The open seat on the Public Utility Distict No. 1 (PUD) Commission has prompted terrific interest. No fewer than five residents have tossed their names into the hat to fill out the year until the November election, when voters will have their say. And there's still a week for others to do so.
All of these gentlemen bring strong qualifications to the job. Two - Bob Sokol and Larry Dennison - have been elected officials from different ends of the political spectrum. Sokol served on the City Council and the Port Commission. Dennison was a two-term county commissioner. The three others bring strong backgrounds. They include Barney Burke, for 10 years a Leader reporter and a former city planning and economic development official; Bill Wise, a retired executive and Team Jefferson member who led the campaign for Proposition 1; and Jerry Spieckerman, an engineer who founded a company that bought and sold advanced materials globally.
This is both rewarding and odd. Odd, because all this interest is coming forth right after a general election in which there were virtually no challengers to any of the 40-some available leadership positions on the ballot.
Rewarding because these candidates give PUD Commissioners Wayne King and Ken McMillen tangible talent from which to choose. It's not an easy or pleasant task. The two are asked to fill a seat opened by the untimely death of their friend, the optimistic and intellectually restless Dana Roberts, who represented Port Townsend on the PUD.
We will not venture to say who should be appointed.
But we will say this: In the election of 2008 against significant odds, the voters of Jefferson County backed Proposition 1 to tell the PUD that they wanted a very serious look at becoming a public power county. Those odds included $249,000 spent to defeat Proposition 1 by Puget Sound Energy, blowing to smithereens local campaign spending records.
The PUD was officially neutral in that campaign - a wise move that allowed the voters to direct the PUD rather than the PUD directing the voters.
Dana Roberts represented the district that overwhelmingly supported a look at public power. Since Proposition 1 passed, Roberts had become the PUD's leading voice to press ahead with the research and negotiations that would clarify the value of the PSE network, and the scope of a PUD takeover. It is only fair and appropriate that his appointed replacement be someone who clearly leans toward public power in Jefferson County.
That would best fulfill the wishes of District 1, of the countywide majority, and, we believe, of Dana Roberts. If the voters have now changed their minds about public power, they'll have their chance to say so come November.
For "the rest of the story" and full coverage of all Port Townsend and Jefferson County news, events and people, subscribe to our award-winning weekly newspaper.
