New leader takes Republic administrator chair

A former city of Springfield Public Works official has been on the job as the city administrator of Republic since Dec. 8, 2025.

Colten Harris, an engineer, previously served as Springfield’s superintendent of streets, where he oversaw 130 employees and administered a $16 million operating budget. By comparison, Republic employs 162, according to Lisa Addington, chief of staff and human resources director, and the city’s 2025 budget tallies $30.9 million in expenses.

Harris replaced David Cameron, who was chosen as Springfield’s city manager in May 2025 and began in that role in July.

Harris works from a spacious corner office in the just-opened Republic City Hall – two big changes for a city in a serious growth mode. Springfield Business Journal list research from this month showed Republic was the fastest-growing municipality in the region with a 14% population change since the 2020 U.S. Census and a 2024 population of 21,392. The city’s website projects a population of 27,600 in 2030 and 37,400 in 2040. By comparison, old-timers in Republic may remember a whole different burg in 1940, when the census counted only 790.

Harris’ engineering and public works background may lend a valuable perspective to help the city tackle its ongoing expansion.

“I don’t think I’m a traditional candidate for city administrator,” he said.

However, he said, his 14 years in municipal government have been good training.

“It’s always been about improving quality of life and processes and relationships with the community that I’m a part of,” he said. “I derive a lot of purpose from being a part of the community and trying to make quality of life better, and so I thought what greater opportunity than city administrator?”

What an engineer brings to the table is systems thinking with a focus on effective processes – Harris’ wheelhouse.

“I tend to lean on my strengths,” he said. “Given all the enthusiasm and excitement that’s surrounding Republic right now, it happens to be a really good fit with my background in engineering and operations management and a focus on infrastructure; those things are really important for a developing community.”

In Springfield, Harris worked with state and federal agencies and offices and utility infrastructure. He also had 10 different work groups within his department, and he was often asked how he managed so much activity.

“It’s the same answer I give in this role: There’s a lot of really good supervisors, and I focus on empowering them,” he said. “It takes a strong team.”

Asked to name the top concern expressed by Republic residents, Harris said utilities come to mind, in terms of cost, capacity and service. That said, he added he believes the city has the capacity to handle the demands of development.

“Our executive team has proven that we can handle development of any size,” he said. “That’s exciting. We have the professionals to get through whatever the processes may be, whether it’s a big place like Amazon or a smaller mom-and-pop store.”

He added that he wants Republic to grow, but it’s important to him and everyone on the city staff that it grow in the right way.

“The goal is to be able to find the way together and make sure we accomplish that,” he said.

Harris said there are a lot of unknowns in the job, but he added that reaching for the unknown is how people met their greatest potential.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t intimidating,” he said.

His top goal, he said, is to build relationships.

“Priority No. 1 is staff – people working for me and with me,” he said. “Then of course I want to know our elected officials and the business community, and whoever else. Relationships are really important.”

Macy Mitchell, executive director of the Republic Chamber of Commerce, said Harris was a guest at a recent meeting of the organization and was introduced to business leaders by Mayor Eric Franklin.

Mitchell said he was suitably impressed after spending time getting to know Harris.

“He’s transparent, and he wants to hear from everyone and hear their needs,” he said. “He’s very proactive and excited to get moving, and he understands the growth of Republic, not just the business community but the community at large. He’s up to the challenge.”

Mitchell said Harris is a great choice because of his experience with streets and infrastructure.

“I think those are some of the more important items we currently have as a city with the amount of growth that we have,” he said. “Infrastructure needs to follow – it needs to already be in place – and I think he’s got great abilities to see projects like that through. We’re excited about that.”

Harris said in his first few weeks he has leaned on his direct reports, particularly Addington, Community Development Director Karen Haynes and Chief Financial Officer Bob Ford.

“They’ve done a great job of onboarding me and introducing me to various ongoing projects,” he said.

He said as he went through the interview process, talking to the team got him more and more excited about the possibility of the administrator role.

“People always say you’re getting interviewed, but you’re also interviewing them,” he said. “They kept convincing me how exciting this would be. I started out thinking it was probably a long shot, but ended up thinking, wow, I just really want to do this.”

Addington said Harris is fitting well in his role as he learns all there is to learn.

“He’s drinking from a fire hose,” she said.

She praised Harris’ thoughtful approach to his role.

“He’s a very analytical individual, and with some of the bigger projects we have going on, having that analytical mind has proven to be very beneficial for us,” she said. “He’s going to be great.”

Ford said the city was running very well when Cameron was in the administrator role, and the administration team was effective during the time the role was vacant.

“We didn’t miss a beat,” he said.

But Harris brought a different skill set, Ford said, and his value is already apparent.

“He fit right into that team model, and he’s filling gaps that we couldn’t fill,” he said.

Addington agreed.

“It really is the best-case scenario,” she said. “We feel complete.”