Miller, Dunsmoor Have “Unjustified” Wages; What Else is PUD Hiding?

Well …set down and hold on. In Pacific County where 20 percent of our citizens with family (four members), have income below the poverty level ($15,300), Commissioners Hatfield and Thompson in 2012 approved a 25 percent increase for the 19 managers of PUD #2, while approving only 3¼ percent increases for union workers in the same time period.

This provides Douglas Miller, PUD #2 Manager, an annual wage of $175,852 and Jason Dunsmoor, Chief Engineer, a wage of $146,205.

Thanks again to Commissioner Mike Swanson for voting against this unjustified and inconsiderate increase. I’m told that Mr. Miller made the “objective fair comparisons analysis” that determined the need for a 25 percent wage increase, which of course, included himself…wonderful!

I understand each manager also receives step wage increases and COLA, but I was unable to obtain these data.

But wait…the managers also get very generous benefits at the ratepayers’ expense. After months of trying to obtain this cost of benefits and being bamboozled by Mr. Miller, I just gave up. Benefits of about 39 percent for other state and county agencies are generally reported on their websites, so what are the PUD Commissioners hiding?

Here’s a comparison of salary’s: Governor of Washington $166,891, Attorney General $151,718, Court of Appeals Judge $164,238, County Sheriff $69,742, and County Commissioners $64,742. For a small utility, with only 62 employees, including 19 managers, for sure, we are being ripped off. This smells like top mangers building their wages to the maximum for their retirement wage, which we pay.

There is arrogance by Commissioners Hatfield and Thompson for not realizing that our utility is not run for their benefit, but for ours. They refuse to place all the PUD #2 wage- benefit data on the Webpage as other agencies do. Do we need to grovel before them to obtain the data that belongs to us? Have they ever read the State Constitution Article I, Section1? No wonder they don’t start their meeting with the pledge of allegiance! They, for sure, have no allegiance to us, but only to themselves. 

Yes folks, more disclosures of mismanagement and fraudulent practices are coming about the PUD #2. 

Ron Craig,

South Bend, Wash.