The race for a seat on the TDPUD Board of Directors is shaping up to be, well, downright exciting! With a total of eight candidates, two of them incumbents, battling for just three seats, it’s the most competitive race the PUD Board has seen in years, if ever. The challengers are impressive, and for the most part, were drawn to compete as a result of the now infamous ‘coal debates’ at the end of 2006. The incumbents, Joe Aguera and Bill Thomason, think they’ve done a great job transitioning the PUD to a greener, more environmentally friendly utility district. Most challengers don’t disagree with that stance, but want to do much more.
While all the candidates talk up renewable energy standards, conservation programs and the greening of the PUD, the transition to mandatory water metering could turn out to be the next Board of Directors own ‘coal debate.’
How the candidates position themselves to stand out among the crowd and how they handle themselves during public debates and forums will be a big factor in this race. Plan on going to the PUD Candidate Forum on October 14 at 6 p.m. at Truckee Town Hall, or at least watching it on Channel 24. If you miss it that night, you can watch it during Saturday re-broadcasts, right up until Election Day.
Joe Aguera is a 40-year resident of Truckee, former owner of the Truckee Tahoe Mortuary, and was originally appointed to the PUD Board in 1986. He and his wife Claire have three sons, four grandchildren and live in Sierra Meadows, where we met to discuss Joe’s re-election bid.
Aguera has a long and varied history of public service in addition to his service on the PUD Board – Cemetery Board, Fire District, Lion’s Club president, Rotary and more. He feels he has an open door policy and is good at bringing people together.
Though challenging, he believes the Board is doing a good job implementing conservation programs and finding new sources of renewable energy. ‘The conservation program is coming along real nice…we’ve given away $80,000 worth of free CFLs [compact fluorescent lightbulbs] to the community so far!’
He’s concerned that with the coming election, the ‘PUD might have a whole new board…I’d like to see these projects through. I have the background from being on the Board so long. I know what we can and can’t do.’
530-587-5481, mrsmorticia@eathlink.net
Jeff Bender lives in downtown Truckee on the river with his wife Yvette and their two children. He’s spent the last two years as a member of the Truckee Planning Commission, and also served on the town’s Green Building Committee.
He’s running for the PUD because he feels it’s a good fit for him. Jeff owns Bender Engineering and Commissioning, a firm specializing in green building certification, energy modeling and review. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Texas.
If elected, he wants to combine sound environmental policy with good economics to achieve what he calls ‘smart energy.’ Conservation programs, increasing renewable energy standards, and negotiating good power contracts are all part of his smart energy plan.
He wants to be proactive about the water issues in the district and feels his ‘engineering background will be a help.’ He admits, ‘I like this stuff…that’s why I’m doing it. I like talking about water and pumps…conservation, etc. I’d like to apply it to the greater public good.’
530-582-5578, jeff@becx.net
John Hillstrom has been in Truckee 10 years, is married, has two dogs, and is an avid bike and cross-country ski racer. He telecommutes from his home in Tahoe Donner, working as a software engineer for a solar energy company called Clean Power Research based in Napa.
He holds an MBA in Finance from Stanford, a degree in Political Science and also a Masters in Systems Engineering. He’s the only candidate to have served on the PUD’s Conservation Committee over the past year and has some very specific goals he’d like to accomplish if elected: Get tiered electric rates implemented, make the PUD building a model of energy efficiency, bring a better tone and pace to the meetings, promote the great quality of our drinking water and have bilingual bill inserts.
Hillstrom believes ‘Truckee is uniquely positioned to have some of the cleanest and most affordable power in the country and we need to take advantage of it…biomass, wind, geothermal, co-generation, reasonably large scale solar…we need to look everything.’
530-550-9411, jhillstrom@yahoo.com
Bob Johnston has been in Truckee since 1993 and is retired from UC Davis but still works on economic policy research using his Tahoe Donner home as a base of operations. He’s nearing the end of his first term on the Truckee Planning Commission and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Nevada Alliance.
