PUD starts strategic planning process, late bill payments

At the PUD Board meeting Tuesday morning, commissioner Gene Healy presented the first draft of what will continue to be an evolving strategic plan for the PUD.

“I took a look at a lot of strategic plans from other PUDs and other businesses,” said Healy, “and thought I would offer this to you as a launching point. This is very simple and straightforward, to not tell in detail what we are going to do, but what we stand for."

It begins by stating the mission of the Wahkiakum PUD: to provide the most reliable electric and water service at the most reasonable cost along with quality customer service to the district's ratepayers.

"We need input from staff as well as the commissioners," said commissioner Dennis Reid, "the manager, the auditor. If you see something, speak up, because we all have to buy into it if we're going to do it."

Healy agreed, “We’re better off, the more input we have to this thing.”

The current draft will be printed and made available to all employees for feedback. Discussion will continue in two weeks at the next PUD board meeting.

Talk returned to an earlier conversation about providing a cost of living allowance for the general manager and the auditor. More investigation into which cost of living index would be appropriate and how other PUD’s handle COLA is needed before the board will take any action.

General Manager Dave Tramblie informed the commissioners that the two days of safety training for staff had been changed to one day a month, with hopes that it would become a less expensive, more efficient process.

Discussion continued on the subject of late fees for negligent rate payers. "Is that something you want us to pursue?" asked Tramblie.

“We send out about 800 late notices a month. About a third of our customers,” said Auditor, Erin Wilson. "We're not looking to be punitive, just to recoup costs."

“I was skeptical about your real costs and then I was shocked,” said commissioner Robert Junger. "I don't think our faithful dependable rate payers should bear the burden of these costs."

"We'll go over the costs again," said Wilson, "because we need to factor in the costs of going out to collect or connect or reconnect, to cover crew and truck time. We need to look at it as more of a whole. I think it's going to be higher."

Tramblie will travel to Kittitas in the near future to see how their automatic meter reading system is working.

Wilson noted that there are continual modifications and improvements to the PUD website, with more information and links to helpful sites. “Microsoft has made some changes,” she said, “there have been upgrades to systems where payments are processed. So older operating systems on computers are no longer compatible. We have figured out some things which will work for a time, like using a different browser. We don’t want our customers to get frustrated. So we’re trying to get information out there to them so they can make payments on time. They can always call, we can process here.”