The separation comes at an integral time in the budget process, a fact that the mayor confirmed on wednesday at the Chamber of Commerce Community Breakfast, "Last night the council did ratify and approve the decision which was a recommendation I had made at the last city council meeting to have Mr. Chavez appointed as acting city manager.  

"In this process, we will continue with him in the operations of city manager until the council moves past the budget point and making sure that we have a tax rate in place.  

"I want to make it very clear to the public that we are in a very important phase of the city's budget year.  we want to make sure that this continues and having an experienced in-house director will assist the process and assure that it will go smoothly knowing that there is an individual that already knows the goals and needs of the city.  

"We feel very confident Mr. Chavez will excel in his duties as acting city manager.  In the meantime the council felt we would revisit this issue and possibly appointing an actual interim city manager possibly after October just getting past the approval of the budget and tax rate at that time."

The mayor concluded that the decision to have him remain as acting city manager was unanimously approved on Tuesday by the council.