The Methow Valley Citizens Council Action Fund is a 501c4 non-profit organization that works to protect the natural environment and rural character in the Methow Valley, and throughout the Okanogan region. To ready for the 2024 primaries happening on August 6th, we asked some of the candidates running for office in Okanogan County some questions related to issues we work on.
See below to see the candidates’ responses. Candidate responses have not been edited. If you have further questions on any of these topics, we encourage you to reach out to the candidates directly. To stay engaged in MVCC Action Fund’s ongoing advocacy, sign up here.
Okanogan Public Utilities District Commissioner (District 2)
Tony Hawley (nonpartisan): Hawley was the Okanogan County Sheriff until 2023.
Bill Colyar (nonpartisan): Bill Colyar is currently a PUD Commissioner and has served in this capacity since 2017. He is a retired Senior Chief Petty Officer with the US Navy where he served 27 years.
Wayne "Bud" Stevie (nonpartisan): Stevie has spent the last 30 years working as a lineman for the local co-op utility.
Lauren McCloy (nonpartisan): Lauren has served as nonpartisan staff to the Washington state Senate and worked in several roles in the Consumer Protection and Policy Divisions of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC). She has served as Policy Advisor and Legislative Director at the UTC, where she provided guidance to the UTC commissioners on energy policy and led the Commission’s engagement with legislators and the Governor’s office. In 2019, Lauren worked on behalf of the Governor with utilities, advocates, and legislators, to negotiate and pass the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), to put Washington on a pathway to 100% clean electricity while preserving affordability and reliability. In 2021, Lauren joined the NW Energy Coalition as Policy Director, where she guides the Coalition staff’s advocacy on energy efficiency, affordability, and regional energy markets in the four Northwest states.
Hawley, Colyar and Stevie did not respond to requests to respond to the questionnaire.
Q: What changes, if any, would you like to see implemented over the next four years to the PUD’s current approach to managing its operations and finances? If elected, how would you ensure that ratepayers are listened to and that the PUD commissioners are responsive to ratepayers:
McCloy: My impression is that part of the challenge in improving accountability is that the public is not well-informed about the PUD or fully engaged in its processes. This is a multi-faceted challenge. But, I strongly believe that public participation is foundational to making public power work, and the PUD should make a more concerted effort to drive public participation in its processes. I have a few ideas, which I look forward to further developing over the course of the campaign: 1) I would like to see the PUD develop a more long-term vision to guide its budget budget development. This should include a long-term resource plan that includes all cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation resources. This would be done through a multi-stage public process with a public engagement strategy and dedicated staff and resources. 2) the PUD Commission currently reviews key performance indicators, which is helpful, but I would recommend adopting more formal targets to measure success and posting this information in a publicly accessible format so the public can be more informed about how the PUD measures success. 3) the PUD should change the way it conducts its public meetings concerning its budget to encourage more public participation. This could include hosting in-person meetings in each district and scheduling these meetings during the evening, when more people can attend. 4) I would work to get all of the documents discussed at PUD public meetings posted on the PUD's website so the public can access them, and I would request that the PUD revisit its decision to discontinue recording its meetings, due to concerns about records retention requirements.
Q: Are you committed to learning more about tribal history, culture, and the rights of the region? Additionally, will you actively work to uphold tribal agreements and respect the sovereignty of the Colville Confederated Tribes?
McCloy: I am very interested in and committed to learning more about tribal history, culture, and the rights of indigenous people in our region. Upholding tribal agreements and tribal sovereignty is something I'm personally very committed to, and would continue to prioritize with respect to any decisions I would make as PUD commissioner.
Many forecasters see demand for electricity growing over the next decade due to electrification and the clean energy transition.
Q: How should the PUD prepare for such transition?
