanne Stephens said they were “impressed” with her skills.
“Hollister is at a crossroads and I know that with you sitting at the seat of the city manager and with this council we are going to be headed towards the future in a bright way,” Resendiz said to Cortez, who attended the council meeting remotely.
Stephens said she liked the solutions put forward by Cortez during the interview process regarding challenges the city is facing in planning and finance.
“Ana, you were very impressive to all of us in those two areas in particular but in general your approach to interfacing with the community and the public, your ideas about how to be more transparent,” Stephens said. “Welcome and we can’t wait for you to begin your journey here in Hollister. “
Councilmember Dolores Morales addressed Cortez’ employment history, though she did not directly mention Carnation, Washington and Helena, Montana, where Cortez previously worked as a top administrator for short periods before leaving, saying the city did its research in vetting her as a candidate.
“There’s been a lot of information about Ana’s history and I can share that the council did its due diligence in terms of doing background and really understanding the core of those issues that are out there,” Morales said. “And making sure that we have a candidate that is going to help our city with a lot of the areas we need to uplift, but also that cares about our employees because our employees are the heart of our city.”
According to news reports, Cortez previously served as the city manager for Carnation where she resigned in 2024, months after a third-party arbitrator ordered the city to reinstate four unionized employees with full back pay in a wrongful termination case.
Another news outlet reported that Cortez resigned as the city administrator in Helena in 2020, weeks after she was placed on administrative leave for the second time in a year relating to staff complaints involving harassment. Although she was cleared of the allegations in that instance, an outside investigation recommended the city work on improving communications between Cortez and staff. The investigators said it appeared her management style had “‘created a rift between Cortez and many city staff.’”
Cortez thanked the city council remotely for the trust they had placed on her.
“I’m deeply honored by your consideration to become the next city manager for such a special community that has a strong identity, that is proud of its history, that has tremendous opportunities in front of it,” she said. “I’m excited at the opportunity to join this community at this moment and to serve a city that clearly cares about its future, about transparency, about how decisions are made.”
Former Mayor Mia Casey was the lone public member to speak at the meeting with regard to Cortez and said she was concerned over the new appointment, questioning the duration and outcomes of Cortez’ most recent employment.
Casey also noted turnover in the top administrator role is expensive given the city needs to pay for recruitment, interim positions and legal expenses.
“Taken together with the candidate’s tenure, the proposed salary level, the severance provisions and the cost of executive turnover, I believe it would be prudent for the council to pause before approving this agreement as written,” she said.
Cortez’s severance package, if terminated without cause, calls for six months’ pay including accrued vacation time, sick time and administrative leave time, as well as the cash value of long-term disability and employer share of health benefits for that same period.
Cortez’s base annual salary sits between the last two city managers, about $10,000 less than David Mirrione’s starting base salary in August 2023 and about $64,000 more than Brett Miller’s salary when he was terminated by the city in March 2023.
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