Changing Water Agency Fills Top Management Positions: Focus Shifts From Engineering to Operations.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1999--

A week ago, the Metropolitan Water District board of directors adopted a far-reaching reorganization plan complete with a new management structure and a commitment to save as much as $100 million in the coming years.

Today, with the ink still drying on the plan's 90-something pages, three principal positions have been filled to assume lead roles in the changing agency. The employees will serve in acting capacities through phase II of the district's reorganization and will report to the assistant general manager.

Stephen N. Arakawa will head up the district's Water Resource Management Group, Jill T. Wicke will manage the Water System Operations Group, and Roy L. Wolfe will lead the Corporate Resources Group. When these appointments take effect Aug. 2, Metropolitan's principal group managers will be in place.

"Not only do these three executives offer Metropolitan unparalleled expertise in their respective fields, they're also experts on Metropolitan itself," said General Manager Ronald R. Gastelum, noting that Arakawa and Wolfe currently hold key positions with the district, and Wicke was employed at Metropolitan for more than 10 years before exploring opportunities in the private sector.

Today's appointments complement Gastelum's existing executive team in the Office of the General Manager. In addition to Gastelum, the office includes Assistant General Manager Joseph E. Tait; Deputy General Manager Timothy H. Quinn; Board Executive Officer Gilbert F. Ivey; Debra C. Man, acting executive assistant for strategic planning; Dennis B. Underwood, executive assistant for Colorado River matters; Adan Ortega, Jr., executive assistant to the general manager and acting Outreach Group manager; and Bobbi A. Becker, management principal administrative analyst.

With a combined 19 years' experience with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Metropolitan, Arakawa is one of the state's foremost experts on issues surrounding the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary, a delicate region of California's competing water interests.

After a seven-year stint at DWR, the registered civil engineer came to Metropolitan in 1987 as an associate engineer. In 1994, he was named assistant chief of the Planning and Resources Division. In this capacity he has managed the district's activities on State Water Project matters, including administering Metropolitan's contract with DWR, as well as participating in the state's water rights proceedings, and the state and federal agency efforts to improve the water system in the Bay/Delta.

As manager of the Water Resource Management Group, Arakawa will oversee three district sections: integrated resources, source protection, and water procurement.

Wicke's new position marks her return to Metropolitan, where she spent more than 10 years in various operations and water quality management positions prior to joining McGuire Environmental Consultants Inc., as a principal in July 1998.

During her previous MWD experience, Wicke served as operations and maintenance manager of the Riverside branch of the district's former Operations Division, where she oversaw the operations of district distribution facilities at the eastern end of Metropolitan's service area, including the Henry J. Mills Filtration Plant in Riverside and Lake Mathews, the terminal reservoir for MWD's Colorado River Aqueduct.

From July 1995 to November 1996, Wicke managed MWD's water purification branch and was responsible for ensuring the district's five filtration plants complied with all primary drinking water standards. She previously managed Metropolitan's oxidation demonstration program from November 1992 to July 1995.

A registered civil engineer in California, Wicke earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota and a master's degree from the University of Arizona. In her new role as Water System Operations manager at Metropolitan, Wicke will lead four sections: operations and support services, power/system operations, treatment/distribution, and water quality monitoring.

As Metropolitan's Strategic Plan project manager since 1998, Wolfe has facilitated the MWD board's ongoing process that will develop a new vision and mission statement for the agency. Wolfe also served as associate director of water quality, where he was a leader in developing positions and consensus among the state's urban interests on water quality issues for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program.

A Metropolitan employee since 1985, Wolfe currently is chair of the California Urban Water Agencies' Water Quality Committee, a member of CALFED's Water Quality Policy Council, and was appointed to the Governor's panel on MTBE in drinking water.

Wolfe earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in environmental analysis from the University of California, Irvine. As manager of Corporate Resources, he will be in charge of five district sections: administrative services, asset management, engineering services, human resources, and information technology.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consortium composed of 27 cities and water agencies serving more than 16 million people in six counties. The District imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water-recycling, desalination, conservation, storage, and other water-management programs.