McCloy: According to the PUD's financial policy, the PUD only conducts an annual load forecast for the purpose of informing BPA and Douglas PUD of its needs in the coming year. This is insufficient for assessing long-term (or even medium-term) resource needs. Larger utilities typically conduct 20-year load forecasts for the purpose of integrated resource planning. Multiple regional forecasts are projecting significant load growth across the region in the coming decade. While Okanogan county might not experience load growth at the same scale as more densely populated regions, we are not immune to either the downstream effects of massive load growth in the region or the direct impacts of load growth on our system. I think the PUD should prepare for this transition by: (1) conducting a longer-term and more granular load forecast. The Northwest Power & Conservation Council's 9th Power Plan will shed more light on the geographic characteristics of load growth by balancing authority, which can help inform the assumptions for North Central Washington; (2) conducting a conservation potential assessment to determine the amount of cost-effective conservation, energy efficiency, and demand response that is available and feasible in Okanogan county over the next decade, and developing a plan to acquire it; (3) issuing a request for information (RFI) for new energy resources to serve expected load growth that cannot be met with (2); and (4) evaluate the options for Post-2028 power contracts with BPA and choose the option that will best enable us to serve load growth as it materializes.
Q: What actions will you take to secure federal and state funding for energy efficiency, transportation, electrification, and other clean energy solutions?
McCloy: As Commissioner, I would actively seek out information about these opportunities from experts and program managers at the state and federal level, and identify the ones that would provide the greatest potential value to PUD customers. It can take significant time and resources to apply for this funding. I would work with PUD management to ensure that PUD staff is properly resourced to apply for competitive funding opportunities and encourage public input into the application process to ensure that we are submitting strong applications. I would also make sure that the PUD is leveraging available technical assistance.
Q: Would you work to support local communities to enact climate plans (such as the Methow Valley’s Climate Action Plan)?
McCloy: Yes. The PUD should actively support community-led efforts like this.
Q: How would you ensure that disadvantaged communities in Okanogan County do not suffer a disproportionate impact from rate increases during this transition?
McCloy: This is a very challenging topic, but one that is very important for PUD leadership to understand and to pay attention to as a means of understanding how the impacts of rate increases fall disproportionately on disadvantaged communities - particularly low-income communities. In general, I think the PUD should start by simply becoming more informed about energy burden in Okanogan county and to take this into account in its decision-making.
Public utility commissions have an outsized role implementing the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives because they dramatically reduce the cost of many clean energy technologies.
Q: If elected, will you prioritize re-examining outdated cost assumptions in planning and procurement, enabling competition to drive new investment in clean energy and retirement?
McCloy: Yes. I would ensure that new planning and procurement efforts included updated cost assumptions which take IRA incentives into account.
Q: Describe how you would take a proactive role in this community transition, and streamline the clean energy interconnection process?
McCloy: A big part of the Commissioners' job is serving as a resource for constituents to help them address their energy needs. In this capacity, I would consider it my duty to meet with people in the community who are trying to develop clean energy projects and try to help them navigate the PUD's processes. I would also work to identify partners who can help them access state and federal clean energy incentives or address siting and permitting questions. I am not well-versed in the specifics of the PUD's interconnection process, but I imagine there are to improve the experience for customers.
Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act requires the PUD to source 100% of its electricity from renewable or non-carbon emitting sources by 2045.
Q: How should the PUD plan to remove coal-fired generation from its energy source?
McCloy: The PUD must remove all coal-fired generation from its energy portfolio by the end of 2025. The law contains exemptions for short-term market purchases. Any coal which is currently present in the PUD's resource mix comes from the BPA system mix and short-term unspecified market purchases. There is some ambiguity about how BPA will accommodate Washington's requirement to ensure that its mix is coal-free by the end of 2025. My personal view is that if Washington utilities are unable to demonstrate that their electricity mix is coal-free by the end of 2025, it will be because current market designs and greenhouse gas accounting methodologies are not sufficient to satisfy Washington's requirement. Okanogan PUD is a small player in this bigger conversation, but as Commissioner, I would make sure that we are doing our due diligence to specify as much of our resources as possible, and that we are diversifying our resources with other clean energy technologies to displace unspecified market purchases which may contain coal.
Q: Should the PUD support expanded local generation of energy from rooftop and solar while minimizing impacts to our rural character and wildlife habitat?
McCloy: Yes. Okanogan PUD is currently highly dependent on hydropower. Expanding rooftop and distributed solar generation helps to diversify our community's energy resources. When paired with batteries or microgrids, distributed solar can also help improve community resilience to wildfires and extreme weather events. All infrastructure has impacts, and it is important that negative impacts to land use and wildlife be minimized and mitigated. While technologies like distributed solar pose challenges for the utility to integrate into the grid, and come with revenue impacts, it is important that the PUD support the broader public interest, which I believe weighs in favor of expanding this technology while minimizing its negative impacts.
