
Media Release
July 30, 2008
Media Contacts:
Rosann
Doran
Public Information Officer
303.438.6308
Broomfield celebrates its manager’s 40 years
This week, Broomfield residents, past and present, will join together to celebrate the 40 years City and County Manager George Di Ciero has dedicated to Broomfield, and the honor he will receive in September when he receives the International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) Mark E. Keane Award for career excellence.
An open house and reception is planned for Friday, Aug. 1, from 2 to 5 p.m. in the lobby of the Broomfield City and County Building, 1 DesCombes Drive in Broomfield. Di Ciero will receive friends and community members, and reminisces about the last 40 years are definitely the order of the day.
At a recent meeting, the city council surprised Di Ciero by unanimously passing a resolution declaring August 1, 2008 as “George Di Ciero Day” in Broomfield. Mayor Pat Quinn told Di Ciero, “You are truly one of the city’s greatest assets,” adding that under Di Ciero’s direction, “Broomfield has grown into a masterpiece community we all still call ‘Hometown USA’.”
There were many things for Broomfield that wouldn’t have happened without Di Ciero. Councilmember Walt Spader notes, “We on City Council come and go, so the one constant – George – is what has kept this city moving forward.”
Of Broomfield, Di Ciero says, “It’s a great place.” Of his career, he adds, “It’s been interesting all these years – and still is.”
Di Ciero came to Broomfield to be its administrator in August of 1968 from Littleton where he was an assistant city manager. In his 40 years in Broomfield, with city council elections every two years, Di Ciero has worked for 20 councils and eight mayors.
In 1968, then-Mayor Clyde Brunner offered Di Ciero the position as city administrator at a salary of $850 a month. Then, Broomfield was a small, newly incorporated, statutory city of 6,500 people and 1.5 square miles. Di Ciero has guided Broomfield through its seasons of growth to today’s current 33.6 square miles, with just over 52,000 residents.
With area growth came the need for increased service levels. Di Ciero learned quickly how to navigate the arena of change and growth with careful research, planning, and effective administrative management.
Di Ciero’s accomplishments are many. He helped take Broomfield from a statutory city to a home rule city when voters passed a home rule charter in 1974. In the 1990s, exploration of an effort to make Broomfield its own combined city and county government received the nod of local voters, and, in 1998, a statewide vote approved Broomfield as Colorado’s 64th county. After a three-year transition period, the City and County of Broomfield was officially inaugurated on Nov. 15, 2001. Di Ciero was at the helm through it all.
Always looking to take Broomfield forward, Di Ciero has overseen economic development efforts that expanded from the small industrial area and a retail center with a grocery store and a few shops of 1968 to additional neighborhood centers throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Later came Interlocken Advanced Technology Environment, FlatIron Crossing mall and the surrounding retail district. More is planned for the north area of the city and county. Di Ciero and the city councils applied the resulting revenues to provide amenities for Broomfield residents.
Always an advocate of master planning, Di Ciero is widely credited with advancing the possibility of a Broomfield of the future where 40-percent of the area is in open lands. At Di Ciero’s behest, and with the advice of multiple citizen groups, Broomfield’s current Comprehensive Master Plan includes land use plans for the city, functional plans that cover transportation, open space, parks, recreation and trails, cultural and public art plans, utility plans, and sub-area plans and more. A major Di Ciero accomplishment is a comprehensive financial plan master plan that guides the city council’s decisions on policies and development so Broomfield’s fiscal health does not suffer as it builds out.
Di Ciero understood early on that water was a governor in the future success of a community. The city council gave him the authority to buy water for the city, and installed that authority in the city’s municipal code.
Di Ciero guided Broomfield through a major public dilemma when Broomfield’s water supply became compromised by the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. In 1973, Tritium was discovered in Great Western Reservoir. Later tests showed Plutonium in the reservoir’s sediment. It was then that Di Ciero began the process of replacing Great Western Reservoir and Denver water was secured for a portion of Broomfield.
In 1989, when the FBI raided Rocky Flats, the question of the safety of Broomfield’s drinking water hit again. Di Ciero and key staff members amassed a coalition of water users in the region to seek a way to forever sever the connection between Rocky Flats and the water storage facilities in Broomfield and other jurisdictions that, combined, served over 250,000 people.
For Broomfield, the efforts begun in 1973 culminated in the complete replacement of half of its water supply and Great Western Reservoir. The effort required the support of the Congressional delegation, acquisition of grants from the Department of Energy, and the construction of a new storage reservoir and water treatment plant fed by a pipeline carrying the new water to Broomfield.
Di Ciero is still buying water, and the city is currently building a second reservoir to provide for drought protection and a recreational amenity. Today, thanks to Di Ciero, Broomfield has rights to enough water to support itself through to build-out – and an estimated population of 90,000.
In his 40 years, Di Ciero has seen Broomfield win awards for smart growth, planning efforts, open space partnerships, building design, wastewater operations, transportation, communications, financial and budget presentations and more.
With no current plans to retire, Di Ciero is looking ahead to improvements to older portions of the city, transportation solutions, future developments to the north, and ways to secure revenues so future residents will enjoy the same - and more - services and amenities.