Board Governance for Public Utilities
Maintain a clear understanding of the industry’s complex technology, regulatory, financial, and human resource issues with Board Governance solutions from Hometown Connections. Governing boards and city council members overseeing community-owned utilities need to understand their roles and responsibilities as stewards of the city’s utility services.
Hometown Connections staff briefs governing officials on industry conditions and offers training on how to work with, and guide, the utility staff.
Your Partner for Board Governance
Benefits
The governing bodies of community-owned utilities guide the staff and represent the needs of customers during complex economic times. Yet board members come from a variety of backgrounds, with different levels of experience addressing the complex nature of operating an electric, water, wastewater, and/or gas utility. The path forward requires a knowledgeable and unified board, able to work effectively with utility staff.
The Hometown Connections consulting team has worked with hundreds of public utilities for more than 20 years, providing governance facilitation and education services. We know this industry and the tenants of effective governance in it. Utilities that bring in Hometown Connections for board development are better able to evaluate the current state of the utility and put in place policies and plans for a successful future.
Features
Hometown Connections briefs governing officials on industry conditions and offers training on how to work with, and guide, the utility staff.
Hometown Connections organizes its governance development consulting assignments, workshops, and courses around these primary topics—with the ability to customize content to the needs of individual utilities, state associations, or joint action agencies.
Governing Board Development: Building and Sustaining an Effective Team
Hometown Connections addresses how to assemble, onboard, and maintain a high performing board. Topics covered include:
- Succession planning
- Attracting viable board candidates
- Candidate orientation
- Orientation for new board members (and existing too!)
- Building a strong board culture
- Mechanics of a good board meeting
Duties, Responsibilities and Legal Obligations of Public Power Governing
Hometown Connections reviews the common requirements/foundational information for most governing boards of community-owned utilities:
- Organization-specific: charter, by-laws
- Independent utility governing board: legal relationship and responsibilities to the government agency that formed the utility
- State-specific rules that may speak to open meetings and records, conflicts of interest, training required, potential PUC oversight, etc.
- Legal counsel
- Key Board Responsibilities
- Strategic planning
- Financial oversight and planning
The Voice of the Customer: The Board’s Role in Representing Owners, Customers and Other Stakeholders
Hometown Connections covers how the utility governing board can establish itself as the proper voice of the organization’s customers/owners:
- How to “be” the voice of the customer as board members
- How to be a conduit of information between the customers/owners of the utility and the utility
- How to communicate with elected/appointed officials in other agencies and levels of government
Measuring for Success: Performance Monitoring and Accountability for Boards
Hometown Connections examines feedback mechanisms for the CEO and how the governing board can pursue its own continuous improvement opportunities.
- Monitoring organizational performance
- Evaluating and Managing the CEO
- Self-assessment tools for the CEO
Board Development News
Former AMP Executive Marc Gerken Appointed Interim HCI President & CEO
Board chooses a seasoned public power executive as next leader of the organization
HCI President And CEO Tim Blodgett Announces Departure After More Than 20 Years of Service
Recognized for outstanding leadership and contributions to community-owned utilities
Governance in Public Power: The Role of Policymakers in Today’s Marketplace
Utility managers need guidance from engaged and well-trained governing boards.