Six Island County residents have filed to run for three commissioner seats for the proposed Whidbey-based public utility district.

Voters will elect PUD commissioners on Nov. 4, at the same time they decide if they want to continue the push toward a locally-controlled power company for Whidbey Island.

The filing period ended Friday afternoon.

For District 3, which covers the South End and stretches all the way to Coupeville, Georgia Gardner of Coupeville, David Arnold of Clinton and Dan Schlangen of Clinton have stepped forward.

For District 2, which stretches from Coupeville and includes the city of Oak Harbor, Brien Linnquist and Patrick Harman have filed with the Island County Auditor Office.

Marshall Goldberg, who is also the chairman of the Island County Democrats, threw his hat in the race for

District 1, which covers all of North Whidbey, including the Navy’s Seaplane Base in Oak Harbor.

It was a last-minute decision, Goldberg said.

“I filed late. I filed at 12:30 p.m. on Friday,” he said.

“The reason why I filed was, I heard from a reliable source that if there wasn’t a candidate, the measure wouldn’t move forward,” Goldberg said.

He said he is absolutely committed to more local control of the island’s electrical power and is excited about future visions of tidal, solar and wind power for Whidbey.

Goldberg checked Monday morning with the auditor if any competitors had come forward since he dropped off his application.

“The way things look, I may have a new job,” he said.

Coupeville resident Gardner, who would represent the South End, is a former state senator.

“I’m running because I firmly believe that formation of a PUD is in Whidbey’s best interests, and because of my knowledge and experience, I believe I can facilitate its organization,” Gardner said.

Gardner has owned and operated an accounting firm in Blaine and also served on the Blaine City Council.

“Blaine has its own electric utility, so I have experience with running the utility and enterprise funding,” she said. “At various times, Blaine annexed additional territory and we were therefore involved in negotiations to buy facilities and equipment from Puget Sound Energy. I know how that works, and I know negotiation strategy with PSE.”

And somebody who knows how to deal with the utility would be in the best interest of the PUD supporters. PSE unveiled a report last week calling the attempt to form a local PUD financially unfeasible and risky.

The utility’s consultant warned of electric-rate increases of 20 percent, and said a takeover would cost $130 million.

Gardner said the number is high.

“They are basing the purchase of assets on an exaggerated value, typically almost

replacement value,” Gardner said. “I would expect the negotiations to substantially reduce the amount they quote.”

“Secondly, their motivation is to scare voters into turning down the PUD ballot measure. This makes any of their statements suspect,” she added.

However, to come up with a better estimate, PUD backers need more information, she said.

“We would need to see a breakdown of each cost they used to come up with this projection before we can find their errors or exaggerations,” she said. “I think we should just take it for what it is worth: It’s a political statement intended to sway an election to their point of view.”

While PSE and UtiliPoint’s $130 million estimate is broken down within the report into cost for distribution assets, start-up cost, going concern and legal and consulting bills, the report doesn’t break down the numbers further.

So far, PUD supporters have not released dollar figures to counter UtiliPoint’s study.

“With regard to the firm dollar figures, I don’t think we’ll ever have them,” Gardner said. “As time goes by and more detail is provided to us, we’ll have better and better guesses, but so much depends on the purchase of PSE assets.”

Harman also said he is not sure what the cost of a takeover will be. He said he has not yet seen estimates from “People For Yes on Whidbey PUD,” the group that started the PUD movement on Whidbey.

Harman said Whidbey Island needs to see a truly independent study.

“PSE says it (a PUD takeover) would raise our rates 20 percent, yet they are asking for a 12-percent rate increase at the moment,” Harman said. “They are not very aggressive about containing their own costs.”

Gardner added that the benefit of local control outweighs many unknowns.

She said the Whidbey PUD is counting on getting discounted power from the Bonneville Power Administration.

“The key is the beneficial rate from Bonneville,” Gardner said. “If we start out paying less for our power, if our debt is incurred only for local assets, if we eliminate expensive management and its perks, if we create local jobs that add to our economy, and if we experience improved service, which we certainly will, we can see that formation of our own PUD is bound to provide better service at a lower cost.”

“Between now and the election, it will be our job to put numbers to these elements and give people our best guesses on costs,” Gardner said.

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