City Council should keep exceptional TPU director
The Tacoma City Council should keep the promises it made to voters and approve Bill Gaines to continue his service as director of Tacoma Public Utilities.
I have long believed that TPU is Tacoma's most valuable asset. We need someone of Gaines' caliber to manage $2 billion of infrastructure and operations of more than $500 million annually.
As a former member of the City Council, past chair of the Tacoma Public Utility Board and resident of Tacoma for 60-plus years, I can say that Gaines remains an exceptional leader.
Look at the record:
Gaines and his staff have successfully navigated drought, Bonneville Power Administration rate increases and a dynamic energy market to ensure that we pay some of the lowest electricity prices in the country.
This year, TPU brought a state-of-the-art drinking water treatment plant online ahead of schedule and more than $20 million under budget. That facility will ensure access to clean drinking water long into the future.
TPU has never been more committed to energy conservation. Tacoma Power’s award-winning energy savings measures have saved customers money, aided business growth and will help Tacoma Power avoid buying more expensive power for years to come.
During the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Tacoma Public Utilities strengthened its credit ratings, saving ratepayers money while ensuring reliable service to our homes and businesses.
And TPU’s customers overwhelmingly approve of the job Gaines and his staff do in providing reliable, low-cost utility services.
Now our City Council has a decision. On the merits, it is obvious what the right decision is.
Last fall, voters approved a new requirement that the City Council confirm the director of TPU. I and many others opposed this proposal because we believed council approval would inject harmful politics into utility operations. Members of our current council promised that they don’t want to meddle in the operations of TPU.
We are soon going to find out if that’s the case.
I think most people believe that the TPU director should be evaluated on experience and performance – not on politics. This summer, TPU’s board, charged by the mayor and our City Council to run our utility, approved Gaines’s job performance by a 5-0 vote.
Now the council must keep its promises to voters.
Tacoma’s business and political leaders say they want to recruit smart people to Tacoma and give a reason for our city’s best and brightest to build a life in the City of Destiny.
Gaines, a Tacoma native, came home to run his hometown utility and by any measure has done an outstanding job for us.
If this decision is on the merits, he should easily be confirmed by our City Council.
Any other result is less than what the City Council promised us.
Community activist Dawn Lucien has served on the Tacoma City Council chair and as chair of the Tacoma Public Utility Board.
This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "City Council should keep exceptional TPU director."