Bluff town leaders met Oct. 6, 2025, for a full-day succession-planning work session to map the town’s current and future organizational structure and begin transferring institutional knowledge as several long‑serving council members prepare to leave. During the session town leadership disclosed that a resignation submitted by a councilmember earlier this month was determined, after legal advice, to be effective on submission, creating an immediate vacancy.

Town Manager Erin Nelson opened the session with an overview of goals and schedule and told participants the exercise should produce materials the town can “bundle... and present it, to incoming officials.” Nelson said the point of the day was to identify “key roles and to develop the internal talent that we already have” and to reduce the learning curve for incoming elected and appointed officials.

Council members and staff spent most of the meeting building a visual organizational chart of elected, appointed, paid staff and volunteer roles, then discussing which duties could be split, reassigned or standardized for future onboarding. The group identified planning and zoning, building department functions, finance and facilities as high‑priority areas to document and discussed creating a packet of role descriptions and objective metrics to support future hires and volunteers.

Council discussion also addressed the town’s small talent pool and the complexity of many local roles. Participants noted Bluff’s relatively small population, the number of “hats” any single person now wears, and the risk that loss of long‑time incumbents would sever working relationships with external partners such as the Bureau of Land Management, the school district, UDOT and San Juan County. The council discussed asking representatives who sit on county or regional boards (for example, tourism and transportation boards) to provide periodic reports back to the town so the council stays informed.

During the session Mayor Linda Sosa (Council member Linda Sosa) said she had received a councilmember’s signed resignation as an email attachment some weeks earlier but initially “did not open the email that Aaron sent to me with your resignation attached.” Sosa explained she had interpreted the resignation as effective on a future date but said she asked the town attorney for clarification. “The code does say a resignation is effective upon submittal,” Sosa said, and she added, “I have always said we follow the advice of counsel, and that's what we're doing.” The town attorney’s guidance, Sosa said, was that the resignation was effective the moment it was signed and could not be rescinded by the signer.

The council did not take a formal vote during the work session. Instead, staff and council agreed on next steps: staff will compile the meeting outputs into a succession packet and an organizational chart, the council will schedule follow‑up sessions to refine job descriptions and priorities, and town leadership will consult with San Juan County administration about how the town’s recommendations are handled for county appointments to regional boards. Nelson said succession planning is ongoing and long‑term: “This is not just a 1 day event,” she said.

No formal appointment or replacement process was completed at the meeting. Council members said they want to minimize operational disruption and to prepare materials that can help incoming officials get up to speed quickly. The town manager said the group would split responsibilities, create standardized role descriptions where possible, and use data and routine reporting to reduce dependency on single individuals.

The work session closed with an assignment of homework to staff and council: to finalize the organizational mapping, identify critical role descriptions, and bring draft materials to subsequent meetings so the council can present a clear packet to future appointees or elected members. The council also asked staff to clarify legal timing and process for filling any vacancy created by the resignation.