Roosevelt City Finance Director Justin Johnson was named city manager Wednesday.

“He's acted as our interim city manager for us and just done a fabulous job,” said Roosevelt Mayor Vaun Ryan. “The council probably feels more informed than they have in recent memory.”

Johnson succeeds Brad Hancock, who retired for health reasons in April after almost 25 years in the post. He emerged as the top candidate for the job from a pool of nearly 50 applicants, the mayor said, including several from outside the state.

“It's been a long process for the council,” Ryan said. “They put a lot of effort into this to make sure we've got the right person.”

Johnson said the biggest hurdle to accepting the job was the council's requirement that the new city manager live within the city limits. The council has given Johnson one year to move from Altamont to Roosevelt.

“I would have to say that was at the top of the list — having to relocate,” Johnson said. “It's not a good market (for selling a house), my kids are comfortable in school, my wife is comfortable here, and we have property and horses.”

Johnson moved to the Uintah Basin from Phoenix, Ariz., in April 2005 after being hired to replace Mike Davis as Roosevelt's finance director when Davis took the same position with Vernal City. He had the luxury of overseeing the city's budget during several years of strong tax revenues.

Now, however, the economic winds have changed and Johnson will be forced, like other city managers around the state, to continue providing essential services with fewer funds.

“Unless the economy starts picking up, I'd say the budget in general is going to be an issue,” he said. “We've kind of addressed some of the streets problems with (Community Impact Board) funding. We're starting a big streets project in the next couple of weeks.”

Johnson, who is currently pursing a master's degree in human resources from Utah State University Uintah Basin in Roosevelt, said he learned a lot from his predecessor and has identified things that he liked and things that he'd like to change.

“He was good manager for employees — he put the right people in the right spots and trusted them to do their job,” Johnson said of Hancock. “He didn't do a lot of micromanaging. I respect a lot of things he did there.”

Johnson said he also plans to maintain an open-door policy with the public, something he set as a personal priority when he was first hired by Roosevelt in 2005.

As for changes, Johnson said he'll make an effort to continue to improve the city's relationship with the Duchesne County Commission and the various county departments.

“That's something the (city) council wants to do and I think it's important that we get a good relationship with them,” he said. “It's been lacking for whatever reason, but I think we can make improvements there.”

With Johnson's taking up his new position, the city council must now decide whether it will fill Roosevelt's vacant finance director post.

“We don't know where we're going there,” Ryan said. “We may do some shuffling in-house. We may hire another finance director. We really don't know what direction we're going there.”