For More Information Contact:
Lance Robertson, 984-4716
Eugene Water & Electric Board

Feb. 6, 2008

John Simpson delivers “state of the utility” message

At the start of each year, the incoming president of EWEB’s Board of Commissioners delivers a “state of the utility” message. Tuesday night (Feb. 5), Commissioner John Simpson delivered the following message to customers and employees of the utility:

Preamble: Tonight I'm going to depart a little bit from the traditional president's message. While EWEB accomplished a lot over the past year, largely the result of the hard work of our employees and the continued support of our customers, this year promises to be one in which a number of major initiatives come to fruition. So I'm focusing on what's ahead of us. My aim is not to slight anyone or ignore our past accomplishments. It's just that we have a lot of work do to again in 2008, and I want to make sure the community understands this ambitious agenda.

One hundred years ago this April, the citizens of Eugene decisively voted to create a publicly owned municipal utility. The vote passed 567 to 171, and set into motion the purchase of a poorly run, unsafe private water system, putting it into the hands of the people of Eugene to run in perpetuity.

It was the first act of “public involvement” in what is now the Eugene Water & Electric Board. In the nearly 100 years since the first meeting of the Eugene Water Board in 1911, public involvement has been a value of the best-run municipal utility in the nation.

Over the years, the public has weighed in and helped shape EWEB as we know it today. Of course, we have a board – elected by the citizens of Eugene – that makes all key policy and financial decisions. But EWEB customers also have played key roles in shaping the outcome of many specific projects and initiatives, some controversial; others not so contentious.

EWEB’s robust and pioneering energy conservation program was born from the encouragement of our customers following the first energy crisis in the mid-1970s. Citizens also played key roles in the siting and construction of the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project, in moving away from nuclear power, in our push into renewable energy resources, and in protecting and safeguarding our sole water source, the McKenzie River. We relied on the advice and consent of our customers in each of these major issues, projects and initiatives.

This year again promises to be one in which engaging our citizen-owners and customers is critical. Several projects are under way, about to begin or nearing a key decision point. Tonight, for example, the Board will decide whether to approve the funding of the Roosevelt Operations Center, culminating a decade-long process to find a new home for our electric and water operations, thereby making surplus riverfront property available to a higher and better use by the community. This process has involved numerous public meetings during which customers have had the opportunity to weigh in on the project.

EWEB’s board and general manager have promised to make “public participation” a key initiative in 2008. Part of this is based on a need to increase citizen involvement and feedback in the decisions we make, to meet the changing expectations of the public. Part of this effort is the result of recognition by EWEB that we haven’t always met our customers’ expectations in this area. A third key driver, however, is that EWEB has a number of major initiatives that will require us to inform or seek the advice of our customers about decisions that will affect the utility for many years in the future.

We are starting to create a Master Plan for the riverfront property that will be vacated once we build the new electric and water operations center in west Eugene. We are creating a nine-member Community Advisory Team, or “CAT,” which will spend the next year-and-a-half creating a vision for how this valuable piece of property will be utilized. It's an exciting piece of work that will revitalize the central core of our city with a plan that creates a vibrant “riverplace” that the citizens of Eugene will enjoy for many decades in the future.

We continue to collaborate with state and federal natural resource agencies, as well as key environmental groups, flyfishing clubs and others, to craft a workable, affordable and acceptable agreement on relicensing Eugene’s most valuable source of energy, the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project. Our goal is to ensure that we protect the river, its fish and the other natural resources impacted by the project while retaining the project’s high value as a source of electricity.

Although not a new issue, we must continue working closely with McKenzie River residents and river users to select a site for a new boat landing in the vicinity of Leaburg Lake.

This year, we expect to start taking a serious look at the future of the steam plant, and will engage our steam customers and other stakeholders to discuss possible decommissioning and other alternatives.

As we move closer to building the Roosevelt Operations Center about mid-year, we will engage the Bethel neighborhood on such issues as traffic impacts, wetlands preservation and restoration, and potential construction impacts.

The Board adopted a climate change policy last September but will be revisiting the issue in the year to come, with the help and advice of interested citizens.

We will be asking our customers and others to give us advice and feedback on the future of our energy conservation programs, as we examine how well our current programs match up with the available conservation “savings” still available to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

It will be a busy year. Each of these projects and initiatives will occupy plenty of staff time, and almost all of them are unfolding in parallel. It's an ambitious agenda, I know. But I am confident that our employees – the best and most professional employees of any utility in the nation – will get the job done, on time, and under budget in partnership with the citizens of this great Northwest city, Eugene, Oregon. Just as they always have for nearly one hundred years.