Short Fuse: Jorge Carrasco's Polarizing Tenure at the Top of City Light

Clark says she hopes people stay passionate about working at City Light. A good reputation is going to become even more critical for the utility as it braces for the baby boomer brain drain: In five years, nearly half of the utility's employees will be eligible for retirement.

And there are other challenges. City Light's 106-year-old infrastructure is old. Some of the power poles and transformers that support transmission lines are in danger of collapse after decades of neglect. And there are growing concerns about the load capacity downtown, particularly because of the explosion of growth in South Lake Union.

KEVIN P CASEY

Jorge Carrasco was brought in to help change the culture of a beleaguered City Light. But while rates are now stable, Carrasco’s tenure at the top has been anything but.

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Yet Clark still maintains that risk management is the City Light variable that scares her the most.

"I have to trust what I pick up from [Carrasco] and whatever information I find elsewhere," she says. "He's certainly argued that he's bringing in the right people to understand the market. I wish I knew. Part of the whole world of risk management is that you have to read the tea leaves."

While there's hope that newly elected council member Bruce Harrell, the chairman of the committee charged with overseeing City Light, will one day grasp the nuances necessary to hold Carrasco accountable, it's going to take him some time to get up to speed. Nonetheless, Harrell is likely to be sympathetic to those employees who gave Carrasco a failing grade on the survey: His father started at City Light as a lineman and retired 30 years later as director of internal audits, and Harrell says he still remembers his mom taking him out to watch his dad climb the power poles.

"I don't rubber-stamp anything," he says. "I don't think anything is taboo in evaluating such a position."

For his part, Carrasco says he's not going anywhere anytime soon. "I have no agenda here other than making this organization better," he says. "I'm not running for office. I'm not doing anything other than trying to help this utility become stronger. And while people at times may not agree on something that we're doing, we have nothing but the intentions of the utility and our customers in mind."

acurl@seattleweekly.com