Scott Steinbrecher, currently deputy attorney general for natural resources and environment, will serve as senior director for water policy. The position is new, though a similar role existed under Gov. John Hickenlooper, who appointed former Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp as the state's first water czar.

Steinbrecher has worked in the attorney general's office since 2009. In his current role, he leads a team of 70 lawyers and staff serving the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Public Health & Environment. He previously served as assistant deputy attorney general, advising the attorney general on water policy and leading a team of 15 attorneys representing the Colorado State Engineer, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and the state's interstate compact commissioners.

His background includes representing Colorado in interstate compact negotiations and disputes. He co-chaired, along with then-State Engineer Kevin Rein, an antispeculation task force created by state law in 2020 to strengthen Colorado's rules against water profiteering. The task force issued its report in 2021 without recommending legislation. A 2022 follow-up bill sponsored by then-Sens. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, was reduced to another study in committee and ultimately died on the Senate calendar. The issue has not returned to the Capitol since.

Steinbrecher holds a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and a B.A. in philosophy from Whitman College. He and his family also raise money for genetic testing and research through the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation.

For budget director, Weiser selected former Sen. Dominick Moreno, D-Adams County, who has spent the past three years as deputy chief operating officer for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

Moreno served a decade in the legislature, including six years in the Senate. He was a longtime member of the Joint Budget Committee and chaired it in 2019 and 2021. He also served as Senate majority leader in the 2022 and 2023 sessions before resigning on Sept. 1, 2023, to join Johnston's office.

Moreno graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in American government. He was the youngest person ever elected to the Commerce City City Council, at age 24, and currently serves as a trustee on the Colorado Mesa University board.

He will replace Mark Ferrandino, who has been Gov. Jared Polis' director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting. Polis announced Tuesday that Ferrandino is joining the office of State Treasurer-Elect Jeff Bridges as deputy state treasurer. The OSPB position does not require Senate confirmation.

The appointments follow Weiser's announcements earlier Tuesday of his agriculture commissioner, Republican Sen. Cleave Simpson, and his rural advancement director, Jeni Arndt.

Water policy is a pressing concern across Colorado, where competing demands from agriculture, growing Front Range cities, and environmental needs strain limited supplies amid a long-running drought. The budget director will shape spending decisions as the state navigates uncertain revenue and the incoming administration's priorities.