Jones new PUD boss

Public utility district hires long-term employee as interim GM

NEWPORT — The Pend Oreille Public Utility District selected longtime employee Chris Jones as the interim general manager following an executive session at the end of the public meeting Feb. 18. Jones, 52, has worked for the PUD for more than 30 years, starting in 1994 as an apprentice lineman. He rose through the ranks, becoming director of operations in 2010.

“I’m honored to step into this role and serve the community I grew up in,” Jones, a 1990 Newport High School graduate, said in a PUD news release. He said he was committed to working with the board, employees and customers to meet the needs of the community to provide safe reliable service. He will take over as interim general manager Feb. 27.

Jones will earn $220,000 a year as interim general manager. The current GM, John Janney, is paid $250,000 a year, according to the PUD.

The PUD interviewed three internal candidates for the general manager position, PUD board chair Dave Rick said. While three candidates were interviewed for general manager, Rick said more employees expressed interest in the job.

Rick said Janney’s retirement was unexpected.

“It was rather surprising,” Rick said. “It was not foreseen.”

Janney, 62, was hired in December 2023 and his retirement was announced at the Feb. 4 board meeting, with Feb. 26 his last day. Janney worked about 14 months as general manager. In a PUD news release, announcing his departure he said that it was the right decision for him and his family.

Commissioners had spent about $70,000 with a recruiting firm to find Janney. The process took about a year and qualified candidates willing to work in Pend Oreille County for the wages offered were scarce.

Former General Manager Colin Willenbrock, who preceded Janney as GM, announced his resignation in December 2022, working into February 2023. He was also a graduate of Newport High School and was hired as the PUD’s attorney in August 2013. He became GM in November 2015.

Rick said Willenbrock gave ample notice and offered suggestions for what PUD commissioners could do next.

The PUD ended up appointing April Owen and Sarah Holderman as interim general managers. Owen, the PUD’s director of finance, had served as interim general manager before. She served as interim GM after Jay Pickett’s five-month tenure as GM in 2012. Before that she was interim GM in the 2011 after past GM Bob Geddes left to work for Lewis County PUD. She also served as GM between John Jordan and Willenbrock’s hire.

Owen didn’t apply to be GM this time, PUD commissioner Curt Knapp said, nor did Holderman. They both talked to commissioners, he said, and said it wasn’t time for them.

Rick said hiring internally was a win-win for the PUD.

“It was only way to have a safe transition,” he said.

Rick said that Jones was an interim hire, not a final hire. The news release said that Jones was expected to serve as interim 90 days and that the board and Jones would enter negotiations to make Jones’ appointment permanent.

After graduating Newport High School, Jones said he attended Gonzaga University for two years, studying engineering. He decided that wasn’t for him.

“I figured I’d rather be the guy building than designing,” he said.

He worked in Boise for about two and a half years in line construction, he said, before returning to Newport to go to work for the PUD in 1994.

He and his wife, Laurie, have two grown daughters, one studying to be an airline pilot and one to be a veterinarian. Laurie Jones works for the Newport School District.