He was born and raised in Washington State and is committed to protecting our public power rights. More Information
He is a graduate of Battle Ground High School, Washington State University (BS Degree in Electrical Engineering), Texas A&M University (MS degree in Electrical Engineering) and Stanford University (MS degree Management - Sloan Fellow).
His 31 year electric utility power engineering/management career and current position as the Clark College Power Utility Technologies Instructor will provide technical capability absent on the current Clark PUD Board of Commissioners.
He has been a regular attendee of CPUD Board of Commissioners meetings since the early 1990s when he joined other energy professionals in opposing plans to risk losing our BPA public power supply rights forever. Unfortunately that risk was taken and as a result our rates are over 40% higher than they should be and we have permanently lost the rights to the large block of low cost BPA power represented by the River Road Natural Gas fired generation plant. Jim has the knowledge and experience to avoid such blunders in the future and evaluate alternatives which could lower our rates. More Information
He is a board member of Fish First, North Clark Historical Museum, Clark County Citizens United and the Mt. Valley Grange and is a member of the Clark County Endangered Species Act Advisory Committee. He has proven his ability to work constructively with diverse groups of local citizens and government agencies.
Reasons to vote for Jim vs. the incumbent Carol Curtis:
He is technically qualified. The incumbent is not and supported policies which have caused our rates which were among the lowest in the state to be among the highest and higher than the rates of all three of the private power companies serving the state.
He will aggressively work to protect our public power rights. The incumbent wanted to be a player in deregulated markets which violated fundamental public power principles.
He will not hide PUD information from the owners/ratepayers of the district. The incumbent supported such policies. More Information
He will work to improve poor management/labor relations occuring in some sections of the utility. The incumbent voted to fire a promising young General Manager who was attempting to improve those relationships. More Information
24 years of poor leadership is enough. VOTE FOR JIM to represent YOU on the CPUD Board of Commissioners.