Employee Spotlight Sandy Leek
BELLEVUE, Wash. (3/9/2023) We’re shining our spotlight on Sandy Leek, Senior Municipal Liaison Manager in South King County. Learn about his role during storm season, his engagement with cities in South King County and his passion for music when he is not at work. Enjoy getting to know Sandy!
What is your role at PSE?
I am a supervisor for C&SP in South King and currently support a Duel Fuel team that is primarily responsible for all New Customer Construction.
How long have you been here?
My career with PSE began in August 2000. I was hired as a Municipal Construction Planner (Public Improvement liaison) for Lewis and Thurston counties. Within four months, Kitsap, Jefferson and Kittitas counties were added to my areas of responsibility. Since then, I have supported outreach/community engagement on number of PSE initiatives/capital projects to include wind farm development (Hopkin’s Ridge and Wild Horse), Thurston 230kv, Pierce 230kV, Buckley gas system acquisition and Tacoma LNG. Since 2017, I have been performing MLM duties in South King and Kittitas counties.
How does your role or work support our Beyond Net Zero Carbon aspirational goal?
Municipal liaison managers often find themselves on the vanguard for sharing information to external entities, primarily counties and municipalities. Pretty much all PSE initiatives and programs engage with MLM staff to get the message out, and I believe the MLM team performs admirably to include any messaging, including Beyond Net Zero Carbon-based communications.
Of PSE’s values, which one resonates most with you and why?
Reliable. Whether it be storm situation, or simply everyday management of our gas and electric system, reliability is key! This also translates into interpersonal engagements both internal and external, in that there are few things in this life better than knowing that someone is there for you. PSE has been, is, and will be there for its employees and all of the customers we serve.
How does the work you do make a difference/impact, in your view?
My current position grants the opportunity to establish relationships with a handful of PSE’s jurisdictional partners to ensure that projects PSE is affiliated with are designed, constructed and completed at the least cost to PSE’s customers/partnering jurisdictional constituents, as is the same with the other MLMs. PSE’s relationship with our jurisdictional partners affects almost every facet of projects, programs and services PSE in involved with — be it permitting, comprehensive plans, new technologies, community outreach, etc. PSE is reliant on positive, collaborative engagements with the jurisdictions/communities we serve.
We all spend so much time at work—what makes working at PSE worthwhile to you?
A HUGE part of this job for me is knowing that the work the PSE team undertakes every day offers comfort, safety and opportunity for the customers we serve. I know it sounds cheesy, but consider living off-grid for a year … seriously — chew on this for just a moment. Absent the services PSE provides, you may not have running water, heat for your home, lighting on-demand, food management (cooling/heating necessary to keep food available/edible), on-demand gas fireplace (a favorite amongst the wife and the dog), the ability to charge your phone, access to internet/TV (although this last point may prove a “win” pending ones proclivity), etc. I recall being in the Olympia office during a storm years ago where a very angry customer got in my face about three days into the storm declaring, “I haven’t had access to my TiVo for days!!!” While we cannot manage access to TV/internet, we are definitely an essential component in providing said service(s).
Tell us about the work you do with storm response/restoration.
My current storm response role is Storm Base Communications Coordinator (SBCC) for South King (which includes Greenwater—even during “boring” storms, Greenwater is seemingly always part of the equation). SBCCs are responsible for evaluating, distilling and ultimately aggregating storm base info/metrics to PSE’s ECC on a regular interval to provide a “real-time picture” of what is happening with the “boots-on-the-ground” staff. Additionally, SBCC staff work with internal PSE team members to manage customer-based issues/concerns. This component of SBCC work includes: coordination/advocacy for heightened medical concerns/issues, anticipated school restoration timelines, and escalated customer complaints—and related interaction(s)—among other things. It’s never dull. If you want to know what PSE does, is capable of, and how it is accomplished, there is no better education than working a storm.
What’s the best or favorite part about your job?
I learn something new every day. This has been true since I started in 2000, and has been on an exponential curve over the last few years given the nature of the utility industry. On a daily basis, I experience enjoyment, diversity of thoughts, input, and individuals, all the while knowing that each participant is striving for a positive outcome.
What’s one thing do you need to know really well to do your job?
All PSE staff should recognize and appreciate what PSE’s boots-on-the-ground staff experience daily. I maintain that PSE is essentially a pipes and wires company, and that daily operations define what PSE’s core is. Awareness of essential operations of what we all do is paramount to the success of the collective
What makes you most proud of PSE?
