Former Boeing engineer and Kent City Council member Tom Brotherton came to Quilcene because he was looking for a friendly, quiet place to retire with his wife, but after six months of attending Jefferson County Public Utility District meetings, he’s no longer content to sit on the sidelines.

“We’ve learned a lot about the community through volunteering here,” said Brotherton, 72, a former Jefferson County deputy prosecuting attorney who currently serves on the county’s Planning Commission. “But running for the PUD’s board of commissioners was a chance to do a little more, and take advantage of my experience.”

Brotherton has declared his intentions to seek the seat now held by incumbent Wayne King, who has not announced his intentions to file for the seat. Filing week opens May 14, and all candidates must file by May 18 in order to be on the ballot.

YOUTH, DEBT

Brotherton sees Jefferson County as a pleasant place for retirees such as himself, but worries about its dearth of job opportunities and housing options for younger people, which is one reason why he hopes to see the PUD continue its expansion of the county’s economy and infrastructure.

“When the PUD took over Puget Sound Power, it inherited a lot of debt,” Brotherton said. “It’s since expanded its staff, and just last year, it turned a $7 million profit, so on those fronts, it’s doing a great job.”

Where Brotherton sees the PUD falling short is in providing a full spectrum of public utility services, including water, sewer and non-electric forms of power.

“They’ve been taking care of the financial disarray that was handed to them, and been fighting fires for the years since then,” Brotherton said. “But the public needs better wastewater treatment.”

Brotherton diagnosed protective governmental measures as “stifling” attempts to bolster the PUD’s operations, and likewise believes its board of commissioners should focus less on dictating specific outcomes to staff than allowing them to achieve goals to serve the public and ensure “people get what they pay for.”

Brotherton believes “there’s not enough long-term thinking” in the PUD’s current operations, and regardless of his own opinions on smart meters, he concedes that the commissioners “could have done a better job” of listening to the community’s concerns.

“Their logic was straightforward,” Brotherton said. “By having the meters report automatically, they would save money for their customers on meter readers. But they didn’t acknowledge the controversy that had cropped up in other communities over these meters.”

While Brotherton himself has seen “nothing conclusive” in the claims of those opposed to smart meters, he also believes it’s best at this point to leave the decision up to the incoming general manager, as well as to develop better lines of communication with the community.

SOLAR POWER

As a homeowner with solar panels on his house, Brotherton is well aware of the “profit crunch” that the PUD faces from solar energy getting fed back into the grid, since the PUD is required to buy certain levels of power from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

“It’s my understanding that we renegotiate with the BPA every couple of years, however much leverage we actually have,” Brotherton said. “We need to get exact numbers of how much we’re currently losing and gaining through solar energy, before we enter our next set of negotiations.”

As for broadband internet access, while Brotherton is loath to try to solve individuals’ problems for them, he sees an overall lack of access as a community concern, especially given the number of jobs that can be conducted through telecommuting.

“More jobs require better telecommunications,” Brotherton said. “And telecommunications are part of a utility. We can encourage the evolution of high-speed internet. We have high-speed hubs at the fire station and the school in Quilcene. But we can’t do that last mile of service. Again, regulation has proven to be a hindrance.”