Five candidates join debate at PABA forum

Published 1:30 am Thursday, June 11, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Five candidates hoping to fill a vacant seat on the Clallam County PUD board made their pitches to the Port Angeles Business Association on Tuesday at Jazzy Joshua’s that touched on utility consolidation, dam removal and the county’s long-term water supply.

John Purvis, who was appointed to the District 2 seat in 2023, is not seeking election. The top two vote-getters in the Aug. 4 primary will advance to the November general election. Commissioners serve a six-year term.

The five candidates — Timothy Dalton, Missi Baker, Rick Paschall, Randy Brackett and John “Jack” Smith — each had four minutes for opening remarks before fielding questions from PABA members.

They were largely complimentary of PUD staff, General Manager Sean Worthington and found little to disagree on.

Dalton, a community development specialist who relocated from Eastern Washington 3½ years ago, emphasized building partnerships between the PUD, the county and other agencies. He said the role of a commissioner is not to micromanage staff but to focus on policy and financial issues.

Baker, who has lived in the area for about 10 years, centered her campaign on three priorities: stability, affordability and accountability. She praised the PUD’s existing low-income assistance programs and its Power Pledge program, which provides emergency assistance to customers facing unexpected hardships to help prevent service disconnection.

Brackett, a professional engineer with more than 30 years of public works experience and a Clallam County resident for more than 15 years, said he supports exploring local renewable energy generation to improve grid resilience during major outages.

Smith, who retired after 28 years with Snohomish County PUD and later worked as a demand-side management engineer, said his utility and energy conservation experience would allow him to contribute immediately, with a focus on keeping rates low and service reliable.

Paschall, the former District 2 commissioner who resigned in 2023, said his 30 years in the electric utility industry — including work at the Bonneville Power Administration and in regulatory compliance — would help him address looming rate pressures while working to keep costs as low as possible for customers.

All five candidates expressed at least some openness to exploring a merger with Port Angeles City Light. Smith said he thought it would be a good idea, noting it would consolidate crews and operations, though he acknowledged he wasn’t sure where City Light stood on the idea. Brackett called it worth examining but noted the city depends on utility revenue and that the denser city service area has a different cost structure. Baker said she saw pros and cons, including the potential loss of county jobs, and said she would want to hear from City Light and other experts before taking a position.

Paschall suggested that if a merger were pursued, all three North Olympic Peninsula utilities — Clallam PUD, Jefferson County PUD and Port Angeles City Light — should approach Bonneville together to gain more negotiating leverage on rates and outages.

Dalton also supported exploring the idea, saying any decision should be based on a cost-benefit analysis and that jurisdictional boundaries were already limiting economic development opportunities in the county.

Asked about Snake River dam removal, the candidates were broadly opposed, citing the region’s dependence on hydropower and the rate increases that would likely follow from replacing it.

The candidates also addressed long-term water supply concerns based on projections of significantly reduced Olympic Mountains snowpack by 2040.

Baker said the PUD was already exploring capturing excess river water to recharge aquifers, though she noted there are limits on when water can be taken from rivers, and said grants would be essential to funding new infrastructure.

Brackett pointed to Southern California’s decades of success with aquifer recharge and called for grant-funded research into water flows through the Olympics similar to studies done in the Cascades. Dalton also emphasized grants as key to any solution and cited the proposed Dungeness River off-channel reservoir as one option.

Smith said he supported the reservoir idea and had spoken with the PUD’s water manager, who told him the district was currently in good shape, though he acknowledged future supply was a real concern.

Paschall said water would likely become a valuable commodity and predicted that green lawns and heavy irrigation would disappear. He said he didn’t embrace raising rates but didn’t see any other solution since, “you can’t create water.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com