New Prineville assistant city manager announced

For the first time in its history, the city of Prineville has an assistant city manager.

Casey Kaiser, who is the current public works director, has stepped into the role. The transition was announced by City Manger Steve Forrester at a Prineville City Council meeting held earlier this month.

Kaiser joined the city staff in 2018, taking a position in the planning department. He later transitioned to the public works department and took over as its director about two years ago.

“For me, it’s an exciting opportunity to continue to bring value to the city team,” he said. “I love this community, so for me, the optimal position is being in a role where I have an opportunity to affect positive change in the community. I think this is another step in that direction.”

The transition and ascension of Kaiser in the city ranks is several years in the making. Forrester noted that several years ago, the city staff and council prioritized succession.

“We run a very lean city management team and city team in total in that we haven’t expanded our FTEs (full time equivalents) to the degree that most of our contemporaries do,” he said. “With that, one of the problems is you get people with lots of institutional knowledge of the city and how the operations should work and our processes and our continuous improvement focus, and if something were to happen to some of those key people, we are in trouble. So, we have worked really hard to bring the second tier up – we call them Next Gen – across all aspects, all departments.”

Regarding city management, Forrester said community growth coupled with the sophistication that the data centers bring to the community and work on environmental projects has prompted a look at the position and “what help I might need as I get closer to retirement.”

“When we brought Casey on board, we called him – along with a couple other folks – a foundational member of our management team. Casey very quickly became one of those,” Forrester said. He highlighted Kaiser experience in the planning department and in public works and added that “he has been very engaged in all the processes of the city that are specific to economic development.”

“I’m at a point where I’m getting spread pretty thin – like we all are – but I have had Casey participate in a lot of that stuff, and this is a formal move that we have planned on for quite a while.”

Kaiser is a 1989 Crook County High School graduate who has experience in the banking industry. He served as the executive director of the Prineville-Crook County Chamber of Commerce for about four years, serves on the Crook County Fair Board and has been involved in multiple Bowman Museum historical efforts.

“We are very lucky to have Casey,” Forrester said.

During the next few years, the plan is to get Kaiser up to speed on some of the high-level city efforts, so that when Forrester decides to retire, Kaiser is ready to fill that role if called upon.

“I like a challenge. I enjoy learning all the various aspects of the city,” Kaiser said, “so it’s a great opportunity.”