When Jane Van Dyke takes office in January as a Clark Public Utilities commissioner, she’ll join a voter-owned utility juggling everything from a new community solar project to a high-maintenance contract with the Bonneville Power Administration.
Suffice it to say, she’s ready to go to work.
“I want to be sure Clark Public Utilities is always on that leading edge,” she said.
In the November general election, Van Dyke garnered 52.4 percent of the vote, defeating incumbent Byron Hanke and winning a six-year term representing District 3, which encompasses an area that includes Vancouver west of Interstate 205.
It won’t be her first time helping decide the customer-owned utility’s annual budgets, set electric and water rates, and oversee the utility’s chief executive. After all, Van Dyke previously served as a Clark Public Utilities commissioner from 1984 to 2002.
On Jan. 1, she will join commissioners Nancy Barnes and Jim Malinowski at the dais, overseeing a utility that provides electricity to more than 185,000 customers, and that supplies water to more than 31,000 homes and businesses in the region.
Van Dyke, 62, has been a leader of nonprofit organizations for some 20 years, currently as executive director of the Columbia Slough Watershed Council. She recently sat down with The Columbian to discuss everything from her passion for energy conservation to the utility’s emphasis on customer service.
Her comments are edited for brevity and clarity.
It’s not easy to defeat an incumbent. How did you pull it off?
I did hold this office for many years, so I had lots of name familiarity. We did a lot of things that added up to a successful campaign. I got out and met people, attended events, did a mailing, did a fair amount of doorbelling, went to the parades. And I did a lot of what I call ‘friends and family’ — just getting people you know to tell people they know, and getting people to vote. One person said they voted for me because my opponent didn’t have a Facebook page. You just have to remind people to vote in this race.
What has or hasn’t changed about your priorities from when you first served as a commissioner?
I’m still really interested in energy conservation and efficiency, and would like to be sure the utility is active and involved in that. The utility has an active program working with their industrial and commercial customers. That’s where some big chunks of efficiency can take place. Residential stuff adds up, but changing some processes and even lighting at those larger buildings and facilities can really make a difference. Now, there’s a different Bonneville contract with the slice and block product, and so there’s a lot more management taking place in terms of buying (natural) gas for the (River Road) plant and hedging those purchases. There’s just a lot more moving parts.
What do you think of the utility’s pursuit of a solar project allowing customers to purchase a stake in putting electricity generated by the sun onto the grid?
They weren’t talking about it nine months ago, so it’s really great to see it get started. I would still say, from my perspective, it’s probably too bad it didn’t happen earlier, because the legislation was passed, the incentives were there. But, you know, now it’s happening. It’s going to hopefully be well-received and subscribed to by the public. And I would certainly advocate for it.
Clark Public Utilities is well-regarded with top ratings for customer service. Is there room for improvement?
The utility business is big. Sometimes it’s a little slow, but sometimes things can change pretty fast, too. But to sit and say we’re going to provide great customer service and everyone loves us and all is good is not the best leadership to have in any sort of challenging industry.
Don’t rest on your laurels, right?
Yeah, and I think that’s frankly how we got to the whole emphasis on customer service when we started it in the ’90s. People did say your customers are captive, they’re not going to leave you. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about customer service.
