Anaheim’s Edwards: Kept Lights On, Rates Low
By SANDI CAIN
Marcie Edwards is used to hearing about electricity and water being a “nontraditional” area for women. She’s worked in public utilities her entire career.
But to Edwards, general manager of Anaheim Public Utilities, her job is part of a family tradition.
“My father and grandfather worked for public utilities,” Edwards said. “Our family has more than 100 years in the utility business.”
That puts the Edwards family on par with Anaheim Public Utilities, the city-owned agency that started providing water to residents in 1879 and became the state’s first municipal electric provider in 1894.
Today, Anaheim Public Utilities is the only city utility in Orange County, with 110,000 electric customers, 60,000 water users and 330 workers. Its electricity revenue is more than $285 million a year, while water generates $230 million.
The utility owns stakes in several power plants and has its own 45-megawatt natural gas turbine plant in the city.
Edwards was one of six honorees at the Business Journal’s 10th annual Women in Business Awards luncheon held May 27 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
She was put to test early at Anaheim Public Utilities.
Edwards came on board at the height of the energy crisis in early 2001 and had to juggle the demands of business and home users during the shortage.
The Disneyland Resort, Boeing Co. and Alstyle Apparel & Activewear Manufactur-ing Co. were among the largest businesses in the city that voluntarily reduced power usage to keep everyone up and running.
“You don’t find that kind of cooperation in bigger cities,” Edwards said.
The result: Anaheim customers weren’t hit with blackouts, unlike businesses and homes in neighboring cities served by Southern California Edison.
Before coming to Anaheim, Edwards worked for 27 years at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where she started as a clerk-typist. She went on to hold a series of positions in electricity engineering and plant operations,jobs usually held by men.
She rose to assistant general manager of the Department of Water and Power’s marketing and customer service arm. Edwards also managed the development of a wholesale energy-trading floor in the mid-1990s that brought in more than $300 million for the department in three years.
Since joining Anaheim, Edwards, who holds a bachelor’s in organizational management, said she has worked to balance financial and operating demands with affordable rates. She said she’s done so by refinancing debt, which cut the agency’s payments by millions of dollars.
“Trying to develop flexibility as a cultural norm is difficult,” Edwards said.
Anaheim’s current mayor, Curt Pringle, and the City Council support measured risk-taking to plan for the future, according to Edwards.
To that end, she said she created a power cost adjustment system to protect the utility from future energy crises. She also put in place extended customer service hours and Internet account management. Her five-year capital budget added $268 million in upgrades.
The agency’s debt has an A-plus rating from Standard & Poor’s. Anaheim residents and businesses have the lowest electric rates in Orange County,something the city believes has helped bring more than 20,000 jobs in recent years.
But Edwards wasn’t a shoe-in for her job. Anaheim looked nationwide to fill the general manager spot in 2000.
Even with Edwards’ time in Los Angeles, some city officials, including former mayor Tom Daly, worried she wasn’t the best person for the job.
Her performance since has quelled any doubts, according to Jim Ruth, former Anaheim city manager and current chief executive of Orange County.
“She’s one of the best hires I ever made,” he said. “She’s professional, ethical and straight-forward.”
“We, as the Anaheim City Council, have been consistently impressed with the work of Marcie,” Mayor Pringle said. “She continually uses her vast experience, engaging demeanor and dedication to service to guide her team to noteworthy accomplishments on behalf of our Anaheim customers.”
Edwards was nominated for the Business Journal’s Women in Business awards by half a dozen coworkers. According to those who work with Edwards, she’s developed a “Respect in the Workplace” training program, introduced ways to solve problems and is open to workers.
“Marcie is a critical component of the city of Anaheim’s executive management team, working with the other city department heads to create long-term strategies for the sustained growth of our city,” said David M. Morgan, Anaheim’s city manager.
Edwards said she likes to hear from workers about whether something isn’t working.
“I get the best insights from the field,” she said. “Push-back is what I pay them for.”
Understanding is what earns Edwards respect from the frontline workers, according to Ruth.
“She can talk shop with the guys who climb the poles,” he said. “She commands respect because she has leadership skills and has done (their) job.”
Edwards, 48, lives in Anaheim, where she’s a recent empty nester. Her 19-year-old son just moved near his job at Magic Mountain. She’s an amateur photographer and recently was elected vice president of the Anaheim Community Foundation, a group that helps small charities in raising money.
Professionally, Edwards said she is content in the utilities industry.
“You’re delivering something that’s a lifeline commodity,” she said. “I can’t ever grow tired of it.”
