PUD commission gets legal update

The Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners met briefly on Tuesday morning to hear reports and swap chair positions for the coming year.

General Manager Dave Tramblie gave an update on the PUD’s project to replace meters on Puget Island with automated reader meters (AMR). So far, according to Tramblie, the PUD has installed 298 electric and 89 water automated meters, with plans for more.

Another project on Puget Island has been completed. The county assisted the PUD by re-excavating State Road where a culvert had collapsed, Tramblie said, which allowed the PUD to put the water main back up in the road bed, where it will be protected from winter weather.

“That was a good project,” Tramblie said. “Back to normal now.”

Counsel Tim Hanigan brought a lot of information back from a recent PUD conference. He spoke about SEC investigations and IRS audits, warning the commissioners to get counsel involved immediately if any concerns arose.

“SEC investigations usually come from issuing bonds,” Hanigan said. “The SEC usually has unchecked powers to check into every corner of your organizations and they can go on forever and ever. If we ever do go out for bonds we need to make sure we have the appropriate insurance coverage and adequate insurance coverage to cover legal costs.”

He spoke about challenges that other PUDs faced with advanced metering and praised the Wahkiakum PUD for doing their “due diligence” and waiting “until the time was right to implement it.”

“I think the public was better informed and a lot of the issues that a lot of the other utilities endured were resolved prior to the Wahkiakum PUD getting involved in that process,” Hanigan said.

Finally, he spoke about a recent supreme court decision in Whatcom County, the Hirst Decision, which bans property owners from drilling exempt wells in counties affected by the Growth Management Act.

Skagit PUD put in an open water source with a credit card reader, like a gas pump,” Hanigan said. “People could go get water if they needed to, because they weren’t allowing wells.”

According to Hanigan, new legislation could be coming up regarding the Hirst decision.

“You’ve got a lot of property owners in Skagit County and other counties up there, where their land has been devalued by like 75 percent because they can never build on it,” Commissioner Dennis Reid said.

Auditor Erin Wilson reported that there had been no incidences of identity theft at the PUD in the last year. She also shared that there was currently $878 available in the Residential Energy Assistance Program.

“This cold weather, there are probably some people who need some help with their bills,” Reid said.

A miscalculation and a failure to communicate left Naselle Rock with a shortfall in a project they recently completed for the PUD, and Neil Wirkkala came to Cathlamet to ask the commissioners to consider some leniency in the matter.

According to Wirkkala, Naselle Rock initially underestimated how much product they would need to complete a paving project and were about $5,000 short. He hoped that the PUD would at least be willing to cover costs.

“We didn’t do anything excessive, we were just trying to do the job correctly, we failed to communicate,” Wirkkala said. “I don’t believe we could have paved less than what we did.”

“For what it’s worth, I think Naselle Rock did a very good job,” Tramblie told the commissioners.

Commissioner Bob Jungers spoke about his experience bidding for jobs, “to give a little background on our posture.”

“If the bidder makes a mistake he can break a company,” Jungers said.

Nothing was determined at that time.

The commissioners officially rotated chairs for 2017. Reid was appointed to president. Commissioner Eugene Healy resumed duties as vice-president and Jungers stepped down from president and returned to the position of secretary.