PORT TOWNSEND — Citizens for Local Power supporters hoisted their glasses in victory Friday night after updated Jefferson County election results showed that voters soundly approved Proposition 1, giving Jefferson County Public Utility District the authority to provide electric service.
A second count Friday of 3,794 outstanding votes in Tuesday’s general election gave the measure, which needed only a simple majority to pass, 9,835 yes votes, or 53.2 percent, to 8,659 no votes, or 46.8 percent.
That slightly closed the margin of approval over Tuesday’s vote tally of 8,092 voting yes, or 54 percent, to 6,903 no votes, or 46 percent.
“We’ve run this whole campaign on doing our best to inform the voters,” said a smiling Bill Wise, co-facilitator of Citizens for Local Power, on Friday.
“It is absolutely gratifying to have 53 percent.”
Wise was joined at Friday’s celebration of the grass-roots victory at Water Street Brewing & Ale House in Port Townsend by his fellow co-facilitator, Steve Hamm, and about 10 others.
Among those at the gathering were PUD Commissioner Dana Roberts and Commissioner-elect Ken McMillen, who along with PUD Commissioner Wayne King could determine in the coming year whether PUD goes into the power business.
Passage of Proposition 1 on the Jefferson County ballot was the first step in a process that would end in the county’s public utility district operating its own electrical gird.
The measure gives the PUD, which now provides only water and sewer service, the authority to also offer electrical power service to customers in East Jefferson County. PSE now provides electrical service to 18,000 customers in Jefferson County.
After Jan. 1, when McMillen joins the PUD board, the commissioners plan to mail a letter to PSE asking if it is interested in selling its Jefferson County system, King said.
Cost estimates for the PUD acquiring PSE’s facilities range from $47 million to $77 million, said Brandon Houskeeper, an analyst with the Washington Policy Center.
“We could be in business in two years,” said Hamm, adding that was a hopeful estimate.
Lone winner
Jefferson County’s measure was the only one of three county efforts to permit local electrical power service that won voter approval.
Similar measures in Skagit and Island counties failed.
In Skagit County, 52.8 percent of the vote opposed a proposition to allow the county public utility district to provide electrical power.
In Island County, an attempt to form a public utility district to provide electrical service was opposed by 68.8 percent of the vote.
All three efforts were opposed — and heavily outspent — by Puget Sound Energy, which provides electrical power to more than 1 million customers in 11 counties.
PSE’s shareholders doled out nearly $250,000 to kill Proposition 1 in Jefferson County, while Citizens for Local Power took in contributions amounting to about $26,000.
“I think the voters showed that maybe we’re not as bad as PSE said we were,” said King, who is from Gardiner where two of three voter precincts largely supported Proposition 1.
“I think we’ve earned the trust.”
King said he hoped PSE would forgo a protracted legal battle and instead discuss PUD acquisition of PSE facilities in the county.
“I think to talk it out, they would need some sort of plan,” said PSE spokeswoman Gretchen Aliabadi.
“Clearly, we’re going to be working with them, going forward.”
She added, however: “If somebody expects us to turn over the keys on Monday, I don’t think so.”
“We really can’t have a decent conversation if it’s just, ‘Hey, we want to buy your system.'”
A copy of the letter that the PUD plans to send to PSE will go to the state Utilities and Transportation Commission, which regulates PSE.
“We have to wait and see what they say in the letter,” Aliabadi said, adding that the PUD should be specific about what parts of the system it wants.
Although condemnation proceedings are one option that came up during the Proposition 1 campaign, King said the PUD has never even discussed taking that route and would rather avoid it.
Hamm said he and others with the local power group hoped to serve on a PUD advisory committee as study and possible negotiations with PSE move forward.
Jefferson PUD commissioners would consider hiring a consultant to further study local electric service and many discussions and public meetings on the topic are likely ahead in 2009, said King and Roberts.
More outreach
Outreach was a big part of the local group’s success story, organizers said, but they added that future outreach will be just as important to further inform those who would benefit from PUD electric service.
Hamm urged the group, which will disband, to reorganize with other citizens to reach out to all county residents who would receive PUD power should the commissioners choose to do so.
“We need to do some public outreach and some networking in conjunction with PUD,” Hamm said.
Bonneville Power Administration has said that the PUD must be in the power business for three years before it can secure BPA discount “tier 1” rates, those now offered to Clallam County PUD.
Under the law, PUD has 10 years to take action before its authority expires.
PSE is in the process of finalizing a deal to sell the company to a consortium of foreign investors led by the Macquarie Bank of Australia.
PSE announced its plan to sell the company to the Macquarie-led consortium a year ago. The buyout has been approved by PSE stockholders, who would get $30 per share, and by federal regulators.
The UTC has the final say. It planned to issue a decision after the general results were tabulated.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
breakout box
THE JEFFERSON COUNTY Auditor’s Office’s Friday count of 3,794 outstanding ballots in Tuesday’s all-mail general election changed no outcomes.
• The Port Townsend School District’s $35.6 million bond failed to reach 60 percent approval, with 55.6 percent in favor and 44.3 percent opposed.
• Incumbent Democratic county commissioners David Sullivan of Cape George and Phil Johnson of Port Townsend held onto their seats, maintaining a fully Democratic three-person commission.
Sullivan won 54.1 percent of the vote against challenger Sandy Hershelman — a Port Hadlock independent, business owner and executive director of the Jefferson County Home Builders Association — who took 45.9 percent.
Johnson won 64.0 percent of the vote to challenger Dennis Schultz’ 36.0 percent. Schultz, a Port Townsend Republican, is a retired engineer and farmer.
• Ken McMillen, an aviation consultant and contractor from Port Hadlock, defeated Jim Pivarnik, deputy director of the Port of Port Townsend, 52.8 percent to 47.1 percent in the race for Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioner.
The present commissioner, Kelly Hays, did not seek re-election.
Results in races for the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula and for the 24th state legislative district were unchanged from Tuesday, with Rep. Norm Dick, D-Belfair, assured a 17th term in the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislative incumbents Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam,and Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, winning another term
The auditor’s office had 290 ballots outstanding after Friday’s count, and plans to count those votes at the office at 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend at noon Thursday.
The count is not expected to change any election outcomes.
For more information, see www.co.jefferson.wa.us/Auditor/ or phone 360-385-9117.