Q: Should the PUD continue as a load following customer of the Bonneville Power Administration when the contracts come up for renewal in 2028?
McCloy: The PUD is currently a block customer of BPA. At this time, there isn't enough publicly available information about the prices and rate structures for the different Post-2028 products for me to say with certainty which product I think the PUD should purchase. As Commissioner, I would take this question very seriously and make sure that the PUD staff has conducted a thorough review of all of the options before approving any recommendation. However, I do think BPA's products will continue to be economical for the district, and the PUD will continue to receive a large proportion of its energy from BPA. There may be reasons to consider switching from block to load following, or the new proposed block with shaping capacity product. Planned products (block, slice, etc.) would generally give the PUD more control over how it serves its load, whereas switching to load following would mean that BPA would be making more of our resource decisions for us. I am inclined for the PUD to retain the flexibility provided by a block-type product, but this would need to come with a long-term plan for acquiring more resources to fill the gap not met by BPA and Douglas PUD.
Many well-funded federal and state programs currently support energy-efficient, safe, healthy homes through reimbursement for weatherization services, incentives and subsidies of heat pumps and even indoor air cleaning systems. Yet local organizations and installers indicate a severe labor shortage that prevents the ability to access these programs and funds.
Q: Do you support expanding rebate programs to make it more affordable for Okanogan County families to save money on utility bills by installing new electric appliances, including efficient heat pumps, water heaters, clothes dryers, stoves and ovens, as well as weatherization, insulation, lighting and windows upgrades?
McCloy: Absolutely. This is a top priority. These programs not only save individual customers money, but they reduce overall costs for all customers by reducing energy demand
Q: What role should the PUD play in helping customers take advantage of these programs given the labor challenges?
McCloy: The PUD should be pursuing all cost-effective conservation in order to avoid expensive market power purchases, and should be proactive in working with contractors to help customers make these improvements. I don't believe the PUD is doing everything it could to pursue these savings. The PUD does a decent job of passively managing the programs that it has, but it doesn't prioritize these programs the way it should. For example, the PUD ended its conservation loan program due to low interest and participation, but it didn't replace the program or proactively seek out advice on how it could improve the program. The PUD could be more successful in supporting energy efficiency investments by working directly with housing agencies, Okanogan County Community Action Council, and contractors to promote the programs, refer customers, and get equipment installed. Labor shortages are a challenge, and many of the factors contributing to a shortage of skilled labor are outside of the PUD's control. However, I believe the PUD can do more to support workforce development. The PUD has a successful apprenticeship program for linemen, metermen, and wiremen. We should consider expanding its programs to include other trades, and take advantage of programs like the Washington College Grant, which pays for apprenticeship programs.
Okanogan County Board of Commissioners
Michael Heath (prefers R): Heath has been involved in politics since 1995 fighting against I-655, an initiative to outlaw baiting for bears and hound hunting for cougars, bears and bobcats. He started and operated Wild Horse Auto Glass for 19 years when he and a friend started Ampartlnk and then Ampart which was a distributor of auto parts to RockAuto on an e-commerce platform, which he still owns a minority of today. He also served nearly four years as a county commissioner for Ferry County.
Nick Timm (prefers R): Timm was born and raised in Okanogan County. He served in the Air Force for 10 years. He now buys and rehabilitates old buildings around Okanogan.
Marc Doney (prefers R): Doney is a Marine Corps Veteran and local pastor. In March of 2024 Marc also took on a position with the City of Omak working directly in partnership with Omak P.D. on a new Volunteer based Crime Prevention Program known as Team O.N.E.
Doney did not respond to requests to address the questionnaire.
Q: In your view, what are three biggest issues affecting the land, air and water in Okanogan County. If elected, what actions do you propose to take to address them?
Heath: Growth, wildfires and irrigation. I would like to see balance between conservation and economic stability.
Timm: Forestry Management. Scrub Land Management. Run-Off and flooding from past fires. County Commissioners have a big say in how policy takes shape in Okanogan County. By working with different shareholders in the area we can work to manage our forests and scrub land to avoid the catastrophic fires we've all lived through in the past. I'm a communicator - It's what I have done my entire life in business and in the military - To succeed in this we need to communicate, work together, coordinate and cooperate to address these issues.
