City of Cheyenne 12-6, 2016
Cheyenne Mayor-Elect Marian Orr on Tuesday announced she will appoint Jim Voeller as City Engineer and interim Director of the planning Services Department. Currently Voeller serves as the interim City Engineer and the Planning Services Department is headed by Brandon Cammarata.
Orr made the announcement Tuesday morning in a press conference from her transition office in the city municipal building. The appointment marks a shift in the city’s governmental structure as her appointee will head two distinct offices.
“Rebuilding our infrastructure was a key pillar of my campaign,” Orr said. “I also pledged to rethink how we do business as a government. Because the engineer’s office and the planning department must work very closely together and because they need to share a common vision, it makes sense to put both departments under the same leadership if you can find the right person.”
“Jim Voeller is that person,” Orr continued. “He’s an entrepreneur with more than 40 years of experience — and success — in engineering design, construction, and planning. He was very successful in private industry as the co-founder of AVI Engineering.
“He’s directed multi-million dollar projects, he’s managed hundreds of employees, and he wants to stay right here in Cheyenne,” Orr said. “Quite frankly, he doesn’t need to work. He’s doing so because he loves this work and is excited about the challenge of improving how we fix our roads and our infrastructure.”
“I want our City Council and our Cheyenne citizens to have confidence that when we build our roads and when we repair our roads we’re doing it the right way,” Orr said. “I want to build that confidence. There’s a reason that Jim Voeller is my second appointment right behind the police chief. During the campaign, voters heard me talk about two things: Public safety and infrastructure. With these two appointments, we’re off to the right start.”
Orr said that Voeller’s vast private industry experience will be helpful in attaining her goal of making Cheyenne city government more customer friendly to citizens and the business community.
“Obviously, his domain is more than roads and infrastructure but that’s his immediate priority,” she said. “It’s what I campaigned on, it’s what our citizens told me, and it’s what we’re focusing on first.”
The Planning Services Department is responsible for long-range city planning, transportation planning, building department services and historic preservation.
The City Engineer’s Office is responsible for construction plan review, engineering services, traffic services, GIS mapping, city construction services, and flood plain management.
Voeller was named interim City Engineer by outgoing Mayor Rick Kaysen in July, 2016. Voeller’s planning experience includes the master planning of two new state parks in Alaska, a number of community master plans, city utility master plans, various airport plans, and numerous large development master plans including Cheyenne’s original overland trails west of town.
Mr. Voeller is a graduate from the University of Idaho (B.S. Civil Engineering), has over 40 years of experience in Engineering Design, Construction & Planning. He is currently a licensed Professional Engineer in Wyoming and Colorado.
