PORT HADLOCK — A news reporter with background in economic development and planning, and a former Port of Port Townsend commissioner and Port Townsend city councilman have filed their applications for the PUD District 1 commissioner seat vacancy created when Dana Roberts died Nov. 13.
Barney Burke, a reporter leaving The Leader weekly newspaper and ptleader.com Web site Dec. 31, and Bob Sokol, who served three terms on the port commission and a term on the City Council, recently filed their applications for appointment to the position.
While Burke said he would also seek election to the position, Sokol said he would not.
The remaining PUD commissioners, Wayne King of Gardiner and serving District 3, and Ken McMillen of Port Hadlock and serving District 2, will accept applications until Dec. 31 and expect to appoint a board member early next year.
This appointee will serve from the date of appointment until the November 2010 general election.
Over the past year, the PUD — which now serves 3,500 water customers and 200 sewer connections — has been examining its option, authorized by voters in November 2008, to get into the electric service business.
It is negotiating with Puget Sound Energy behind closed doors to possibly take over that company’s facilities and service for more than 18,000 East Jefferson County customers.
Burke
The electric service decision is the biggest issue facing the PUD, said Burke, 54.
“It will probably be the biggest decision they will make in decades,” Burke said, adding that he did not think there was enough information to say whether the PUD should get into the electric business or not.
He said, “People have been encouraging me to” file for the appointment.
Burke, who from 1995 to 2000 was assistant economic development manager for the city of Mountain View, Calif., and an assistant planner with the city of Vallejo, Calif., from 1980 to 1987, earned his bachelor’s degree in urban social psychology in 1977 at the University of California, Berkeley, and his master’s in urban planning from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1979.
Burke said he would seek a four-year term on the PUD Board of Commissioners.
“I think anybody who signs up to fill the open spots should do that,” Burke said.
Sokol
Sokol, 73, served three four-year terms as a port commissioner until 2007, and a four-year term on the City Council from 1992-95.
He said his intention is to fill the appointed position, but to not run for the office next November.
He owns the uptown Starrett Mansion bed-and-breakfast inn, with his wife, Edel.
He is a past president of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce and the Port Townsend Noon Rotary. He is also past president of the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild and the Washington Public Ports Association.
Sokol earned his bachelor’s in general science at the University of Iowa in 1958.
He earned a master’s degree in business administration at George Washington University in 1970.
“I can unequivocally say that I am not using the PUD seat as a springboard to other political office,” Sokol said.
“I can hit the ground running. I know what public office is all about.”
Roberts, a popular Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioner and Port Townsend community leader who pushed to get the PUD in the electric service business, died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after suffering cardiac arrest Nov. 6 and lapsing into a coma.
He was 74.
Commissioner benefits are a monthly salary of $1,000 per diem at a rate of $90 per meeting, and medical coverage.
The PUD commissioners have regularly scheduled meetings on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Special meetings are called as needed.
PUD is staffed with nine full-time employees, and has an annual budget of more than $2 million.
Applications for the open PUD commissioner position can be hand-delivered to the PUD office at 230 Chimacum Road, or mailed to PUD No. 1, P.O. Box 929 Port Hadlock, WA, 98339.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
