EGC Announces OPALCO Board Candidates

Nominations by Petition Due March 2

||| FROM KRISTA BOUCHEY for ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE |||

The volunteer member Elections & Governance Committee (EGC) has completed their nominations process and selected a slate of candidates for the 2026 OPALCO Board of Directors election. There are two open positions; one in District 1 (San Juan et al) and one in District 2 (Orcas, et al). The following were nominated by a vote of the committee:

District 1 (one open position):

• Dwight Colley
• Laura Derevensky
• Drew Gislason
• Richard Goodhart
• Adrian Kilpatrick

District 2 (one open position):

• Conor Anderson
• Rick Fant
• Chuks Onwuneme (Incumbent)
• Michael Readey
• Laura Stern

There is still time for members to declare their candidacy for the board election. Nominations by petition are due on March 2, 2026 at 12:00 PT (noon). Co-op members from Districts 1 or 2 may submit their candidacy by 1) collecting no fewer than 20 names and signatures of current OPALCO members who live in their district on a petition; and 2) completing the nominations forms at www.opalco.com/candidate-application/. The final slate of candidates will be posted on OPALCO’s website on March 13.

Get more information on OPALCO’s nominations process online: www.opalco.com/why-run. ALL OPALCO members vote in every election regardless of their home district. You can read more about the candidates on the OPALCO election hub: www.opalco.com/election.

A virtual Candidate forum is scheduled March 18th via Zoom. Ballots and voting materials will be sent to members on March 18th, the day the election opens, and also will be posted online at www.opalco.com.

OPALCO is required to have 10% of the membership participate in the election each year in order to reach a quorum and will be encouraging member participation in voting with both paper and email ballots. Our third-party election vendor will make sure to count each memberships’ vote only once (members only vote once regardless of how many meters they have). Ballots are due online or by mail no later than 10:00 am PT on May 4th. Election results will be announced on May 7th at OPALCO’s virtual annual business meeting.

The current members of the Elections & Governance Committee (EGC) are Deb Exton, Ray Glaze, Bill Appel, Rick Christmas, and Bill Severson. There are open positions on the EGC. For more information on the EGC, or to apply to join the volunteer committee, email communications@opalco.com.

Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) is our member-owned cooperative electric utility, serving more than 11,400 members on 20 islands in San Juan County. OPALCO provides electricity that is 97% greenhouse-gas free and is generated predominantly by hydroelectric plants. OPALCO was founded in 1937.