EGC announces OPALCO board candidates – Nominations by petition due March 2

February 19, 2026 1:30 am
photomanip of new OPALCO logo over photo from OPALCO's flickr.

Submitted by the Orcas Power & Light Cooperative.

The volunteer member Elections & Governance Committee has completed its nominations process and selected a slate of candidates for the 2026 OPALCO board of directors election. There are two open positions: one in District 1 (San Juan et al.) and one in District 2 (Orcas et al.). The following were nominated by a vote of the committee:

District 1 (one open position):

Dwight Colley

Laura Derevensky

Drew Gislason

Richard Goodhart

Adrian Kilpatrick

District 2 (one open position):

Conor Anderson

Rick Fant

Chuks Onwuneme (incumbent)

Michael Readey

Laura Stern

There is still time for members to declare their candidacy for the board election. Nominations by petition are due on March 2 at noon. Co-op members from Districts 1 or 2 may submit their candidacy by collecting no fewer than 20 names and signatures of current OPALCO members who live in their district on a petition, and completing the nominations forms at https://www.opalco.com/candidate-application/. The final slate of candidates will be posted on OPALCO’s website on March 13.

Get more information on OPALCO’s nominations process online: www.opalco.com/why-run. All OPALCO members vote in every election regardless of their home district. You can read more about the candidates on the OPALCO election hub: www.opalco.com/election.

A virtual candidate forum is scheduled for March 18 via Zoom. Ballots and voting materials will be sent to members on March 18, the day the election opens, and will also be posted online at www.opalco.com. OPALCO is required to have 10% of the membership participate in the election each year in order to reach a quorum, and will be encouraging member participation in voting with both paper and email ballots. Our third-party election vendor will make sure to count each member’s vote only once (members only vote once, regardless of how many meters they have). Ballots are due online or by mail no later than 10 a.m. on May 4. Election results will be announced on May 7 at OPALCO’s virtual annual business meeting.

The current members of the Elections & Governance Committee are Deb Exton, Ray Glaze, Bill Appel, Rick Christmas and Bill Severson. There are open positions on the EGC. For more information on the EGC, or to apply to join the volunteer committee, email communications@opalco.com.