Five contend for one seat on Clark PUD commission

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in English and journalism

Experience: Running for fourth six-year term on the commission.

Facebook page: Nancy Barnes for Clark PUD Commissioner

Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University; master’s in business administration from Portland State University.

Experience: Retired after 30 years working for the Bonneville Power Administration in several engineering and management positions.

Website: none

Education: Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, University of Portland; associate degrees in general studies and mechanical engineering from Clark College.

Experience: Retired Vancouver firefighter. Commissioner for Clark County Fire District 5 since April 2000.

Website: none

Education: master’s in procurement information.

Experience: Former Air Force officer, computer consultant and Boeing analyst.

Website: none

Education: Some college, tax preparation and business.

Experience: Tax preparer working for certified public accountant.

Website: http://johnelkin.weebly.com.

Clark Public Utilities commissioner Nancy Barnes ran unopposed in 2004.

This time, trying for her fourth six-year term, she faces four challengers. Each contends that, after Barnes’ 18 years on the board, it’s time for a fresh perspective.

The position pays $1,800 a month plus benefits and a $104 per-diem when conducting business.

Barnes, along with Jeff Bier, John Elkin, Mike Lyons and Robert Nichols, all say they’re focused on keeping electricity and water rates as low as possible.

Barnes earned her position on the three-member board in 1992 by unseating incumbent commissioner Paul Runyan.

At the time, she volunteered with the Evergreen School District and worked with her family’s payroll and accounting business. She said she saw how households, businesses and the schools were directly affected by the monthly utility bill.

“This is something that touches every household, from rich to poor,” she said.

Barnes was part of the board when the utility diversified its energy supply by opening the $160 million gas-fired River Road Generating Plant in 1997. These days, she said, the influx of new wind energy makes it an even more challenging and exciting era in the energy business.

“In the time I’ve been on the commission, change has become exponential in its speed,” Barnes told The Columbian’s editorial board.

Jeff Bier said he decided to run for the position to make sure Barnes had at least one challenger.

“I don’t like people getting a free ride,” he said.

An hour after he submitted his paperwork, on the second-to-last day of filing week, three other candidates did the same thing. Even so, Bier said, he believes he brings the right experience as a retired Air Force officer and former Boeing analyst now working part time as executive director of the Southwest Washington Veterans Business Resource Center.

Robert Nichols, now retired after working 30 years in several engineering and management positions with the Bonneville Power Administration, said he would bring a deep understanding of the power industry along with a firm resolve to keep rates low. He’s skeptical about the utility’s making investments in renewable energy or conservation, preferring to provide information for customers while allowing the market to work.

Nichols said he will be able to provide an independent and knowledgeable counterbalance to the utility’s management team.

“The staff comes in there and razzle-dazzles them, and they don’t have the knowledge to know if they’re being razzle-dazzled or not,” he said.

Mike Lyons, a retired Vancouver firefighter who serves on the board of Clark County Fire District 5, said he’s actually been impressed by Barnes and fellow commissioners Carol Curtis and Byron Hanke.

“Nancy Barnes, with 18 years of experience, I find to be very knowledgeable,” Lyons said. “That’s a terrible thing to say if you’re running against someone, right?”

He quickly added that he will provide a stronger voice for keeping rates low by pushing to modify a state law that will require Clark to boost wind and other “green” energy to 15 percent of its portfolio by 2020.

“I don’t know if her focus is on the economic situation we’re in as much as me,” he said.

Lyons said his experience as a fire district commissioner for the past 10 years gives him the insight to push the utility’s staff for cost-cutting options before raising rates.

John Elkin, a licensed tax preparer who works for a certified public accountant, is also running on a low-rates platform. He said he’s making his first run for public office because he believes the commission is “in dire need of fresh ideas.”

He said he would push to modify the voter-approved law requiring the utility to buy wind energy.

I’m for green energy, but I’m for green energy at a slower pace than is being forced at us by Initiative 937,” he said.

The Vancouver-based public utility district provides electricity to more than 180,000 customers throughout Clark County and water to 30,000, mostly in Hazel Dell, Felida and Salmon Creek.