Camacho to continue as executive director

ROTA—Gary Camacho will be the acting executive director for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. until such time the corporation finds someone qualified for the position.

The CUC board of directors passed a motion to “extend the acting executive directorship of Gary Camacho until the position is filled” in a meeting on Rota last Friday.

Previously, the board has been extending Camacho’s appointment every 60 days since he initially came on board last December replacing chief engineer John Riegel. Riegel held the acting position after Alan Fletcher’s contract expired last July.

“We were just giving him every 60 days because at that time, we have applicants who we vet to [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] but now we haven’t had yet. We haven’t filled that position yet, we haven’t reviewed applicants yet so we haven’t vetted, so instead of us going 60 days, 60 days, we just go one time until we have an approved applicants from EPA,” CUC board chair Adelina Roberto said.

“We are very happy with his performance,” she added, referring to Camacho’s five months of serving the position.

According to Roberto, they started anew and continuing on with the hiring process for the executive director position, which is a stipulated order position.

Per the SO, the executive director of CUC shall have a Master’s degree in management, engineering, finance, or public administration, or, in the alternative, a bachelor’s degree in engineering and registration as a professional engineer pursuant to the National Council of Engineering Examiners standards in either the civil, mechanical, or electrical branch; and senior management experience of at least 10 years in a similar wastewater, drinking water, and/or power utility (preferably combined utility), with similar or greater capital and operating budgets, capital improvement projects, human resource needs, utility financing issues, operation and maintenance training and implementation needs.

It adds that the executive director shall have demonstrated proven management and communication skils; ability to lead, motivate, and develop staff; experience with managing major drinking water and wastewater systems during periods of planning, design, and construction; and experience with drinking water and wastewater systems; user fee system development; bond funding; staff training and development; and federal drinking water and wastewater requirements.

According to Roberto, they currently have three applicants for the position.

“We have three applicants that they just put together but we haven’t reviewed so we’re hoping to review it but our HR is not here. We need to review and we need to pick a candidate that we want to vet to EPA,” Roberto said.

Meanwhile, CUC has been incurring penalties as it continues to fail compliance with stipulated orders.

For SO1, which includes the executive director and the deputy director positions, CUC faces $2,000 to $5,000 per day in penalties. CUC has already accrued $40 million each in penalties for SO1 and SO2.