EVERETT — Change is a common refrain in the four-way contest for a seat on the commission that oversees the Snohomish County Public Utility District. Three challengers — Dustan Bunt, Gordon Sibley and Larry Wagner — say the two-term incumbent, Tanya “Toni” Olson, and the two other commissioners are letting down ratepayers.
Even Olson is trying to join the chorus for change. She’s taken aim at the PUD’s controversial plan to build a hydroelectric facility at Sunset Falls on the Skykomish River. Overall, though, she says she wants to keep the PUD on its current track and promises to continue supporting the district’s clean-energy initiatives.
All three candidates are promising to bring greater scrutiny and more transparency to PUD policy decisions.
Sibley, a retired PUD worker, has one word to describe the commission: failure.
“For years, the current commissioners (including Olson) have forfeited all their authority… to the general manager,” he said.
That has led to wasteful spending on projects that did not serve ratepayers, he said.
He’s called into question the timing on Olson’s recent reservations about the Sunset Falls project. After years spent supporting the project, her objections seem to have more to do with it being an election year, he said.
Sibley said he is running to bring policy setting back to the board and making the district more accountable to its customers.
He spent 28 years at the utility, giving him a strong base in its operations and its needs, he said.
“It’s time that the closed-door, back-room deals stop and the public trust be restored at the PUD,” he said in his candidate statement published in the voters pamphlet for the Aug. 2 primary.
Bunt says he’ll put ratepayers first if elected. The small-business owner from Snohomish points to a laundry list of controversies that have dogged the PUD in recent years, including billing errors caused by a costly computer software upgrade, a no-bid contract that violated the district’s ethics policy, and the Sunset Falls project, which has been ardently opposed by environmental groups and people who live nearby.
Better oversight by commissioners could have prevented those mistakes, he said. Rates should only be increased as a last resort, he said.
Bunt supports adding smart meters that automatically transmit information about a customer’s energy consumption to the utility.
The PUD plans to install the meters across its territory by the end of the decade. The project is expected to cost $174.4 million and has been supported by Olson.
PUD officials estimate that smart meters will save $237.4 million for the utility over a 15-year period.
Wagner, a private consultant and former public official, says the PUD commissioners have too easily bought into bad projects time and again.
“Stop trying to invent a square wheel,” the Lake Stevens resident said.
Commissioners are “there to ask questions” of PUD staff, but lately, they haven’t asked the tough questions, he said.
Wagner has experience with big public agencies. He managed King County Hospital District No. 4, which covers Snoqualmie Valley, from 2000 to 2007. Before that he worked for the state Department of Transportation and in facilities management.
If elected, the former Lake Stevens city councilman said he would build bridges to city councils and local civic groups to get greater public input into PUD policy decisions.
Olson says she is the only candidate with the experience and qualifications for the commission.
She spent 22 years working for the PUD, retiring as an assistant general manager in 2003.
She was first elected to the commission in 2004 and was re-elected to a 6-year term in 2010.
After supporting Sunset Falls for several years, Olson is questioning the need for the project. “I think we need to reassess it,” she said.
The PUD does not need the additional energy from the project, as was expected when it began, she said. That money would be better spent on conservation and renewable energy initiatives, improving system reliability, and utility-scale battery storage, she said.
“I’d love to lower rates,” she said. But “to be honest, I don’t know if that’s possible.”
The PUD’s rates are among the highest of the state’s publicly owned utilities and are largely driven by how much it pays the Bonneville Power Administration, which provides about 82 percent of the district’s energy.
“No, we’re not the lowest, but we have gotten better,” she said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
