Candidate for
Board Member; Truckee-Donner Public Utility District

I ask for the voters' support in this election because I am well qualified to serve on the Truckee Donner PUD Board and I would like an opportunity to represent its customers in this important role.

My wife and I have lived in Truckee for 25 years, and we have raised our teenage son here. I have been a practicing attorney for nearly 30 years. For more than 15 years, I was instrumental in helping the board of directors of Tahoe Donner Association represent its 6,500 members, and responsibly manage its 15-million-dollar budget. As both legal counsel to that board and its management, and simultaneously as the association's assistant general manager or its general manager, I was responsible for evaluating and presenting information and recommendations to the elected decision-makers. I fully understand how to analyze complex issues and projects, and provide board members with the information they need in order to make the most-informed decisions possible. From multi-million dollar improvement projects, to managing a large staff, to ensuring regulatory compliance, maintaining numerous facilities, and best representing the interests of the association's members, the issues faced by Tahoe Donner were quite similar to those faced by the PUD. I was instrumental in analyzing the issues and enabling the directors to understand them and make informed decisions that benefited the entire membership.

During my time at Tahoe Donner, I helped it evolve into a more responsive and responsible entity. During my many years in Truckee, I have witnessed a similar evolution of the PUD. It has become more transparent in its operations and management, more responsive to and more representative of all of its customers, more environmentally conscious, and a more involved member of our community. I would work to advance this positive trend.

In addition to understanding what information a board of directors of an organization such as the PUD needs in order to make the best decisions possible, I also know what a director should do to prepare himself or herself to make those decisions. If elected, I would use that understanding in assessing the proposals brought before the board, including the information provided and the recommendations made by the management staff, in reaching my conclusions regarding a pending issue. If the information is insufficient, or if the recommendation appears unfounded, I would dig deeper in my decision-making process.

At Tahoe Donner, as I have seen at the PUD, there were occasions when individuals seeking to advance some personal agenda or the interests of only a segment of the membership pursued election to the board. I assure you that I have no personal agenda or "axe to grind" and would endeavor to only make decisions intended to advance the interests of all of the customers of the district--not just one group or special interest. Helping the PUD provide quality, reliable water and electric service, in an environmentally and fiscally responsible manner, at the most reasonable cost to all of its customers, would be my objective.