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Steve Forrester, Prineville City Manager since June,
2009, grew up in Prineville and graduated from
Oregon State University.
He’s a different kind of duck — a beaver actually —
when it comes to his approach to managing a city.
He comes from the business side of management
rather than government or the political side.
Before explaining his approach, he talked about
what a city manager actually does.
“The city manager is like the CEO of a company,
only instead of running a business, we’re running a
municipality. I’m responsible for the finances, mak-
ing sure that we manage our dollars — which are tax-
payer dollars — effectively and provide the services,
which are water and sewer, public safety, 911 are
the main ones.
“We also have, in Prineville’s case, a railroad to
operate, and we also have a golf course and restau-
rant that we operate. We call those enterprise
funds. Those are run very similar to a private busi-
ness,” Forrester explained.
The golf course and restaurant are Meadow
Lakes Golf Course and Restaurant.
Forrester’s approach to managing the city is tak-
ing not only his private business experience, man-
aging two Subway franchises and operating a hay
farm, but his 12 years of experience as general
manager of American Pine (now Woodgrain), and
using that as a springboard for city management.
“What I’ve enjoyed the most is applying those
private business practices where they’re applica-
ble to the city. The results of that have been posi-
tive in that despite the difficult economic conditions that we’re
in, the city has continued to improve its financial ability. The city
is financially stronger today than it was three years ago.
“Even though we’ve been in some difficult times where our rev-
enues are decreasing, we’ve adjusted, and right-sized, and restruc-
tured some debt, saved our pennies where we could, and as a
result we are in a good, solid, fundamental financial position,” said
Forrester.
Another aspect of the job that he really enjoys is looking for
opportunities to be business-friendly and trying to find ways to
take care of existing businesses in the community and to encour-
age new businesses to settle in Prineville.
He
was happy to have been part of getting Facebook and
Apple — two of the biggest, most progressive companies in the
world, as he put it — to come into the community.
His biggest struggle has been finding ways to rebuild the city’s
job opportunities.
Since the forest products industry has significantly dwindled in
recent years, he is searching for ways to bring jobs to Prineville.
“I don’t think the data centers are the end-all answer,” Forrester
said.
He also desires to keep the city’s other large employers happy
and perhaps get the lumber industry to grow again.
THINGS TO KNOW 2013 • 13
CROOK COUNTY PEOPLE
Steve Forrester
Prineville City Manager
Prineville City Manager, Steve Forrester
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