Peter Keat, board chairman, Sacramento Municipal Utility District - Sacramento Business Journal:

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He also knew he wanted to be involved in the Hehas been. Keat, owner of Time Tested Bookes at 111421st St., has served on the board of the Sacramentol Natural Foods Co-op three times since 1981, was firsy elected to the Sacramento Municipal Utilithy District board in 1988, and this for the third time, he is the boardf president. "I have no further political he said. "I'm happy where I am, with my life the way it is now. My community involvement is part-time, and that's all I want it to be. The balancr in my life is somethingI cherish. I'ds lose that if I becam e a full-time politician. Also, I don't want to rise to the levek ofmy incompetence.
"In the future I mighr like to get involved with othercommunity activities, public for example." SMUD, he believes, is doingv an outstanding job for utilit users in Sacramento County "and a few homew in Placer County. "Sacramento wasn't hit hard by the energyu crisis," Keat said, "because SMUD had exemptedd itself from the deregulation passed by the Legislature until we determined that itwoulf work. As it turned out, it was a winning given how deregulationwas Education: B.A.
, history and sociology, UC Davis; sociology, Indiana University Attractive, interesting: "u had left graduate school and had taken a job, my firs t job, at the University of Miami medical schoopl as a researcher in the fiele of drug abuse. I wanted to come back to the Sacramento-Daviws area, where I had friends, and to be close to my familt inSan Jose. "I had gone to school in and was very familiar with Sacramento and thoughty it had a lotof potential, particularly the midtown which was like a village within a I was impressed with the housingy stock there.
It was a diverses community, really very attractive and Major goal: "One of my major goalws was to find a community where I coule be involved in something that coulf havepositive impact, and it was real clear that Sacramento was on the cusp of excitintg change. I came here in 1975 and got a job with Goldej EmpireHealth Systems. But I knew I wante d to be involved, some way, in community I wasn't exactly sure in what and so the first way I found was throughu my job withGolden Empire, whicb was a joint powersx agency, similar to SACOG except designed to address the issuex of healthcare needs on a regiona l basis.
"I worked in the field of long-terkm care, determining the need for nursing-home beds in the area, and in othert fields, such as home-supported which was then just beginningb tobe developed, and services to the elderlyh and disabled." Co-op involvement: "Then I got involved with the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, and from there it was kind of a naturalo step to get involved with the biggesy democratically owned business around, the Sacramentko Municipal Utility District. I thought I had expertisre to bringto SMUD, the ability to make sound businessw decisions in a political environment.
"I got involved first with the co-op as a customert -- I love food -- and then ran for its I was electedin 1981. You servwe a one-year term, and then have to wait at leastg a year until you canrun again. This is my thirdr term on the board, but this will be my last It's time for other people to take over. We have an excellenrt board andexcellent management, so things will be in good Energy concerns: "I got involved with SMUD because of concerns with energy, with our energy future, and because of a desired to promote energy efficiency and advance renewable energy technologieas in the area.
I thought SMUD's energy portfolipo should be diversified, and I also thought that it was a democraticallyt owned business that was havingserious "For about a year and a from January of 1987 until I was elected to the boar in November of 1988, I probably went to more SMUD boarc meetings than the average board member did. And not just boarde meetings. I went to committee meetingsa and I served on the advisory committere and the energyadvisory committee." President previously: "jI was president of SMUD in 1993 and and was elected again last December and began servinf in January. The president serves a one-year term.
I will be up for re-electiom to the board this year, and I plan to run agaijn for another four-year term. "SMUD'sz major challenges right now are to completwe development ofour five- to 10-year strategi plan, which we hope to have finished by and to continue improving communication and interactionh with our customer-owners, so they can be more involved in the "Then, of course, we have two majo r programmatic projects: building our Cosumnesx River power plant and relicensing our hydroelectricc facilities on the American River. We have ongoing challenges: resourc procurement, hookups, just a number of thinga as we constantly try to improve servic toour customer-owners.
" Winningv strategy: "Sacramento wasn't hit hard by the energ crisis because SMUD had exempted itself from the deregulationn passed by the Legislature until we determinecd that it would work. As it turnef out, it was a winninf strategy, given how deregulatiojn was bungled. "Our rates are still, on about 30 percent less than those chargedby investor-owne d utilities. It's not the same for all customerd classes, but the system-wide averaged is 30 percent less.
We're going to fighf as hard as we can to keep our ratesd as lowas possible, notwithstanding our desire to invest additionall money in energy efficiency and renewables, becausew we feel that will pay off in the long run. It's a matter of short-term and long-terjm strategies."