By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
The Overton Power District (OPD) Board of Directors selected Mendes Cooper to fill the position of General Manager for the district after current General Manager Delmar Leatham retires on July 12 of this year. The board voted unanimously to appoint Cooper, who has worked for 26 years at the district, and currently serves in a training role as Assistant General Manager.
OPD Board Chairman Larry Moses recounted the background that, some time ago, faced with Leatham’s imminent retirement, the board had created an Assistant Manager position in the district with the idea that the person would be trained to fill Leatham’s spot after retirement. Cooper was chosen for that position.
“I’ve spoken to Delmar and he feels that Mendes is ready to fill that position,” Moses said. “I’ve talked to Mendes and he says the same thing.”
Moses pointed out that the appointment of General Manager would be an at-will position, meaning that it can be changed at any time with a majority vote of the board.
Moses stated that, at this point, he would prefer the appointment from within rather than conducting a nation-wide search to fill the position.
“I’ve looked at entities that have done outside searches recently,” Moses said. “The last time we did that, we ended up with mega-debt that we still haven’t paid off. Because the individual came in and his philosophy didn’t really match up with what we had done in the past and we are saddled with that.”
Moses named off a list of other entities with similar results in a nationwide search for general management. These included Virgin Valley Water District, Moapa Valley Water District, Clark County School District, Mt. Wheeler electric, Lincoln County Power District and Valley Electric.
Mesquite Board member James Pugh pointed out that ultimately it was a board decision on who would be appointed. He said that the ratepayers in Mesquite are telling him that they want a larger search for the best candidate.
“The ratepayers are saying they want us to put it out there and say ‘Is there anybody interested?’ and take a look at their resumes and we say ‘We pick this one’,” Pugh said.
Leatham said that the opportunity to do a search is always there but that Cooper should have the chance to prove himself in the position he had trained for.
“You have an individual in house who is capable of stepping in and going to work right away with very little learning curve,” Leatham said. “If you hire someone from outside, you will have in house staff, who can already do the job, training the new guy. He (Cooper) deserves an opportunity to prove himself. If he fails to do that, then go out and find someone else.”
Leatham recommended a salary of $140,000 for the General Manager position.
“That is based on what is being paid in state,” Leatham said. “It is below what most other managers are being paid in state and on a regional basis; $140,000 – $160,000 is what that position pays.”
Leatham showed a chart showing salary figures for General Managers of several similar utilities in the region. It included Dixie Escalante which pays $150,000 to its manager and Valley Electric in Pahrump which pays $300,000 for its manager.
Pugh made the motion to appoint Cooper to the position with a salary of $140,000, effective July 12, 2013. Included in the motion was that the board would review the salary and position in January 2014 and make any changes necessary. The vote was unanimous in favor.
