The Russellville Electric Board will soon be led by Derrick Moore, who was the board’s selection to fill the vacant general manager position.
Moore, a manager for Decatur Utilities and second in its management hierarchy, will begin his new position December 16, 2024, REB Chairman Chad Wells told the FFP last week.
Moore was the board’s selection from approximately 10 interviews that were conducted last month in the board’s second application process to fill the GM position. That process was done ‘blind,’ meaning board members only saw each applicant’s educational background professional experience, but did not see any personal identifying information.
After 28 applications were received, board attorney Jeff Bowling’s office contacted the applicants to make sure each was willing to move to Russellville if offered the job, a condition of the GM’s employment contract.
Of the approximately 21 candidates who confirmed their willingness to either move to Russellville or remain in Russellville, board members chose 10 to interview.
In Moore, the REB found a GM who brings the professional background and management experience board members sought.
“He is just what we were looking for and hoped we would find during the first round of applications,” Wells said. “He’s in a position as second in command (at Decatur Utilities) and he just couldn’t move up because he was hired at the same time the current general manager was. He was the top pick of everyone on the board.”
Wells said board members ranked their preferences after interviews and submitted those rankings to Bowling, who calculated them to determine the highest-ranked candidate, which was Moore.
“He had a great interview, knows power systems and even took time to ride around prior to his interview and tell us his observations about our power system in Russellville. He was well-prepared and he’s one of those guys who just gets it,” Wells said.
Board members wanted to conduct a hiring process that was honest, objective and done without any personal preferences, something it accomplished with the ‘blind’ application process.
This is a stark contrast to 12 years ago, when former GM Charles Canida, serving as REB Chairman, opened a business meeting in December 2012, resigned as board chairman and then was hired as GM all at the same meeting, an apparent violation of Alabama’s ‘Revolving Door’ Act which prohibits someone in a position of authority in an agency to leave that position and be hired in another position for at least two years.
One of Moore’s challenges as GM will be to rebuild what could mildly be described as eroded public relations between the board and the community it serves. Canida’s tenure included raising electric rates during the COVID-19 pandemic even after REB received subsidies from TVA designed to help utilities during the pandemic, as many of those local power companies approved relaxed cutoff policies in light of COVID. Canida used ratepayer funds to purchase an $85,000 luxury GMC Yukon Denali, without prior board approval, seven months after a new SUV was purchased for his use. And Canida was responsible for REB opening an account at Alabama Central Credit Union with a $25,000 initial deposit, used only to make cash withdrawals and purchase gift cards. When the FFP made a request for records for all REB bank accounts, Canida omitted the ACCU account, claiming months later he forgot to include it in the original Open Records Request.
Wells said board members discussed the public relations aspect of the job with Moore, and the importance of representing REB both in the community it serves as well as across the state.
“That’s something we talked with him about and he understands it,” Wells said. “he’s in touch and active with the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, and he does speaking engagements. To us, he was clearly the best candidate.”
Wells said he’s satisfied with the hiring process and that it was done with integrity.
“I think a lot of people thought the first time we posted the job that we had someone already picked out, and when we didn’t make a hire, they realized this was a legitimate process and that’s why we had so many more applications the second time around.
“It was a long process but it turned out well,” Wells said.
