State Commission Chairs
Paul Kjellander is the chair of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.
PUF's Liz Stipnieks: What is it like to be the Chair of the Commission, and what does your typical day look like?
Chair Kjellander: In our state, we're actually called the President and CEO of the Commission.
PUF: Why is that?
Chair Kjellander: Because we don't get paid any additional funds. The duties of the President and CEO in that capacity really become more administrative, and that's part of why we take that approach as well, because we have a three-member Commission in which all three members have equal weight.
What I take on are more the responsibilities as it relates to some of the human resource issues. My role also includes some of the broader issues, with regard to making presentations before the joint finance appropriations committee and being the lead to the extent that the Commission needs to be involved directly with the state legislature.
We're elected by our colleagues; it's the Commissioners who select the President. I was just elected to another two-year term, and this'll be about sixteen years that I've had that role.
As far as actual decision making in this role, I'll talk to my colleagues about a path I see, here's the problem that we're faced with, here are several options, this is one I like, but let's talk this through. Everybody's involved.