The Pacific County PUD #2 Commissioners heard critical input from several members of the public at their Feb. 21 meeting in Long Beach. Most notable among them was Dick Sheldon, a Nahcotta resident who accused PUD officials of using a controversial proposed project to extend power service to Tokeland in order to cover up past mistakes and miscalculations. PUD officials had no immediate response to the allegations made by Sheldon.
Sheldon told those in attendance that he had testified before the county's Planning Commission last year against allowing high-voltage power cables to cross Willapa Bay's private shellfish beds as part of the Shoreline Master Program, calling the placement and maintenance of such cables technically and physically impossible. According to Sheldon, PUD General Manager Doug Miller had testified immediately afterwards, agreeing with Sheldon but noting that it may become possible to place and maintain such cables in the future.
Sheldon then recalled for the commissioners that the Tokeland project had originally been presented to ratepayers as a "bay crossing" project and not as a project to extend service to Tokeland specifically.
"In 2000, the PUD borrowed $9 million to build the parts of this project that have sat deteriorating ever since," said Sheldon. "Now Miller admits it couldn't have been done and still can't. Both Miller and [Chief of Engineering and Operations Jason] Dunsmoor are solely responsible for what has become a bait-and-switch project to cover up the original screw-up with this North Cove-Tokeland takeover, as it is now. This has become the biggest financial scandal in Pacific County history. And the past PUD commission majority, along with Miller and Dunsmoor, are the ones that instigated it and have been covering it up all these years. And every PUD ratepayer has and will continue paying this bill as long as this project is still on its feet."
Sheldon then turned his attention to Dunsmoor, saying Dunsmoor's selection to replace the retiring Miller is not in the best interest of the PUD.
"There have been a number of issues with Dunsmoor during his PUD employment that have not been fully considered ...," Sheldon claimed. "I have taken a look at what you're paying your management ... and in general I think the PUD needs to go far beyond just looking at this fiasco going toward Tokeland, because all that thing is to do is to cover up the last mistake. You have lines going nowhere, and if you put them someplace that means it's ok. But that's not true. You're just pouring good money after bad, and there's no possible way that you're ever going to disguise that substation to nowhere that you built up there in Oysterville and the high-voltage power line that feeds it. That's up there deteriorating."
Sheldon was prevented from immediately speaking further due to a time constraint that had been imposed at the start by Commission President Diana Thompson. However, later in the meeting Sheldon again took up his questioning of PUD officials. He asked what the legal basis is for the lifetime health benefits given retired former PUD Commissioner Ron Hatfield and compared the more than $200,000 in salary and benefits of current General Manager Doug Miller unfavorably with the balance of workload versus compensation of PUD managers elsewhere. Sheldon also questioned the legality of what he termed the "no bid" contract the PUD has entered into with Dunsmoor for his taking up of the general management position upon Miller's planned retirement, claiming also that no comprehensive review of Dunsmoor's work history had been done.
"The management, I'm told, has been given a golden parachute," Sheldon said of Hatfield's benefit package, "and I'm asking is this necessary and what's the legal allowance for this by state statute?"
Sheldon requested that some action be taken on the issues he raised.
The commissioners are scheduled to address whether to continue the Tokeland extension project at their March 21 meeting in Long Beach.