PORT ANGELES — Hugh Haffner, a four-term commissioner on the Clallam County Public Utility District’s board, is the commission’s new president.
Haffner, 65, was elected by board members Will Purser and Ted Simpson, the outgoing president, at the commission’s regular meeting Monday, its first of 2013.
Simpson was elected vice chair and Purser board secretary.
In other board action, commissioners learned that PUD Treasurer Josh Bunch will, in mid-February, begin researching the impact of a 17-year-old PUD policy that pays employees and commissioners a mileage reimbursement rate that is 41 percent higher than the Internal Revenue Service rate.
Haffner said Bunch was too busy to research the policy until February.
The IRS rate is 56.5 cents a mile.
The PUD rate is 79.5 cents a mile and is always 23 cents above the IRS rate.
PUD mileage policy
The PUD rate is based on a 1995 policy that automatically adds 23 cents in order to encourage employees and commissioners to use their own vehicles for PUD travel, according to the minutes of the meeting at which the policy was unanimously adopted.
The IRS rate is used by Clallam and Jefferson counties; the cities of Sequim, Port Angeles and Port Townsend; the Sequim, Port Angeles and Port Townsend school districts; the Port of Port Angeles; and Olympic Medical Center.
The commission decided to conduct the study at its Dec. 10 meeting, one day after a Peninsula Daily News investigation into the policy.
The article “brought out that we are out of sync with the rest of the community on reimbursement for mileage,” Simpson said at the meeting the following day.
In other action, the commissioners, who meet weekly, will begin this year alternating business meetings with work sessions for their four meetings each month.
No board action will be taken at work sessions.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.