John Twitty to retire in June

City Utilities General Manager John Twitty will retire in June. He is 57.

Twitty, a Springfield native, made the announcement to the Board of Public Utilities yesterday. CU held a news conference this morning to inform the public.

“I’ve always said I want to leave while the contributions I’m able to make are positive. These years I have served Springfield as general manager of the utility are the most gratifying of my professional career, so this was a difficult decision,” Twitty said in a news release. “After thinking about it at length and discussing it with my family, I have decided that 2011 is the right time for me to retire from City Utilities and move on to the next phase of my life.”

CU Communications Manager Joel Alexander said Twitty told the board he currently has no plans on his agenda after retiring.

The board likely will assemble a search committee within the next couple weeks, but it is unclear whether it will hire a consultant or conduct interviews itself, Alexander said.

Twitty joined CU in 1991 and has served as general manager since 2002. He will retire in his 20th year at the utility.

During his time as general manager, Twitty changed the company's nonunion salary and benefits plan into a performance-based system in 2003-04, saw the company through ice storm response and recovery in 2007 and helped gain approval for construction of the $550 million Southwest Power Station Unit 2, which was recently completed, according to the release.[[In-content Ad]]