A search committee, made up of board members David Glines, Katie Hurley and Janet Kincaid reported that it had reviewed five applicants and selected Joe Griffith to serve as interim manager.

The board then moved the meeting into an executive session to discuss the recommendation from the committee. When the board returned it voted 5-2 to appoint Griffith as the interim general manager, pending contract affirmation. Glines and Larry Devilbiss voted against the appointment.

Kincaid said there were five individuals who expressed interest in the position, but the board only interviewed three of the candidates.

“One was not qualified and another withdrew his application,” she said. “So we only considered the three. By a 2-1 vote we determined that Griffith was the best qualified.”

Glines, who cast the lone opposing vote, said he respected Griffith’s qualification but rejected his selection in both the search committee and full board vote.

“I’m sure he is more than qualified. I just have some reservations about the process,” he said following the meeting. “We formed an ad hoc committee to do the search, advertised the opening purely by word of mouth and took some unprofessional shortcuts in arriving at this decision.”

Glines that the fact that the full board didn’t have a chance to interview each of the candidates and instead relied only on the interviews done by the search committee was an example of the shortcuts he felt were taken.

Kincaid said interviews done by the board were not necessary because the selection committee reviewed all the applicants and contacted all of the personal references provided.

“We called people who were not even on their reference lists,” she said. “In Griffith’s case they were all sterling. We called former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom, who supervised Griffith when he was the chief financial officer for the municipality.”

Griffith’s prior work experience includes a three-year stint as the CEO at Chugach Electric Association. He left the state’s largest electric utility in 2005 after a change in direction by the utility’s board of directors.

Before joining Chugach, he worked for five years as the Anchorage Assembly’s budget and program analyst. He retired from the Air Force in 1984, where he had been a fighter pilot, instructor at fighter weapons school, Pentagon deputy director of operations and 21st tactical fighter wing commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

He has been chairman of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and active in Commonwealth North, the American Red Cross, the Armed Services YMCA and the United Way.

Since leaving Chugach, Griffith has worked with the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. He also co-founded the Natural Gas Supply Cooperative, which was formed in February to allow the state’s small electric utilities to negotiate and purchase gas more efficiently.

Griffith is not without critics who question his relationship to natural gas developers. They say his prior employment could influence negotiations when it comes time for MEA to purchase gas to generate electricity at a Eklutna power plant, which is currently in the planning stages.

Lee Jordan, a former board member and part of the watchdog group Friends of MEA, also expressed concern about Griffith’s support for the governor’s Railbelt utility unification plan.

“If Chugach gets a new contract to generate power and the Railbelt plan is pushed through, MEA would disappear,” Jordan said. “I feel bad for the 50,000 member-owners of the utility if that day should ever come to be.”

Kincaid said Griffith would begin serving MEA once contract negotiations are completed.

MEA spokeswoman Lorali Carter said that a nationwide search for a permanent general manager would be conducted and Griffith would serve until a replacement is found.

The Alaska Star was unable to reach Griffith for comment.

Reach the reporter at darrellbreese.@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, July 2, 2009.