May 4, 2010

To all Castle Pines North citizens:

The Castle Pines North City Council approved the hiring of James McGrady, the recently retired General Manager of the Castle Pines North Metro District, as the City’s interim Utility Director to provide an analysis of and model for the eventual transition of the District to a City-managed enterprise.

The City Council unanimously approved McGrady’s appointment in a special meeting April 30.

“I am committed to a smooth integration of the District services into the City of Castle Pines North’s Utility Enterprise,” McGrady said. “It is my goal to make the transition of providing water, wastewater, and stormwater services along with parks and open space management to the City a totally seamless process.”

McGrady brings a wealth of water-related experience to the position. He spent 20 years with the Colorado Springs Utility with the last half of his tenure there focused on water resources planning. He also served as Director of Utilities for the cities of Fountain and Aurora. Since 2005, McGrady served as the District’s General Manager.

“There has always been a fear among some that the City was pursuing the District’s dissolution in order to get their hands on the District’s check book and divert funding for purposes other than renewable water,” McGrady said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.  By creating a utility enterprise this ensures revenues collected through the provision of utility services remains in the enterprise and cannot be used for other purposes."

Council Member John Ewing, who serves on the City’s Public Works Committee, noted that in creating the utility the intent would be to transition the same employees who current provide utility services and park and open space management over the past 15 years into the same role – with possibly some expanded duties – with the City.

“The biggest change, frankly, would be the letterhead,” Ewing said. “This process is designed to be transparent to our citizens and the financial community.”

McGrady said he was interested when Council members approached him with the idea about the role, because he has been disheartened at the tenor of conversation that was putting the community at risk and threatened to jeopardize the work he had done on a renewable water plan.

“I just want to do what is right for the community as a whole, that’s the main reason I’m doing this,” McGrady said.