LIHU‘E — Jan TenBruggencate, the former Honolulu Advertiser reporter who is now the newest member of the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative Board of Directors, has been immediately impressed with his peers, he said.
Their level of inquiry on financial matters that have come before the board has already left a mark, he said, just after being sworn in for a term ending March 2013.
He took his oath of office along with Carol Bain and Allan Smith, who were re-elected to three-year terms in the KIUC election that concluded Saturday.
Retired 5th Circuit Judge Clifford Nakea administered the oath of office just before commencement of the KIUC annual meeting wherein Phil Tacbian was re-elected board chair, Peter Yukimura re-elected vice chair, David Iha re-elected secretary and Smith re-elected treasurer.
“I’m honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve,” said TenBruggencate, of Lihu‘e.
“Energy is something that I have been interested in and studied intensively. I hope that my experience can be useful,” he said.
Like other new board members, he has five required classes he needs to take within the next two years to become a certified co-op board member.
The board represents members in overseeing an operating company, and serves to oversee policies for implementation by KIUC staff, he said.
While board members are paid a stipend of $150 per day while on official co-op business, the reality of the position is that “it’s community service,” TenBruggencate said.
All five KIUC board candidates were required to attend a four-hour orientation session with Walt Barnes, a KIUC founding board member, wherein they learned the duties, responsibilities and demands of the position of director, TenBruggencate said.
Barnes told the candidates that serving on the KIUC board is roughly 40 percent of a full-time job, something TenBruggencate experienced firsthand by poring over hundreds of pages of rate information and other KIUC data on his own time, he said.
He said that, as a reporter in the 1970s, he covered state Public Utilities Commission hearings when investor-owned Citizens Utilities bought Kaua‘i Electric from the plantations that owned it previously.
Kaua‘i Electric was subsequently purchased by a group of Kaua‘i citizens led by Gregg Gardiner, and turned from a for-profit company into a nonprofit cooperative.
“I’m excited to be part of the decision-making process,” said TenBruggencate, adding that he is just one of nine members of the KIUC board “working toward a common purpose.”
At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, TenBruggencate participated in his first full-agenda KIUC board meeting, after also participating in the annual meeting wherein officers were elected and committee chairs and committee members determined.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
