Durant announces Lisa Taylor’s permanent role as city manager

DURANT, Okla (KXII) - A lot of changes for Durant’s city government officials, and all within the span of just two months.

In August, city council fired its city manager, John Dean and announced Lisa Taylor as the interim city manager.

During Tuesday’s meeting, council made the decision to make Lisa Taylor the full-time, active city manager of Durant.

Taylor shared her excitement about her role and what she has planned for Durant.

She said, “I’m really interested to hear what our residents of Durant, what they desire for the future of the community. I do have some plans in the works right now to do some resident perception surveys, town hall meetings. Really just engage the community into creating the future we all want.”

The announcement of Lisa Taylor’s permanent role as city manager is not the only change for Durant.

It has been confirmed that Police Chief David Houser has resigned.

Taking his spot as interim police chief is Joe Clark, who actually used to work alongside David Houser as assistant police chief.

When asked about the reason behind Houser’s departure, Taylor said, “We had a member of our personnel that has retired, and I don’t comment on that. It has to go through our PIO.”

When News 12 contacted City of Durant public information officer Kelli Simmons to confirm Houser’s retirement, she told us she would not comment on personnel matters but did confirm his retirement to another media outlet. Our repeated attempts to follow up with Simmons were not returned.

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