At its meeting on April 27th, the WaterOne Board appointed Ron Appletoft to fill its vacant Board position. Appletoft will be sworn into office at the Board meeting on May 11th.
Appletoft is a long-time Johnson County resident and currently serves as mayor of the City of Mission, KS following his election in 2017. Prior to his retirement from WaterOne in 2017 after 37 years of service, he held the positions of WaterOne's Audit Manager - during which time he also served as WaterOne’s legislative affairs liaison on state and federal issues – and spent the last 12 years of his career as WaterOne’s Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. In his career at WaterOne, Appletoft was instrumental in implementing many of the asset management and ratemaking strategies that have earned WaterOne recognition. As a public servant, Ron was lauded for his fiscal leadership, prudent debt management, and strengthening the organization’s financial resiliency.
Appletoft has a history of elected service as well. He served as Treasurer for the City of Countryside, KS, helping facilitate its consolidation with the City of Mission. He went on to serve multiple terms on the city planning commission and Mission City Council. Appletoft has also held numerous leadership positions with organizations such as the Lower Republican Basin Advisory Committee, the Mission Chamber of Commerce, the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, and the Shawnee Mission School District Parent Advisory Council. Appletoft holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of South Dakota, and is a graduate of Leadership Northeast, the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program, and Leadership Kansas.
WaterOne is an independent, non-profit water utility serving 455,000 people in the Johnson County area. It is led by a seven-member Governing Board elected at-large by the residents of the service area. As a non-taxing public utility, the main responsibility of the governing body is to set the policies under which the utility runs.
Appletoft will serve the unexpired term through 2024.