ORO VALLEY GETS NEW TOWN MANAGER JULY 1

posted by Andrea Kelly

Oro Valley is about to transition to a new town manager, after Jerene Watson gave her notice last month. She's leaving the town to take a deputy city manager position in Flagstaff. Oro Valley's town council named Greg Caton, now the town's assistant manager, to replace Watson on an interim basis.

Caton has worked in local government administration for about 14 years, including several communities in Colorado before moving to Oro Valley late last year, he said. He'll be interim town manager for an undetermined amount of time, as the council hasn't set a schedule for hiring someone permanently, he said.

Watson makes $155,647 a year as Oro Valley's manager. Caton makes $124,639 a year as assistant town manager. His salary will go up 10 percent, to $137,103, starting June 13. His title will be acting town manager starting then, and will change to interim town manager July 1.

In her resignation letter, Watson said it was not an easy decision for her to leave Oro Valley.

"This has been a highlight of my career to serve in the role of town manager and a special honor guiding public services alongside a highly dedicated organization of employees who work well as a team in a family-like atmosphere with a passion for customer service and strong desire to help make government work for the people we serve," she wrote.

Caton said he's excited about the new position.

"One of my primary objectives will be continuing to keep the organization and the community advancing, making forward progress and not go into kind of a status quo mentality. We've got a lot of challenges ahead of us and we've got a lot of great opportunities and it's my role to assist council in achieving their established goals," Caton said in an interview.