Ex-Camp Pendleton chief named Carson City manager

CARSON CITY — A former commanding officer of Camp Pendleton in Southern California has been chosen as city manager of Carson City.

Retired Marine Col. Nick Marano, who held the position at the Marine Corps’ largest West Coast training facility 2009-12, was the unanimous selection of city supervisors on Friday.

Marano’s selection followed public interviews with four other finalists, all of whom have administrative experience in Nevada, the Nevada Appeal reported. There were 70 applicants for the post.

During his interview, Marano addressed the fact he was the only finalist without administrative experience in Nevada. He said that while he isn’t tied to any longstanding Carson City issues, he has made a “career out of empowering subordinates” and believes “team building is critically important.”

Other finalists were Jim Nichols, former deputy city manager of Las Vegas; Stacey Giomi, Carson City’s fire chief; Jeff Fontaine, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties; and Tim Hacker, former city manager of North Las Vegas.

Marano, who became a management consultant after he retired from the military, led a diverse workforce of 6,000 federal employees, Marines and contractors serving more than 60,000 active-duty personnel and their families at Camp Pendleton.

From 2007 to 2009, he was chief operating officer at Quantico in Virginia for a worldwide training and education organization comprised of 25,000 active duty Marines.

From 2005 to 2007, he led a 1,500-Marine infantry battalion and task force, a 3,000-man Iraqi Army Brigade and more than 1,000 Iraqi police in operations on the Syrian border.

The salary range for the city manager’s job was set at between $140,000 and $180,000.