(The Center Square) – Despite key city council opposition to his appointment, Dennis McLerran’s tenure as the new interim general manager and CEO of Seattle City Light isn’t expected to be short.
McLerran told The Center Square Monday night that he plans to serve for a year and a half to two years as part of an agreement with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s administration.
The longer term interim role for McLerran comes as City Council President Joy Hollingsworth and Councilman Dan Strauss, chairman of the finance committee, say they are opposed to McLerran being on the job in a permanent capacity because of his lack of experience working for a utility.
McLerran couldn’t be appointed to a four-year term to coincide with the mayor without the two powerful members’ approval, since their permission is needed to fill out the paperwork to get on the city payroll permanently.
Wilson has the exclusive power to appoint interim or “acting” department heads, such as the general manager and CEO of Seatle City Light. These temporary roles, unlike permanent roles, do not require immediate confirmation by the city council.
“I committed that much time to the mayor – more like 18 to 24 months – so she can do a good search process,” McLerran said of his successor in a text message to The Center Square. “A lot can and will be accomplished while I am here.”
He did not offer specific plans.
City spokesperson Sage Wilson (no relation to Mayor Wilson) said that McLerran was never going to be the permanent CEO of Seattle City Light, the tenth largest public utility in the U.S.
“Dennis was always intended to serve on a temporary basis until a national search for a new permanent leader,” he emailed The Center Square.
Mayor Wilson never mentioned that the appointment of McLerran, a former regional federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator during the Obama administration, was temporary. She announced his appointment on Jan. 16 in a press release.
McLerran is scheduled to replace Dawn Lindell, who had only served for a year and a half before Wilson fired her. Seattle City Light gets most of its power through hydro power, but Lindell has pushed to expand power generation to solar and wind.
Wilson did not explain why she terminated Lindell.
Since the Jan. 16 announcement of McLerran’s appointment, employee unions representing workers at the municipal utility have objected to his hiring, citing the utility experience Lindell has and McLerran lacks.
Lindell was the general manager of Burbank Water and Power in California before being named to the Seattle position.
She made almost $500,000 in Seattle, the highest paid city position, although that is less than what many privately owned utilities pay their top executives.
Adding to McLerran’s opposition has been Hollingsworth and Strauss.
In a letter to the mayor last week, the two city legislators said that the new CEO must have utility experience.
McLerran has never worked at a utility, though he has represented utilities in his last position as an environmental lawyer. He also served as EPA regional administrator for the Pacific Northwest for seven years.
The two council members explained in their letter why they felt prior utility experience was essential.
“During the Enron financial scandal, Seattle had a CEO of SCL who was a good person and an experienced administer but lacked utility experience,” said the letter obtained by The Center Square. “This lack of utility experience led to a 58 percent rate increase and $500 million in additional debt while neighboring Tacoma, who had a CEO with utility experience, responded with grounded leadership and avoided the harm SCL experienced.”
Hollingsworth said with a smile Tuesday that Mayor Wilson is going to “do what she wants to do” in terms of keeping McLerran employed for the long term.
“I am not going to sign the paperwork” to make him permanent, she said.
The next Seattle City Light head is expected to face a challenging environment with the possibility of the energy supply being inadequate to meet the demand for power by 2028.
A move by state official to cleaner energy production, even though there is a shortage of green generation facilities, and increased demands for power from data centers, are among the factors expected to put a strain on available electric generation.
The Jan. 16 press release announcing McLerran’s appointment came with a headline touting the mayor’s decision on “Leadership at Seattle City Light.”
In the press release, the mayor said that she was going to “bring on” McLerran as the acting head of the utility. City appointments by the mayor of top executives would normally be considered acting or interim until the city council approved them.
McLerran was also quoted in the press release.
“I am very pleased and excited to be asked by Mayor Wilson to become the next General Manager & CEO at Seattle City Light,” he said. “City Light is at an important moment – facing the need to successfully address multiple challenges and opportunities, not the least of which is providing reliable and affordable electricity in the future.”
He did not mention anything about his position being temporary.
Asked by The Center Square why he was only serving 18 to 24 months, McLerran responded in an additional text message that “the mayor’s team sought me out and we agreed that this time frame mutually worked.”
McLerran will be the second person to run Seattle City Light on an interim basis this year.
After firing Lindell, Wilson named Craig Smith as interim general manager and CEO. Smith has been the utility’s chief customer officer and will have served just for a month and a half.
McLerran starts his new job on Wednesday.
