RE: BLP GM Interviews 2024 Feedback

To Friends of Grand Haven

This post is on our blog.  We welcome your comments.  https://friendsofgrandhaven.com.

If you missed the Aug 12 interviews of the three candidates for BLP GM, you missed an opportunity.  It was also telecast live so maybe you followed it online.  It was a long day starting at 1 pm and ending at 8 pm.  A 2-hr block for each candidate to answer 14 questions from the board plus a handful from BLP staff and the public.

Interview Schedule

Rick Wicklund (1:00-3:00 pm); external candidate from Wisconsin

Erik Booth (3:00-5:00 pm); internal candidate

Rob Shelley (6:00-8:00 pm); internal candidate

If possible, I encourage you to watch the interviews video linked here on the BLP website. 

The GM job is important to our long-range electricity needs and supply.  Whoever is hired will be a face and force of that for years to come.

To BLP Board (and internal candidates)

Thank you board for opening this up to the public.  And for committing your own time to a 7-8 hr block to do the interviews.  It’s a feat to do this all day long.  It’s a credit to the board.  The candidates came prepared.  Professional.  Knowledgeable.  Respectful.  Attentive.  The board had three very capable candidates in the hot seat.

Feedback

The board invited the public to offer feedback to the board or staff.  I offer mine here to the board and also have copied the internal candidates.  My comments are just general observations, not secrets outside of school.

1. All the candidates are GM material.  Each is unique.  Yes, labels are unfair.  They don’t capture the full measure of a person.  But I use labels here.  Not to minimize any candidate’s skill set or abilities.  Just to shorthand the strengths I heard during the interviews.

• Rick Wicklund is a caretaker.
• Erik Booth is a planner; strategic.
• Rob Shelley is a problem solver; tactical.

Again, all the candidates are GM material.  Each fully capable of leading our BLP.  It hinges on what do we need, not what are they.

• For me, Mr. Wicklund is a distant 3^rd.  I enjoyed meeting him and applaud his skill and experience.  He’s running an electric and water utility over twice the size of ours.  But I don’t sense our BLP needs a caretaker.  So, it’s a fit issue; not a talent issue.

• Messrs. Booth and Shelley are the only two viable candidates.  But first my disclaimers.  First, (sadly) most of what I know about our BLP I learned during the 6 hrs of interviews.  It was fascinating, frankly.  Second, until the interviews I’d never met, spoken with, traded emails, or seen either Messrs. Booth or Shelley.  I shook hands and chatted briefly with each of them.  I didn’t know them.  They didn’t know me.  I have no idea how they relate to staff or interact with the board or community.  I have no idea if either or both were helpful or disruptive during the charter amendment battle that stressed our community the last couple of years.  I don’t know anything about either of them outside the 2-hr interview each had with the board.  I sat through both hoping to learn about them going forward, not backwards.  I bring no baggage into this feedback.  It is offered about each from a clean slate.

Erik Booth, I sense is, by experience, more an electricity supply side guy.  Rob Shelley, I sense is, by experience, more an electricity use side guy.  Both know our BLP system, people, and processes.  Both have been here long enough that seniority, per se, is not a factor.

Our BLP morphed out of supply / distribution into distribution.  No, it’s not that simple, but to the naïve, untrained public eye, it’s what we see.  For valid reasons, I’m sure, the board named Rob Shelley the interim GM in early 2024.  From all accounts he has served well.  From the outside looking in, an odds-maker would say the job is Mr. Shelley’s to lose.  Since Erik Booth was “passed over” for the interim job, he is running a race from behind.  Only the board knows how accurate all of that is.  From the outside looking in, those are the optics.

Regarding Board Due Diligence

The board said it is awaiting some further information from each candidate, including management assessment tests, etc.  It hopes to decide sometime in early Sept.  Here are some due diligence questions for the board while it waits.

1. This is a “needs based” hiring.  It’s more than a board replacing a GM that left because it’s a box on the org chart.  This hiring requires to board to think about “What” do we need, not “Who” or “Why”.  Is something broken?  Is there staff turmoil?  Has the organization lost favor in the community?  Are we miles behind on technology?  Are we losing market share or not cost competitive?  What does BLP need to put it where it (and the community) wants to be 10, 20, 30 years from now?  Which candidate best meets those needs?  The boards must take the long view and hire with that vision as the driver.

• Erik Booth said he has supervisor experience when he managed the J.B. Sims Plant staff of upwards of 40 employees.  Has the board talked with any of them to learn how they felt about his supervision, leadership, and staff development?

• Erik Booth said his time at Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette were formative years.  A time of healthy mentorship early in his career.  Experience gained to now draw upon to run our own BLP.  Have we talked to any of his Marquette peers or people in the community who could shed light on some of that?

• Rob Shelley clearly knows how to run distribution.  Has the board learned what experience he has on the power supply side?  For example, what interface he’s had during his 20 years at our BLP with the MPPA or APPA?

• Same with Rob Shelley on the people side.  What are some examples of his impact on staff who have grown professionally and through the ranks with his help?  Has the board talked with BLP staff about that?

• If the board hires from outside and neither Messrs. Booth nor Shelley is hired, how will each be handled?  Three cooks in the kitchen is a crowd.  How will staff be handled?  If one or the other internal candidate is hired, how will that impact BLP staff and service to the community?  Does the board envision the non-hired to leave?  If so, what will be the effect?  How will all this be communicated to the customer base?  Preplanning is important.

This is a consequential decision for the community.  A difficult one for the board.  We trust wisdom will guide you.  Thank you.  Brent Clark