||| FROM CORY HARRINGTON |||
Just days ago, more than 118 members signed an open letter requesting an independent third-party workplace investigation into interactions between management, the Board, and staff. The request followed a May 19 Board meeting attended by more than 75 members concerned about employee turnover, workplace conditions, and the long-term stability of the utility.
The Board declined that request, citing ongoing union negotiations and previous investigations that it says found no wrongdoing. However, the operators’ union representative publicly stated that a workplace investigation is not prohibited by ongoing contract negotiations and that the Board remains free to communicate with staff regarding workplace concerns.
Since October 2025, EWUA has lost 4 operators — 1 terminated and 3 resigned — representing approximately 25 years of institutional knowledge gone in less than a year. During the same period, EWUA also lost a 4-year office employee who cited many of the same concerns raised by operations staff.
At present, EWUA appears to have:
- 4 remaining full-time operators with more than one year of experience on Orcas’s water systems;
- 1 experienced operator who previously resigned but agreed to remain temporarily until July 1 to support the Rosario system;
- 1 Operations Manager who lives off-island and has been with EWUA for approximately 8 months; and
- 1 Operator In Training.
These employees are responsible not only for operating and maintaining the Eastsound water system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but also for meeting EWUA’s ongoing satellite management responsibilities for the Rosario, Olga, and Doe Bay water systems.
To be clear, there is no indication that drinking water quality is currently unsafe.
But members need to be asking serious questions about staffing sustainability, emergency response capacity, employee retention, and long-term operational stability.
EWUA’s operators publicly warned the community that morale was collapsing and that additional resignations were likely. Despite those warnings, the Board declared the concerns meritless.
Now another operator is leaving.
This is not about personalities or politics. It is about whether EWUA leadership is responding appropriately to the continued loss of experienced staff responsible for delivering one of our community’s most essential public services.
We are calling for accountability, transparency, and urgency before the situation deteriorates further.
Members of Eastsound, Rosario, Olga, and Doe Bay need to contact the Board and General Manager and ask direct questions about operator retention, staffing plans, workplace conditions, and operational continuity.
The next EWUA Board meeting is June 16.
If you are concerned about the future of your water system, plan to attend.
The community requested an independent review.
The Board declined.
Now another operator is resigning.
Members deserve answers.
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The surest sign of a failing business is leadership that blames everyone but itself.
The EWUA Board’s response to that open letter signed by “so many members” was a blatant NO embedded in a word-salad of justifications which side-stepped the root cause of the Association’s hemorrhaging of the essential state-certified operators needed to maintain our water systems. The Board’s own internal investigation, buttressed by ample legal expense, concluded that claims of “financial malfeasance” and a “toxic workplace” were insufficiently specific, merely “allegations lacking EVIDENTIARY basis”, and were consequently found to be “entirely without merit”.
On the contrary, my point of view is that the resignations of essential, state-certified operators…folks who’ve had extensive on-the-job training, who’ve spent hours studying for and passing State DOH exams, who have exited what is often a lifelong career path, is quite sufficient EVIDENCE that something is indeed amiss.
As a former EWUA Board member, I can’t help but wonder what it will take for this Board to begin to perform its role of oversight of the management of this MEMBER-OWNED association and ensure that EWUA is a welcoming workplace which values its employees and uses its resources wisely.
Hi, I am wondering….Can someone please tell me who the EWUA attorney works for?
YES to a truly independent investigation. We have an impending crisis, and those at the top seem to be saying that because they have looked into a mirror and like what they see that there are no problems. If there are fixes that could be implemented to make vital workers want to stay (or even to come back!) then they should happen, and soon.
The legalistic Board response that Fred Klein refers to above, signed by Teri Nigretto, is obviously the work of the labor-relations attorney(s) they have been consulting with in an attempt to throttle the concerns voiced by EWUA employees and at least two dozen members at the May board meeting. For example, “General or subjective allegations, without supporting evidence or specific detail, cannot be the basis for a formal finding of wrongdoing.” Does that sound like Teri?
Whoever wrote that letter was obviously not at that meeting, and did not hear the public comment made on behalf of the six remaining water operators by Seth Davis (who is soon to leave EWUA employment). The fact that a THIRD water operator is now leaving because of GM and Board inaction (or rebuke) speaks volumes about the treatment of EWUA employees. What more evidence do they need???
And the many commenters at that meeting were NOT requesting a “formal finding of wrongdoing.” They were demanding an independent third-party investigation of the seemingly valid claims being made by EWUA employees. Duhhh. . .
EWUA seems headed for yet another year of six-figure attorneys’ fees, which have become commonplace since Dan Burke took over the helm in 2021 from Paul Kamin — under whom they hardly ever exceeded $20,000. Meanwhile our water rates have been soaring. Ours have more than doubled since he retired and now exceed $100 per month, despite using well under 150 gallons of water per day.
When will this charade end?
Is it true that third water operator is now leaving? That exodus alone should be treated as evidence that something is seriously wrong with workplace conditions and leadership. What more proof does the Board need before it acts? The Board needs to authorize an independent investigation now, and start behaving like it is genuinely accountable to the people it serves.
I’m deeply concerned about what’s happening at Eastsound Water Users Association.
From what we know, a significant amount of member money has already been mismanaged, and now the organization is losing key staff. In that context, it is troubling to see the board hesitating over the cost of an independent investigation.
As members, we deserve transparency, accountability, and a clear plan to restore stability and trust. An investigation is not an extravagance; it is a necessary step to understand what went wrong and how to fix it going forward
Members and employees are asking for an independent third‑party investigation into specific, credible concerns. Misstating that request and then doing nothing is stonewalling, not stewardship.
So many questions: Who is this EWUA attorney, who hired the attorney and who signs the payment check for the attorney? Who developed the requirements and responsibilities for the attorney’s contract particularly as related to users? I would guess the board, general manager and the attorney.
Many here are requesting an independent third-party investigation be authorized. My questions are who would instigate this investigation, choose the investigator, set the parameters, pay for, direct and review the results of the chosen independent third-party investigator……..the board and general manager? See the above paragraph. A group of users? See the below paragraph.
By the way, a few users tried something similar a couple of years ago and, the last I heard, were sued by the board…..of course any results of the suit most likely are sealed and all parties sworn to secrecy.
I’m both surprised that this debacle has gone on for over 3 years and somehow not surprised at all.
The mentality of “we’re all in this together” creates a permission structure that tacitly facilitates social pathology, which often goes unpunished unless the offending behavior becomes so flagrant and egregious that the community is forced to temporarily drop the facade of neighborly politeness.
When bad actors cause trouble here, they should not be granted boundless patience and compassion, because that will only encourage them to further entrench themselves into the community and manipulate others into taking their side. Instead, they should be dealt swift consequences. It doesn’t matter whether the bad actor lives down the road from you, coached your kid’s softball team, or runs a farm stand where you once bought some kale.
What’s happening with EWUA is a particularly bad example of this island social dynamic, but it’s far from being the only example. It seems like people should be less worried about running into someone they don’t like at the grocery store and more worried about what truly constitutes a community. The latter requires the sort of brutal honesty that often seems to be in short supply on this island.
Off-grid with a one or two connection exempt water well is proving the be the correct choice for anyone living here. If there is a problem, yes it is on you, but at least you have control over resolving it. Now that attorneys and unions are heavily involved, I see a very difficult path ahead.