It seemed crazy that that citizens/rate payers of Grays Harbor County were vilifying the PUD when the PUD was protecting OUR interests. Woohooo let Spradlin fuck us and take advantage of us in our time of crisis. What kind of ass backwards shit was that?

Now it's time to go to the Commissioners, Rick Lovely and who ever else was involved on the smack the shit out of them to teach a lesson. Then issue an demand they never contract or use the services of Spradlin Rock. Once bitten, twice shy.

It has puzzled me as well. I keep waiting for one of the lemmings with the "Pay Spradlin. Fire Rick Lovely" signs to put up one now saying, "Thank you, Sir. May I have another?"



Two of the Commissioners agreeing to pay the original invoices are gone. The other is most likely not running for re-election. Little good would be done. Going after Lovely? Sure. But, his crime was having staff committed to getting power restored to the ratepayers as quickly as possible. Everything went extremely well and efficiently with every contractor except one... a local who had done business with the PUD on numerous occassions in the past. His work was known. His rates were known. Locals were willing and able to work. He was trusted.

Hindsight is 20/20. No one could have assumed the rates would be tripled and new charging line items would be created ($98 an hour, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the bookkeeper).

The ratepayers were thrilled with the work at the time. It was done faster and less expensively than budgeted. All of the outside contractors praised the PUD for how it handled the situation. Many said they had never been treated as well by any other utility.

First, Lovely's staff trusted someone they'd worked with many times. Then Lovely trusted his staff and the contractor. Then the Commissioners trusted them all.

I was very proud of our community and the PUD (crews AND management) for how that disaster was overcome. I'll not let one bad apple taint that. I'm glad they appealed. I'm glad they've decided to cut their losses and chalk it up as a lesson learned.

From the Daily World article today:

His biggest concern was that the dispute had hurt the reputation of his company.

"We are going to re-establish our good name back in the community," he vowed, noting he's about to turn 60 years old with a long history of service in the Harbor. "We're part of the community."

Good luck with that one, Mr. Spradlin.

Given all the people I met in the stores who sided with him against their own PUD, I don't really know if his reputation was all that tarnished. He had a reputation before all this, too.

It would help if he explained what the court would not allow.

Why he charged as much as he did! Spradlin, justify your charges!

True, but those people do not generally hire road building contractors.

What are you, a communist? Spradlin just did what any good capitalist would do--wait for a market opportunity and then take full advantage, and the hell with anything besides the bottom line.

I'm surprised you're not cheering him on.

Paint it on a sign, put it on your truck, park it.

Did any employee loose their job over this?

Not to my knowledge. I think one retired right after this. Related? I don't know. But, I'm not sure anyone should "lose their job".

The goal was to get a completely destroyed electrical system back up as quickly and safely as possible. A Utility that usually has 5 crews in the field had 38 crews going. Men and women, hourly workers and management, worked around the clock for days at a time. The entire event came off on behalf of the ratepayers of Grays Harbor like a symphony. Even the situation with the injured workers needing to be transported out over roads covered with trees was handled with a cooperation between agencies that would be envied by any other community. And our citizens... the ratepayers... were gracious and grateful to our guests who came here to help us.

Those outside crews all commented they'd never been treated as well by a community as here and they marveled at how effficient the whole process worked. Power was restored and the system was rebuilt faster than anticipated and less expensively than expected.

YOUR PUD employees were amazing and deserved the accolades heaped upon them... ALL of them were amazing and selfless. One local contractor took advantage of the situation and got away with it. That is on that contractor... not YOUR PUD employees. They were great.