No rock shall go unturned! PSE has actualized (and has been a leader of) energy opportunities in wind, solar, biogas, RNG, LNG, etc., to the betterment of the customers we serve. I was pulled in early in the development of the Hopkin’s Ridge Wind Farm to coordinate outreach, then Wild Horse (similar effort). A few years later, Tacoma LNG came knocking and (being a resident of NE Tacoma/Stadium High School grad), I was elated to learn that I was selected to support/contribute to this project. The fact that PSE, as an energy company, never fails to assess “what else can we do” is remarkable, both within the industry, and as a community partner.
What safety tip applies to your daily work?
Begin each day being mindful and aware of what the day may bring. Thus you can manage what’s required, what PPE is necessary and how you can safely and successfully complete the tasks at hand.
Is there someone you consider a mentor and how did they make an impact on you?
There have been many individuals deserving gratitude during my time with PSE. Bob Lawrence and Jeff Mellum were responsible for teaching me more than I’ll ever know during my early days with the company. Terry Oxley was a director for a group I worked with for years. He had many “Oxleyisms,” but my favorite continues to be; bad news doesn’t get better with time. This “ism” continues to speak to me about ownership, accountability and trust. And regardless of the fact that it is “PA season”, my current supervisor, Jeff Beckwith, has continuously provided a high quality level template of what I believe to be open, fair, honest, and downright agreeable mentorship/leadership — Jeff has no awareness that I would mention this, and it just might reflect negatively on my PA.
What other department or program at PSE would you be interested in learning about?
The energy industry is so exciting and dynamic right now! PSE has been tasked with meeting the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) and there is a great deal of work to be done. To meet our goals, it will definitively be an all hands on deck effort. Attainment of said goals will include construction and allocation of new generation resources and significant improvements in infrastructure, to include acquisition of operating rights/permitting, etc. This is a massive undertaking and the West has not seen anything like this in the utility industry since the 1930s. Given the opportunity, I would so enjoy being part of the team associated with the planning/scoping/permitting/construction activities targeting CETA requirements.
What's the best teamPSE volunteer program event you've participated in (or want to participate in)?
In 2016 and 2017, I facilitated and actively supported (yes, chainsaw in hand) the cutting of over 150 “Christmas trees” that lay within PSE’s property north of Orting. PSE’s new 115kV line was scheduled for construction, so the trees in this area were set to be cleared regardless. With the support of a few community organizations, PSE was able to donate all of the trees to area shelters/families in need.
On the first year of this effort, the second tree delivery was to a food bank in Orting. I was helping unload trees. One of the food bank workers, who was supporting a mother with two young children, asked her, “Is there anything else we can do for you?”
“My kids would LOVE a Christmas tree, but there is no way that’s gonna happen.”
I inadvertently overhead this exchange. “Excuse me – do you want a Christmas tree?” I asked.
Tree selected, secured to her vehicle, and, yes, there may have been a tear or two. Kurt Krebs, PSE Property Management, supported the effort and may have shed a tear as well.
A little effort and a little planning and great things can happen!!!
What's your biggest win you've had at PSE?
I was on point for community outreach during the siting and development of PSE’s Tacoma LNG project. Tacoma LNG has been constructed and is operational! It was a tough road, especially the last six months I was affiliated with the project, but definitely worth the effort (Again: PSE performing as leaders/innovators in the energy industry).
How did you get interested in your role?
I’ve been a part of what is now identified as the Municipal Relations (MR) team since I started my career with PSE (in some form/manner). PSE maintains over a million customers (both G&E). Alas, jurisdictions are another level of customer. The jurisdictions PSE serves have been here, and will continue to be here, and will be an integral part of what we can and cannot do in PSE’s normal course of work moving forward. Relations with our jurisdictions should be managed with this in mind. Good relations with our jurisdictions often leads to pragmatic, positive outcomes.
Anything else you’d like your colleagues/fellow employees to know about you?
Still in love with my wife of 23 years, and she’s yet to change the locks.
Music. I really like music. I mean, I REALLY like music. My earliest childhood memory is eating a PB&J sandwich while my dad was singing “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (The Beatles, for all of you youngsters out there) in full voice (no, he is not a singer, just an enthusiast). Although I had no idea what any of it meant, I was hooked!