The man in charge of running Colorado Springs Utilities scored 3.66 on a 5-point scale in his performance evaluation, assuring he’ll get a healthy bonus next month.Jerry Forte’s evaluation, which was discussed by the Utilities Board on Wednesday, is important, because it provides a window on how the cityowned utility is doing financially, environmentally and with customers.Forte fell short in competitive rates and service reliability but ran strong in financial management and “corporate responsibility.”Council members commended Forte and employees who operate the water, wastewater, gas and electric utility service.”You have a very well-run and -operated utility,” Vice Mayor Larry Small said. “Thanks to your leadership and the employees, we have a good team in place.”Mayor Lionel Rivera credited Forte for progress on the Southern Delivery pipeline project, emissions tests at Drake Power Plant, energy savings and water conservation.Forte’s ranking is based on a system that gives scores of 1 for “fails expectations,” 2 for “improvement necessary, 3 for “meets expectations,” 4 for “exceeds expectations” and 5 for “superior.”Forte’s rating mirrored that of 2006 when he received a $27,810 bonus, or 10.3 percent of his $270,000 salary. Forte’s bonus, like those of all eligible Utilities workers, is computed using his evaluation score.The CEO’s most outstanding marks came in the financial arena, where he was rated “superior.”That was based on a couple of factors: The utility brought in $14.3 million more net revenue than budgeted. And cash from operations totaled $149.7 million, 16 percent higher than the budgeted amount of $128.6 million.Forte was rated between “exceeds expectations” and “superior” on planning, building, operating and maintaining infrastructure. The evaluation noted the city’s wastewater upgrades, including replacing pipes and the $10 million Fountain Creek recovery project that diverts spilled wastewater for re-treatment.He scored the same for “easy to do business with.” Utilities rated customer satisfaction at 93 percent last year, although some customers complained to Utilities officials of high bills, employee compensation, payment option fees, estimated meter readings and billing inaccuracy.Utilities’ problems with estimated billing resulted in thousands of customers’ being undercharged for gas for months. Many customers discovered the problem on their own and then had to pay hundreds of dollars for gas they used but weren’t billed for.Forte scored between “meets expectations” and “exceeds expectations” with a score of 84.75 on a 100-point scale on environmental issues.The evaluation noted a drop in sewer overflows, but alleged violations at the Las Vegas Wastewater Treatment Plant resulted in a $1,500 fine from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.Despite a jump in customer power outages in the fourth quarter from 90 in 2006 to 153 last year, with the number of affected customers tripling to 31,500, Forte was judged “superior.” That’s because the outages, blamed on equipment failures, were still below what’s allowed by Utilities policies.On the downside, Forte’s oversight of water service failed expectations because of a rise in service interruptions. Last year, 42 water service outages affected 1,685 customers, resulting in more than 10,000 customer minutes out of service per outage.Forte also performed worse on delivering competitive rates, scoring between “improvement necessary” and “meets expectations.”His performance is judged based on how Colorado Springs’ rates compare to those in 16 other cities. The city slid from fourth to fifth for residential rates and from third to fourth for commercial rates. It remained at fourth for industrial rates.

Police investigators at the scene of an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday. Photo by (KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE)