PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson Public Utility District board of commissioners have chosen the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to lead the search for a new general manager.
“In the end, we solidified around NRECA for a number of reasons,” District 1 Commissioner Jeff Randall said. “One, they’re a member organization, which we are a member of. They represent rural electric utilities all around the United States. We thought they would be a good source of finding qualified candidates for the position.”
Also, NRECA was very responsive to the PUD, Randall added.
NRECA’s fee is 25 percent of a placed candidate’s first year of compensation, plus additional expenses for travel, advertisements, postage and print and copy materials, Human Resources Director Melanie Des Marais wrote in an email.
In a special meeting Tuesday, District 3 Commissioner Dan Toepper said the position is likely to pay in the range of $300,000.
Leigh Taylor, who will lead the search for NRECA, said the firm will provide a compensation analysis, which may inform the position’s salary.
The firm estimates a six-month timeline from being hired to the hire date of a new general manager, Des Marais wrote.
The firm will use its network to pursue multiple candidates for the board to eventually interview and choose from. Rather than simply choosing a firm, the board ranked three candidate search firms in Tuesday’s meeting.
“We have heard that even if you pick somebody, you may not be able to come to terms through negotiation,” Randall said.
The firms were ranked in descending order: NRECA, GMP Consultants and CarterBaldwin Executive Search.
“We had three really qualified consulting firms to choose from,” Randall said. “The interesting thing with the three commissioners was that we all had ranked the three consultants in different orders.”
The board spent almost an hour discussing the potential strengths and weaknesses for each of the firms before passing a motion.
Toepper was in favor of NRECA from the start.
“We’re a $50 million a year electric utility and a $5 million a year water utility and a little bit of broadband now,” Toepper said. “The co-op world is probably our best bet to find a likely candidate to find an electrical-oriented GM.”
“The commissioners selected who we would prefer to work with, then we turned it over to the current general manager, Kevin Streett, to negotiate,” Randall said.
The PUD is on a short timeline, with Streett planning to retire in June or July, Randall said. The commissioners wanted to make their decision quickly to enable staff to proceed, he added.
NRECA gave its presentation to the board on Dec. 16. GMP and CarterBaldwin gave theirs on Dec. 17.
Archived video and audio of the different firms’ presentations as well as the board’s Tuesday deliberation are available on the PUD website at https://www.jeffpud.org/files.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
