After 15 years as Charlottesville City Manager, Gary O’Connell is “ready for a change.”

At the end of April, O’Connell will leave his post in the city to head the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) as its executive director. To what may seem like a step into a minefield—otherwise known as the ongoing debate over the 50-year water supply plan—O’Connell says he looks forward to working on something he is “personally passionate about.”

“I am interested in the outdoors and the environment,” says O’Connell, “and that’s kind of what they are all about.”

O'Connell was unanimously hired by the ACSA to succeed Gary Fern, whose last day on the job is February 26. ACSA received more than 30 applications and resumes from around the country and conducted in-person interviews with five qualified applicants. Out of these final candidates, “[w]e believe that Gary O’Connell is the most qualified to meet the needs of the Albemarle County Service Authority and its employees,” says Clarence Roberts, ACSA Chairman.

For O’Connell, the decision to take on a new challenge was not a hard one. “I am on my 35^th year in city management, which probably says a lot,” he says. In his current post, O’Connell says he has to know “ a lot of things up to a certain level. This [job] gives me the chance to focus and get into some depth. I am looking forward to that.”

The Albemarle County Service Authority is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia and was created by the county Board of Supervisors back in 1964. It currently serves 15,500 customers and provides water and sewer services. As part of his duties as ACSA’s executive director, O'Connell will serve as representative of the county authority to the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Board of Directors.

By the numbers, the change will be a big one. Currently, O’Connell manages a $140 million-plus budget and about 900 employees. ACSA has 68 employees and a $25 million budget.

O’Connell will leave the city budget with a deficit. “The [city] budget that we are working on is going to be $1.6 million in the hole,” he says. But, compared to other localities in the state and around the country, he adds, “our problem is not nearly at the magnitude of other places and I actually believe pretty strongly that this place, for a city manager, is going to be pretty attractive.”

Water remains one of the community’s most debated and contested issues in years. Richard Lloyd, a county resident and sympathizer of Citizens For A Sustainable Water Plan, says that although the change is a big and good one, he is concerned about the failure of some city projects. “I don’t want the water community plan to end up like the Landmark Hotel. That would be a tragedy,” he tells C-VILLE.

In O’Connell’s departure, however, Lloyd sees a possible benefit for the city. “It’s a big change and I think it will open the door for an elected city manager, which could be very helpful for the city,” he says.

Former Charlottesville Councilor Meredith Richards, who has worked with O’Connell for eight years on Council says, via e-mail, that he will bring “very strong analytic skills, an innovative mindset, and a focus on the bottom line to the job.”

“Area residents can have confidence that, with Gary at the helm, the service authority will approach the task with rational interest in what is best for the community, ensures an adequate water supply well into the future, protects the environment and encompasses the latest technology,” she says.

Regarding debates over the water supply plan—including City Council’s push for an additional dredging feasibility study—O’Connell says that the community needs to step away from “the city-county sniping at each other.”

“To the credit of people in the community asking tough questions, I think alternatives are getting looked at seriously that weren’t being looked at,” says O’Connell. “And they are going to be studied in a professional way.”