Q: If elected, will you work to ensure that the public has full and fair access to information about the basis for the commissioners’ decisions?
Heath: I based my campaign and prior years as Commissioner on Truth, Trust and Transparency. These 3 things are my ethics in life. I believe as a voter you have a right to know why and my reason for any decisions I make. You may not agree with them but told the truth of why!
Timm: Yes. I feel transparency has been a big issue and if elected I'll work to be as transparent as possible so our community has faith in their elected leaders and the decisions we'd be making. I'm from an old family in the area, but that doesn't mean I'll stand by and let things happen just because it's the way it's always been done. I'll get in the way of quick, ineffective decision making and shift to a strategic approach built for long term success.
Q: Are you committed to learning more about tribal history, culture, and the rights of the region? Additionally, will you actively work to uphold tribal agreements and respect the sovereignty of the Colville Confederated Tribes?
Heath: I know more history, culture and agreements dealing with CCT than 95% of tribal membership. My daughters, fiancé and step daughter are members, a good friend was Michael Finley a tribal historian and Cody Desautel is a very close friend. I have lived it my whole life so when it comes to relations with tribe I have a knowledge unlike most.
Timm: I am a proud member of The Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma. I have many friends on The Colville Reservation and have lived on The Reservation most of my life and understand, better than any other Commissioner candidate, what is needed to address the difficult issues present on The Reservation. I've had conversations with individuals and members of The CBC and all are eager to find new and effective ways to address our joint issues. Problems do not stop at the river - Mental health issues, drug use and crime affect us all. We either work together and succeed or continue on the path we've been on.
WILDLIFE AND DROUGHT
Okanogan County is seeing an increase in catastrophic wildfires, extended and more frequent drought, and extreme weather days.
Q: If elected, and what actions do you propose to take to address the impacts from our changing climate?
Heath: I guess that question can be debated on root problem. It is true statement but has many factors for cause of devastating wildfire. I believe we need to be realistic and use common sense to mitigate the ever changing landscape of Okanogan County by finding causes and work on high risk issues.
Timm: In this day it is even more important to proactively and productively manage our forest land and scrub land. Strategic thinning and pruning, with modern management techniques can and will have a positive effect on the issues Okanogan County faces. We all remember The Carlton Complex Fire and how the pine beetle made the issue so much worse. It's upon us to respond to and plan ahead to address the issues before they reach catastrophic levels once again.
Q: How would you ensure that disadvantaged communities do not suffer a disproportionate impact from climate change and environmental problems?
Heath: Okanogan County is at a crossroads in general sense as to what we want to see the county look like in next 25 years. Does it want to stay rural or become a suburban sprawl? I would be the voice of the people but personally I want to see Okanogan County stay rural so there’s many things to consider to go that direction.
Timm: My platform is built on bringing business back to Okanogan County. At the moment we have very little in the way of living wage jobs and housing for our people and it shows in our local economy. We need a productive, efficient way to bring resources into the area to raise the standard of living for all of our constituents. A rising tide floats all ships - Let's make something very cool happen while keeping Okanogan County, Okanogan.
Q: Would you work to support local communities to enact climate plans (such as the Methow Valley’s Climate Action Plan)?
Heath:I have not read the action plan so until I have I won’t answer that question
Timm:That's a big topic - Let's discuss that.
AIR QUALITY
Okanogan County’s air pollution is predominantly due to smoke from wildfire, agricultural burning, outdoor burning, prescribed burning, and woodsmoke, with some contributions from dust and vehicular exhaust in larger towns.
Q: How would you work with the community to improve air quality?
Legislative District 7 Representatives
Position 1:
Teagan Levine (R)
Andrew Engell (R)
Soo Ing-Moody (R)
Position 2:
Hunter Abell (R)
Pat Bell (R)
Ronald McCoy (R)
Paul "Rocky" Dean (D)
We will publish results from the LD7 Questionnaire before the general election. The Methow Valley News has published responses from these candidates to their questionnaire here.
The MVCC Action Fund appreciates the candidates that took the time to respond to these questions and their commitment to the people of Okanogan County!