EWUA’s Board meets tonight, September 15, 2026, at 5 p.m. at the Orcas Fire Hall
||| FROM CORY HARRINGTON |||
EWUA’s Board meets tonight, September 15, 2026, at 5 p.m. at the Orcas Fire Hall. As of this morning, EWUA has not emailed or posted an agenda or formal notice containing the meeting details and anticipated business. The most recent posted minutes are from June; the July entry says no meeting occurred. EWUA website
That is not an isolated oversight. It reflects a recurring pattern in which members learn about important decisions after the fact, cannot locate the supporting Board record, and receive incomplete or no answers to reasonable questions.
Rates without the complete math
EWUA announced a 10% rate increase only after questions were raised about it. The Association then said its original emails had not reached everyone, but no agenda, minutes, motion, vote, or resolution documenting the Board’s approval has been made available to members.
The explanation emphasized the union agreement, yet employee raises are 2.8% in year one, 2% in year two, and 1.5% in year three—approximately 6.4% compounded over three years—plus standby pay. EWUA also reported that wages and benefits finished 2025 approximately $163,000 below forecast.
Members should be shown how much revenue the increase will generate and how it is allocated among employee compensation, management compensation, legal expenses, debt service, and the Clark Well project.
Did the assistance program change?
Helping low-income members afford water service is a worthy goal. The concern is whether EWUA implemented the program the Board discussed and approved.
The public discussion and resulting vote appeared to contemplate voluntary member contributions, similar to OPALCO’s PAL program. The subsequent announcement instead says the discount will come from EWUA’s operations budget.
Those are different funding models. What did the approved motion actually say? Did the Board take another vote? If not, who changed the funding method between the meeting and the announcement?
Elections and member choice
The September 11 Source provided an election schedule, with applications due September 29 and voting ending November 12. That information is welcome.
However, EWUA’s recently adopted conflict-of-interest policy prevents both current and former employees from serving on the Board—apparently a new restriction in EWUA’s history. Members deserve an explanation of why former employees are categorically excluded and how reducing the field of qualified candidates serves the membership.
The larger pattern
Seventeen employees have reportedly left under the current General Manager, including three accounting employees. Multiple directors have also resigned before completing their terms.
At the same time:
- The Clark Well project remains overdue, with unanswered questions about its final cost, budget overruns, borrowing, and procurement.
- EWUA added a highly compensated, off-island Operations Manager rather than developing or promoting an experienced local operator.
- Current operators report that the organizational consultant is addressing communication among operators, but not the underlying relationship between staff, management, and the Board.
- Management compensation and legal expenses have risen significantly.
- The Board declined the petition signed by 118 members seeking an independent investigation, later indicating that the issue could be reconsidered after collective bargaining. Bargaining is now complete, but no independent review has been announced.
- EWUA says its lawyers conducted an internal investigation and found no concerns, but declined to explain its scope, methods, or findings or to provide a report.
An undisclosed internal legal review is not an independent investigation, and simply declaring allegations “discredited” is not a substitute for examining them openly.
These are not separate communication mistakes. They demonstrate a continuing failure of Board oversight, management accountability, and meaningful member engagement.
Transparency is not a polished announcement after a decision has been made. It means posting the agenda, documenting the vote, answering the questions, producing the records, and showing members the complete math.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
Sorry I missed it. I have a bad toothache. I hope it went well and was well attended. This paints a pretty grim picture. I agree fully with all of your points.
Two things hamstring any meaningful Public Process, as you know, having worked for the County:
1) Privatization of an essential utility and THE resource needed for Life to continue – water. It never should have been privatized, from the beginning. That was only as good as director, manager, and board makeup was. Couple this with unlimited, unmanaged runaway growth (it’s all connected!) and things like Urban Growth Areas on Rural islands, and you have a mess that many of us saw coming decades ago., now made apparent to all.
Nowadays, many essential utilities are being privatized and it is a trend that will harm us all – not just humanity, IMO.
2) Every Board has oversight over all governance and employees. They are not allowed to give the Public any information about an employee in a Public taxing district. I’m not sure what, if any regulations apply for oversight and hearing Public and Member concerns in a private utility – anything they want to do I guess if it’s in the Bylaws. I don’t know which laws or constraints are applicable here.
Cooperation will only be as transparent as the board is as a collective entity. Even with one or two members who hear and understand our concerns, until the balance of any board is tipped toward ethics that align with transparency and consider all you have brought up over the many months or even years, there seems to be little hope for resolution. Then it gets into lawsuits, which have already been tried – movements toward recall, and escalating divisiveness – and boards have the power. So where will this lead us? I ask in all sincerity. It just seems to get worse and worse. What can we do? Who should we contact that has oversight over this board? DOES any entity have oversight? I ask for all of us who don’t know.
I doubt the Attorney General’s office can help. Maybe. the UTC. I don’t know what state or federal entity could help us with a private utility This IS a business so there must be some recourse with some entity or entities. such as Better Business Bureau, TrustPilot, and the like. That could be worth pursuing.
Board elections may be the best recourse. This works in a Taxing District since the board can recommend but not cherry-pick applicants. Anyone can run. It doesn’t work in a private entity as far as checks and balances, since they don’t have to address the many concerns consistently raised or answer our questions. I believe they (the board) get to pick who runs. Please correct any errors in thinking I have.
You know all this. I’m not sure what the Public and the members know, or what can be done to foster cooperation between the Board and the Public and concerned members. There seems to be no mutual respect. It’s really bad. People raising questions are painted as the’ bad guys’ who are holding up the process. We’ve been though this before with taxing district board changes. It was elections that gave us different leadership.
I don’t know what recourse members have with private utilities if financials are hidden and one can’t do a Records Request. We seem to have no recourse with the current leadership at EWUA and OPALCO. Change of the balance of leadership and governance seems to be the only hope. I haven’t followed this as closely as others. The one meeting I went to was so distressing I never wanted to go back. I wish I had the stomach for it after years of this..
I think many people need some kind of step by step process we can follow to do our part in making our concerns and needs known and actually be effective.