New year brings new roles to PUD

EPHRATA — A new year brought new roles for the commissioners of the Grant County Public Utility District, just one week after being elected to those positions.

The commission voted 3-2 last week to elect its slate of officers for 2005, but the new commission on Monday rescinded that vote, and set a rotation for PUD official's positions.

The commission voted last week to reelect Tom Flint as President of the PUD commission, with commissioner Bill Bjork as vice president. Bjork was made president in a new vote on Monday, one of several votes rescinded by the commission.

The PUD commission office holders traditionally are rotated each year, but last Monday's vote reelected Flint as President. Commissioners Bjork and Randy Allred dissented in that vote. Flint was voted into the position of assistant secretary Monday, while Commissioner Allred was made vice-president, commissioner Vera Claussen was elected Secretary and newly elected Commissioner Greg Hansen was voted as commissioner.

Hansen said that the new officer assignments were nothing personal to the former president and, but said the commission thought they should hold with tradition.

"I think with the makeup of the new commission," Hansen said, "we thought it was our prerogative, our right to set the assignments or offices of the new year."

Flint said after the vote that the officer rotation has been done in the past, but has not always been followed. He said during the vote though that the district didn't need any more controversy, and said he wasn't going to challenge the vote. Commissioners Allred, Bjork and Hansen voted for the new officer election, with Flint and Claussen abstaining. Flint

said after the vote that his abstention was for personal reasons.

"It's been my goal this last year to regroup the utility and move us forward, and I think I've done a pretty darn good job," Flint said before the vote.

Bjork took the president's chair following a commission recess Monday. He said after the meeting that the commission changes presidents every year to give every commission member a chance. He added that he will not be

commission president next year.

"It was something in which had to happen," Bjork said after the meeting.

The officer change vote was one of many rescinded at Monday's PUD meeting. The commission also rescinded four different resolutions that had appointed commission members to represent the PUD on various boards

of directors.

The commission voted 3-2 Monday to terminate a week-old contract with the Grant County Economic Development Council. The contract is one the commission has had with the EDC for dealings with potential and current industrial customers.

The commissioners voted 3-2 last week to accept a three-year contract with the EDC at a cost of $40,000 per year, with commissioners Bjork and Allred dissenting in that vote. That vote had nearly doubled the amount of the contract, which had been a one-year $22,000 agreement in recent years.

After the reversal on Monday, commissioners directed the PUD's attorney to draft a new one-year contract not to exceed $22,000. Commissioners Flint and Claussen dissented in Monday's vote.

Hansen said the EDC vote was a decision that should also have been up to the new 2005 commission. He said that he thought $22,000 per year was sufficient for the EDC contract, and what that contract was providing to the PUD.

Claussen said in her dissent that she had always thought the EDC had done a good job for the county, and added that the new contract had been more detailed than in the past.

"I felt that they'd expanded their program," Claussen said after the meeting.

The commission also rescinded a motion that was approved late last year to make Flint the utility's representative to NoaNet, a nonprofit organization formed by PUDs to allow districts to access fiber optic cables belonging to the Bonneville Power Association. Outgoing commissioner Mike Conley had been the PUD's representative. Monday's 3-2 vote nominated PUD Telecommunications Director Larry Jones to be the utility's representative, with commissioners Flint and Claussen dissenting.

Flint acknowledged during the vote that before Conley, the commission had not been getting the information that it should have from the NoaNet representative, and said NoaNet suggested having a commission member be their representative.

"I think it's important for the district to have a commissioner there," Flint said, "not just an employee, because I think we've learned a lot from what's happened in the past and I wouldn't want to invite anything to happen in the future."

Bjork said that the PUD now has someone in Jones who has been there, and been with Conley on NoaNet.

"I think that its time to turn it back over to staff and let staff take care of it," Bjork said of the NoaNet board.

Monday's meeting was the first for Hansen, who was sworn in Monday by Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline, Flint was also sworn in Monday to his second term on the commission.

Sperline said during the ceremony that he had gotten to know the some of the PUD commissioners through a series of community forums during the last election season, and said he had seen a display of character from the PUD commission at those forums.

"It requires a great deal of character for these folks to put themselves voluntarily into this position," Sperline said.