Milestones Icon: George Di Ciero
An extraordinary civil servant
No one who has lived in Broomfield during the past five decades has had a better view of the changing community than George Di Ciero, and no one did more than he to bring about those changes.
Di Ciero’s long tenure as Broomfield’s top civil servant ended May 1, 2011, when he officially stepped down as city and county manager.
As manager, Di Ciero was in charge of running Broomfield’s government. Both long-term planning and day-to-day operations are under the manager’s purview.
Di Ciero started the job in 1968. When he was hired, the city had an area of 1.5 square miles and a population of about 6,500. He was paid a starting salary of $10,200 to oversee 15 employees.
It was Di Ciero’s second job since getting his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado, and he didn’t intend to stay more than a few years before moving on to a bigger city.
Instead, Di Ciero made Broomfield bigger during a tenure in which he served eight mayors and several dozen city council members.
Early in his tenure, Di Ciero called the small bedroom community “a pleasant haven of suburban life.” While Broomfield’s character might not have changed, the city has grown, reaching a size of 33.6 square miles and a population of 55,889, according to the 2010 Census.
The numbers are impressive, but they might understate the impact of Di Ciero’s tenure.
Di Ciero spearheaded the effort to amend the Colorado Constitution to allow Broomfield to become a unified city and county. The amendment, which was approved in 1998 and enacted in 2001, joined parts of four counties together.
The measure gave Broomfield’s residents much greater control over their community’s destiny while consolidating the functions of city and county government.
Di Ciero also guided Broomfield through the so-called “annexations wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, when metro Denver’s growing suburbs raced to claim new land to expand their borders and tax base.
A far more difficult issue emerged in the mid-1970s, when radioactive material from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon plant was found in Broomfield’s supply of drinking water. The city found new sources of water, and its growth was not impaired.
That set the stage for Broomfield’s boom in the 1990s and 2000s.
Di Ciero’s success and longevity were noted by his peers. In 2008, the International City/County Management Association gave Di Ciero its annual award for career achievement.
An extraordinary civil servant
No one who has lived in Broomfield during the past five decades has had a better view of the changing community than George Di Ciero, and no one did more than he to bring about those changes.
Di Ciero’s long tenure as Broomfield’s top civil servant ended May 1, 2011, when he officially stepped down as city and county manager.
As manager, Di Ciero was in charge of running Broomfield’s government. Both long-term planning and day-to-day operations are under the manager’s purview.
Di Ciero started the job in 1968. When he was hired, the city had an area…
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