George Mulligan brings deep experience, an open mind and conservative values to the Board. His long commitment to the community as a 15 year resident of Friday Harbor and his 3 years of OPALCO Board experience qualifies him to continue to steer OPALCO through some difficult transitionary times. Energy sources, mixes, subsidies, BPA regulatory as well as issues of land use for local production all fall into George Mulligan’s are of expertise. His conservative view of financial operations, as well as his demonstrated efforts in making OPALCO’s financial and control functions more transparent and easier to understand, helped make my decision to endorse George. Furthermore his genuine interest in maximizing the value of OPALCO’s other investments, such as the Fiber network are crucial today. The San Juan Islands Internet economy must move forward on a broad basis, not just the library and public services internet users. I believe George is committed to the community long term economic benefits. I see OPALCO as a critical resource to a broadbased economic recovery in the Islands. By diversifying the local economy to include and embrace Internet related businesses, which are can be enabled by OPALCO fiber, I see a broad improvement to the commonwealth of the Islands.
Vincent Dauciunas’ is a new comer to the Board. His understanding of applied technologies and his engineering experience in systems needed to maximize efficiencies in energy production, distribution and measurement/control, are a cornerstone to rapid development of policies, models, and strategies needed to accelerate the transition away from non-renewables, and on to safer, more robust, reliable, locally produced energy sources. Not all our energy will come from local sources, but nearly none does today. I see Vincent’s participation in the Board as positive, proactive, rational and driven by an understanding of the elements of any new venture – practical understanding of the resources we have, the economic constraints, the evolution of technology and the application of processes to achieve those goals. From all I know currently about Vincent, I’m heartily endorsing him.
My endorsement is based on observations and interaction with George Mulligan in Board meetings as a guest, and in a handful of question answer emails and the information he provided. My endorsement of Vincent Daucinunas is based on information he’s supplied the general public.
There is no discussion about energy mix on going with any of the candidates.
