Jim Fields stepped into his new role as general manager and CEO of Spokane Valley-based Vera Water & Power on Jan. 1.

Fields, 60, took over for Kevin Wells, who retired after 49 years with the utility.

He had served as the utility company’s chief financial officer and assistant general manager since 2008. He first joined Vera Water & Power in 1994, when he was hired as the company’s comptroller.

Born and raised in Deer Park, Fields is a graduate of Eastern Washington University and a certified public accountant.

Vera Water & Power is a public nonprofit utility that serves 13,500 customers in the Spokane Valley area. It has a staff of 41 employees and annual revenue of $23 million.

The Journal sat down with Fields recently to talk about his new role and how he hopes to continue the legacy of his predecessor.

Taking over for Kevin Wells, how do you hope to carry on his legacy?

Kevin got his first job here as a meter reader when he was, I believe, 15. I’ve known him since I started here in 1994. He was brilliant. He did a lot for our district, and I plan to continue. In fact, I think that is one of the reasons the board chose me—continued legacy. He did a lot of good things like infrastructure (improvements), meeting the demand of our customers, keeping customer first, and maintaining low rates.

There are challenges, but I’ve always kind of wanted this position since I got here. The challenge ahead is meeting growth. We have doubled since I started here to 13,500 customers from 6,500 customers. We’ve had to build infrastructure to meet that growth. With the challenges today, we need to make sure we continue to build infrastructure to improve reliability.

We are known in the area for our rates. When people advertise a new home to sell, they say, “It’s in Vera Water & Power District.” It’s a selling point. Our objective, of course, is to keep our rates low and keep that service reliable.

We are a staff of 41, small but mighty. People wear lots of hats. We use engineering firms to help us with things like our 10-year plan, but we get most of it done with our crew.

We also have partners—Kootenai Electric Cooperative, for example, our neighbors. If they get hit by a storm, and we don’t, we’ll take our guys and go help them. It’s one family that way. The same is true of Modern Electric Water Co., and Inland Power & Light. We’re really in it together to provide service to our customers.

How is Vera Water different from an investor-owned utility like Avista?

We have $23 million in annual revenue that goes to fund the district’s operations, maintenance, and capital improvements. We have a five-person board that is made up of our customers.

One of the most beautiful things about Vera is that we also can float tax-exempt debt because of our status as a public utility, just like a school district when they go fund a building.

Where does Vera receive electricity from?

Bonneville Power Administration is a government agency in Portland, Oregon. They came through during the Depression and World War II and built things like the Coulee Dam. Most of the power we buy from them is distributed to us, we are just a distribution utility with four substations that reduce voltage and get it to the neighborhoods.

Bonneville has a fixed system in which they can only supply a certain amount to public utilities. Anything else we need to meet our growth in the future, we have to purchase on our own. We have established an alliance with other public utilities to buy power in the market. We buy a small portion, less than 10%, from the market.

What about your water source?

It’s a really cool place when you think about it, and I can’t say enough about the Spokane aquifer. We’ve got this underground river of good clean water provided to us to live on. It’s just amazing. It flows down from Canada, and into Lake Pend Oreille, the Coeur d’Alene River, and the Spokane River.

We have water rights that are managed by the Department of Ecology that governs how much we can pump. There is a lot of politics around it, but we pump 3.4 million gallons a year.

Looking forward, are you thinking of retirement?

I was asked that by the board. Most people at 60 are speaking the retirement word. I just can’t say that word right now. It’s just the way I am and built. I like challenge and change. It sounds different to say that when I’ve been here for 28 years, but the beauty of working here all those years is being able to do something different every day.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.