Park City's emergency manager is no longer a civilian job in the executive office. It's a sworn police lieutenant position, and it already has a new occupant.

Lt. Clint Johnson, an 11-year veteran of the Park City Police Department, started as the city's emergency manager on Monday, July 13, after the post sat vacant since November 2025. But the bigger change is structural: city leadership moved the entire emergency management function out of the executive office and into the Police Department, converting it from a civilian role to a lieutenant assignment.

The Police Department explained the shift in a written response to the Park Record, published Thursday, July 24. The city determined "emergency management would be best supported through closer integration with public safety while continuing to serve the entire organization," the department said.

The reorganization didn't happen overnight. After former Emergency Program Manager Mike McComb left in November 2025 for a private-sector job, the city publicly recruited for the civilian position. During that recruitment, city leadership worked with the Police Department, Human Resources, and the Legal Department to evaluate the long-term structure, according to the Police Department's statement.

The result: the civilian post was scrapped. The city created a sworn lieutenant slot and filled it through the department's existing promotional process, using an eligibility list from a February 2025 promotional cycle. Johnson was next on that list.

He had been a sergeant. The promotion bumped him to lieutenant simultaneously with the emergency manager assignment.

Johnson brings 23 years of public safety experience across prior roles and his 11 years with Park City PD, and holds a bachelor's degree in emergency management from Utah Valley University. Police Chief Wade Carpenter said in a prepared statement released Wednesday, July 22, that Johnson "understands that this role extends well beyond the Police Department. It is about coordinating the entire organization and our regional partners so we can respond effectively, recover quickly and continue serving our community when it matters most."

City Manager Adam Lenhard called emergency preparedness "one of the City's most important duties" and said Johnson is well positioned to build on the existing foundation, according to a city news release reported by TownLift on July 22.

Dave Thacker, the city's chief building official, served as acting emergency manager during the vacancy.

The timing matters. The National Interagency Fire Center's wildfire outlook places the Park City area and most of Utah in the above-normal fire potential category through July, with that designation continuing into August.

Johnson's responsibilities remain citywide despite the Police Department home base. He will coordinate preparedness and response across city departments and regional partners, according to the department. The city's 33-page Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, updated in 2025, outlines duties including managing the Emergency Operations Center and coordinating exercises involving the city and community.

The restructuring was an administrative decision. No council vote or public comment period has been identified in city records related to the change.