Congressional Update - August 22, 1997

A Newsletter for Congress and Constituents

Bonneville Cost-Cutting Management Team to Meet

"The management panel created by the Northwest Power Planning Council and the Bonneville Power Administration to cut Bonneville's expenses plans to hold its first meeting on August 25, 1997, in the Council's central offices.."

For more information:

Dick Watson
Director of Power Planning
1-800-452-5161

The management panel created by the Northwest Power Planning Council and the Bonneville Power Administration to cut Bonneville's expenses plans to hold its first meeting on August 25, 1997, in the Council's central offices. The meeting is open to the public. The agenda includes approving a work plan for the budget review process and identifying additional information the panel will need to conduct its review. Monday's meeting will be the first of at least five. The panel expects to produce its recommendations by January 1998. The panel was created in response to a request from the four Northwest governors and two Northwest members of Congress who asked that the Council and Bonneville study options for reducing the federal power marketing agency's operating and capital costs. The review will focus on improving the agency's operating efficiency in all areas, not on Bonneville's existing statutory obligations.

Management panel members:

Charles Collins of Seattle, president of Colsper West Corporation. Collins, a former member of the Northwest Power Planning Council, chaired the Comprehensive Review of the Northwest Energy System in 1996.
Robert J. Lane of Portland, president of the corporate banking group at U.S. Bancorp. Lane was president of West One Bancorp until August 1996, when the Boise-based bank merged with U.S. Bancorp.
Curtis Bostick of Marco Island, Florida, a personal investment manager who serves on boards of directors of numerous organizations including two electric cooperatives in Florida and the Mariner Group, which operates nine hotels in the state. Bostick recently took part in a cost-cutting review of Florida's health care system.
Rosemary Mattick of Seattle, who is vice president of procurement and supply management for the Weyerhaeuser Company.
William Vittitoe of Seattle, who retired last February as chairman of Washington Energy Company, a natural gas utility, when it merged with Puget Sound Power & Light Company to form Puget Sound Energy Company.

Bonneville will be represented on the panel by Sue Hickey, the agency's chief operating officer, and Jim Curtis, senior vice president for business services. The Council will be represented by its four-member Power Committee. The members are Committee Chairman Todd Maddock of Idaho, Council Chairman John Etchart of Montana, Mike Kreidler of Washington and Joyce Cohen of Oregon.