PORT HADLOCK — Jefferson County Public Utility District leaders have begun talks with Puget Sound Energy representatives about the PUD taking over the Northwest power service company’s East Jefferson County facilities.
PUD and PSE officials are expected to begin more serious talks Wednesday.
The PUD commissioners Wednesday night approved a request for information.
“I felt that they sincerely are going to work with us,” Wayne King, PUD commissioners chairman, said of the utility’s first meeting last week with Steve Reynolds, PSE chief executive officer, and Karl Karzmar, PSE director of regulatory relations, who is assigned as a liaison to PUD.
Karzmar agreed the meeting was an “ice breaker,” where no terms were discussed.
“It was a positive meeting. It was a good discussion, and there’s going to be more talks,” he said.
Next Wednesday
The second PUD-PSE meeting is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the law offices of Perkins Coie in Seattle.
The PUD handed a list of 22 items to a PSE representative during the meeting in Port Hadlock.
The requested information included:
• What PSE considers the fair market value for the PUD’s East Jefferson County facilities.
• A power distribution and transmission system map for the county.
•SEnSTotal property taxes PSE paid the county in 2008.
• Total number of customer accounts, energy sales and demand and revenues by class for county customers.
• Number of miles of both overhead and underground transmission lines.
• Year of installation for all east county substations and a detailed list of any known reliability issues in the county.
Asked about how long it would take PSE to respond to the PUD’s request for information, Karzmar said that was a complex question.
“Some of the information is readily available, and some of it is not,” he said.
King was joined last week by PUD General Manager Jim Parker and PUD’s newly hired attorney, Kirk Gibson, from the Portland, Ore., firm of Ater Wynne Attorneys at Law.
Gibson’s law firm, with offices in Seattle as well, has handled other successful PUD power authority efforts involving PSE, including the Columbia River People’s Utility District. That PUD is in Columbia County and northern Multnomah County, Ore.
Not a hostile approach
King said Reynolds appeared to appreciate the fact that he was offering the executive a chance to “sit down and have a cup of coffee with us,” rather than taking a hostile approach.
“Our board is dedicated, and we are going to proceed with this as the voters asked,” King said he told Reynolds.
“We hired a serious team to move forward, and I hope we can negotiate an agreement.”
Parker said PSE was professional about the issue at hand.
“They just said we should be cautious and be sure what you are getting into,” Parker said. “Be careful and deliberate.”
After an extensive feasibility study following voter approval granting PUD power authority in November, PUD commissioners concluded that the benefits of public power can pay off in Jefferson County.
Budgeting about $250,000 this year, the PUD commissioners have assembled a team of advisers to evaluate the elements involved in developing a community-owned electric utility.
PSE has served Jefferson County for more than 100 years. Its executives campaigned hard against Proposition 1, which gave the PUD the authority to provide electrical service in the county if it chose to do so.
PSE now serves about 17,900 customers in East Jefferson County.
PUD would work as a nonprofit government power provider, such as Clallam County, Mason County and Grays Harbor County PUDs.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
