PSE, PUD hold ‘cordial’ talks
No decisions in initial meeting between the utility providers
By FRANNY WHITE
Staff Writer M O U N T V E R N O N — Officials of Puget Sound Energy met with representatives of the Skagit County Public Utility District on Monday for the first time since learning that the PUD was considering providing electrical power to its customers. Both sides described the meeting as “cordial.” No decisions were made at the nearly two-hour-long private meeting, which both sides said was introductory. Meanwhile, PUD commissioners may take up the matter publicly for the first time on their own at their regular weekly meeting today. Monday’s informational gathering was the first time that PSE officials have met new PUD General Manager David Johnson, who took his post in July. Those attending the meeting were: Johnson, PUD Commissioner Robbie Robertson, PSE Community Relations Manager Ray Trzynka, PSE Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Phil Bussey and PSE Major Accounts Executive Scott Corzine. Johnson said PSE officials described the company’s pending sale to Macquarie Consortium, an association of investment groups and pension funds in New York, Canada and Australia. And PUD leaders, in turn, described how the public approached them with concerns about that sale and encouraged the district to consider offering electricity in addition to the drinking water the utility already provides. “It was a good, cordial
meeting,” Robertson said after the meeting. “In no way, shape or form was this meeting to be considered or construed as adversarial.” PSE learned that the PUD was considering the possibility of providing electrical service Wednesday when a reporter called Bellevue-based company to ask about it. Both the PUD and PSE say they two groups had been trying to get together since shortly after Johnson became the new general manager this summer. “The meeting today was not in response to the PUD’s expression of looking to providing electricity,” said Martha Monfried, PSE director of corporate communications. “It was really to start the dialogue and begin the relationship since the new manager” arrived. “We try to be responsive to all our customers,” Monfried continued. “The PUD is a customer, so we’re working together to find out what they need so we’re working together.” Johnson said the meeting “really hasn’t changed my perspective.” But, he added, “it’s really not my perspective that counts; it’s really our customers’ perspectives that count.” The PUD could send the matter to voters as soon as November on a ballot measure asking the county’s electorate if the PUD should have the authority to provide electricity. The topic of providing electricity could be discussed at the PUD’s regular meeting today, Robertson said. The PUD board has not formally discussed the matter, even though individual commissioners have met with local government officials about the issue since January.