Park City hires first outside city manager in decades

Park City has turned to an outsider to run the Marsac Building, breaking a pattern that had held since Toby Ross arrived from San Luis Obispo in 1989. Adam Lenhard’s hiring matters because it comes as the city faces growth pressure, housing strain, transportation demands and early planning for the 2034 Winter Games.

The Park City Council unanimously approved Lenhard on March 20, and he was slated to start March 31 after Mayor Ryan Dickey selected him from more than 70 applicants. Lenhard told the council, “I am all in, 100%.”

The choice stands out inside a city hall that had repeatedly promoted from within. After Ross led Park City through the 1990s growth surge and the 2002 Olympics, Tom Bakaly, Diane Foster and Matt Dias all rose from inside Park City Municipal. That long run of internal promotions gave the city continuity, but it also meant the top job was filled for decades by leaders steeped in the same institutional culture.

Lenhard brings a different résumé. He served about four years as city manager in St. George and previously led Clearfield. He also spent a ski season working at Park City Mountain in the late 1990s, giving him a personal connection to the resort town he is now set to manage. Lenhard has said he and his family found Park City appealing and that its values align with his own.

That outsider perspective arrives at a moment when the city is making expensive and politically sensitive choices. Park City’s FY2026 operating budget is $98 million, and its long-range planning still centers on energy, housing and transportation. The City Council also adopted a no-tax-increase property-tax rate for FY26, signaling the pressure to fund services while holding the line on taxes.

Lenhard will step into a government that is changing at the top but still depends on institutional memory below it. The council serves four-year staggered terms in at-large elections, a structure meant to preserve continuity even as leadership shifts. With a new mayor, a partially refreshed council and staff members at different stages of their careers, Lenhard’s management style will matter as much as any single policy decision.

The stakes are only rising. Park City has secured venue-city status for the 2034 Winter Games, putting development, transportation and planning squarely back on the agenda. Lenhard’s hire is more than a personnel change; it signals how Park City may try to balance fresh perspective with the city’s longstanding instinct to preserve its mountain-town identity.