By Scott Turner | Wickenburg Sun
Wickenburg Town Manager Vince Lorefice recently participated in a question-and-answer session with The Sun.
Lorefice is stepping down from his position later this month after four and a half years to take a position in Galveston, Texas. A reception in Lorefice’s honor will be held at Wickenburg Town Hall in the Council Chambers from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
Question: In a town manager form of government, what are the duties of the town manager?
Answer: As the Town Manager, my primary role is to implement Town Council’s policy. The second most important part of my job is personnel management. Town staff are the most important asset the Town has, we are a service-oriented business and it takes competent staff to perform these duties. A phrase I share with Council regularly is: I will do whatever the majority of Town Council wants done unless it’s unethical or illegal.
Q: What do you feel are the Town’s biggest accomplishments during your tenure as town manager?
A: I have been blessed to be the manager in a great time of Wickenburg’s history. Over the past four and a half years we have been able to double our contingency and reserve funds while making key investments into Wickenburg’s future. While we had a timing issue with paying off the Public Safety Pension System (PSPRS) unfunded liability I am confident that managers and Council for decades will be so thankful we made this decision. I applaud Town Council in making this investment that used one-time dollars collected for growth to pay off decades of pension issues. This transaction has also freed up roughly $500k annually in on-going funds that can go towards employing firefighters for the future north station. The list of great projects done in recent years goes deep, a personal pet project of mine, that I am proud of, is the updating of Sunset Park to include the David Peralta Field. This investment has paid off tenfold by providing a better facility for our residents to have and use while also creating a sports tourism attraction that really helped our local businesses during the pandemic.