He wants to ‘take the PUD in the direction it is now going’ and would implement everything the conservation committee recommended. He refers to himself as an ‘incrementalist,’ wanting to take steps towards increasing the PUD’s renewable power options as and when they become economically feasible, noting PV will be cheaper in 10 years. He wants to ‘see what everything costs…then do it.’ Johnston is a strong believer in water and electric conservation programs and thinks pricing should be based on use and units of consumption.
The main point of my candidacy, Johnston points out, is to ‘make the PUD an example for utilities all over the United States and make power a local economic development issue.’
530-582-0700
Tony Laliotis lives in Sierra Meadows with his wife and young son and has been working for Tahoe City Public Utility District for 10 years. He’s currently the Director of Utilities, handling the water and sewer system, which runs from Emerald Bay to Dollar Point. He’s interested in serving on the PUD board to give back to and become more involved in the Truckee community.
He believes he can bring an extensive knowledge of water systems to the Board at a time when the PUD is facing a big ‘transition from a flat rate to a metered system…which is going to be very difficult and very eye opening for customers.’ Laliotis oversaw the TCPUD’s recent transition. He sees a great challenge in ‘tackling the electric side which he finds even more complex and fascinating.’
He thinks the ‘PUD is headed in the right direction and supports the continued push towards a more diversified portfolio’ and believes ‘conservation is a number one priority and the building block for the rest of the PUD’s programs.’
530-550-1886, tonylaliotis@yahoo.com
Neal Mock has been in Truckee for 20 years and lives with his wife, Sue, and their twins near Meadow Park. He also has two grown children and three grandchildren. Neal works for Suddenlink and part time in the winter for Waltman Snow Plowing. He’s also worked for Solar Wind Works, a solar and wind energy company in Truckee.
Neal is emphatic when questioned about what he would do if elected to the Board. ‘While I applaud the Board’s adoption of the 21 percent renewable energy standard by 2010, it’s 79 percent short and two years late.’
Mock believes Truckee is an optimum place to utilize solar power. He’s had a PV system for nearly six years at his own home, which provides two-thirds of the family’s energy needs.
In terms of winning an elected seat, Mock reflects, ‘I don’t care if I win or lose, I want the focus shifted…I’d love to be a part of the conversation on the Board, but I’ll be a part of the conversation regardless.’
530-386-6364, nealmock@usamedia.tv
Bill Thomason, one of two incumbents running for re-election this year, is excited by the number of challengers in the race. He’s a Certified Public Accountant with an office at Donner Lake, lives with his wife Paige in Glenshire, and is currently the Vice-Chair of the PUD Board.
Thomason is proud of his accomplishments on the Board as he looks back on his first term, noting among them, working to get the PUD meetings not only televised for the first time, but now also streamed live over the internet. He also cites the hiring of a new general manager, conservation director and a huge upswing in conservation programs as successes of the current Board. ‘I think we’re doing plenty!’ He’d like to see the PUD building retrofitted with a solar PV system.
He notes that the shift towards metered water will be challenging, but will be studied carefully before implementation.
His ‘business background as a CPA is valuable to any Board and I like giving back to the community. I like community service.’
530-582-0112
Dan Warren lives in Sierra Meadows and has been in Truckee since 1984. He has a 15-year old daughter, a large vegetable garden and three chickens in the backyard. Warren worked as Ski Patrol Director at Northstar for 15 years and now works as General Manager of the Glenshire/Devonshire Residents Association.
This isn’t Warren’s first election bid. He ran for Congress as a Libertarian candidate against Brown and Doolittle in 2006 and got 5 percent of the vote.
Warren started going to PUD meetings when the coal debate was raging, and has continued to be present and take an interest ever since. He believes positive changes have occurred, but feels ‘we need to continue that trend into the future.’ Warren feels we have enough resources around us to be self-sufficient and would like to see an increase in co-generation facilities and more hydroelectric power.
Warren also wants to look at wind, solar and geothermal power options whenever feasible and wants to carefully analyze water supply and usage in the District.
‘I’ve put my time and effort in and done my homework and could balance environmentally friendly power needs with costs in the future.’
danoutside@sbcglobal.net
