Good morning, everybody, and thank you for being here.
You look amazing for an amazing day to celebrate the official oath of office
for the city's newest general manager and CEO of Seattle City
Light, Dawn Lindell.
And again, thank you for for being here.
These are always exciting times.
I think many of you spent a... I want to recognize Councilmember Tanya Woo here.
Thank you for being here.
Make sure there's no other elected here.
I got to do the homework.
As a City Light family,
we know that there have been challenges
not just for utility, but in our entire city.
And what you deliver to the residents and employees
and employers in the city are truly life dependent,
that they require your expertise and your commitment to them.
And you do that every single day.
City Light does more than just deliver energy to homes and businesses.
They literally keep power coming to our city, in our community
and in in in a carbon neutral way,
recognizing our commitment to the environment,
not just to the people in a way that you value equity to make sure
even the most underrepresented or under served communities needs are met.
Dawn Lindell, after a thorough national search,
clearly demonstrated their expertise and their leadership and our vision
to ensure quality, reliable and affordable services to our residents
and an ability to accelerate our electrification efforts
as we build healthy communities today and in the future.
As the next General Manager and CEO of Seattle City
Light I'm confident in your ability.
Ms. Lindell , unconditionally.
This organization, I believe, much like our city,
is at a pivotal, pivotal time in our history.
And I think I've been hearing nothing but glowing things about you
and your leadership style.
A remarkable laugh and high energy, but certainly the substantive knowledge
and what it takes to run this such a incredible utility.
You have more than 25 years of experience, of course, in the industry.
You know how to focus on
environmental sustainability and collaboration and community.
You have experience in technology, innovation and disaster management.
You clearly have a commitment to advancing diversity,
equity and inclusion programs.
And as you well know,
we had a thorough discussion when I was examining who I wanted to head
up this utility.
Quite candidly, in the short time, relatively short time
you've been with the utility, we've seen remarkable what I'll call
just energy in these categories I just described.
You understand customer service in advancing our climate
and environmental stewardship priorities.
And I close by saying
that I can have more confidence in you, Ms..
Lindell And it was clearly a pleasure meeting your husband as well.
And I see
where you get your drive and energy from, or maybe he gets it from... a power couple.
And thank you for being, I think, a symbol of our once shared love for it.
So I'm very grateful that you've accepted the position of leadership.
And with that, I'm
going to invite our deputy clerk, Amelia Sanchez, to administer the oath of office.
And the ceremonial pin will be fixed by team member Mara Brewer.
Come forward.
To this. My
raise your right hand.
Repeat after me.
I Don Lindell.
Swear or affirm?
Swear that I possess all the qualifications.
That I possess.
All of the qualifications.
Prescribed in the Seattle City. Charter.
Prescribed in the Seattle City Charter.
And the Seattle Municipal Code
And the Seattle Municipal Code.
For the position. For the position of.
General Manager and Chief Executive Officer.
General Manager and Chief Executive Officer
Of Seattle City Light. O Seattle City light.
That I will support the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the State of Washington.
The Constitution of the state of Washington.
And the charter and ordinances.
The City of Seattle.
Of the City of Seattle.
And that I will faithfully conduct myself.
As general manager.
Chief Executive Officer.
And Chief Executive Officer of Seattle City Light
Thank you,
all right.
Thank you.
Welcome.
(applause)
Well, thank you very much.
And thanks very much, Mayor, for having the confidence
and the faith in me to nominate me.
And thanks to city council for their vote
of confidence, I'm grateful.
So grateful, really so grateful for the advice and the coaching
on the many issues from Marco Lowe and his staff
from Dan Nolte
over here and from the review panel at Seattle City Light,
as well as the many leaders of business and nonprofits
and environmental groups whose support and vision
they've been so willing to share with me As I've spent my first few months here.
We face a lot of challenge at this point in this industry and certainly at city.
City light excuse me, we've got clean
energy goals, which is absolutely what we wanted.
It's the right direction for this country to move.
And those goals and everyone trying to reach
for those goals across the country means that our costs
for the kind of energy we want to buy have have increased.
Here electrification is increasing our load as well.
And so we need to spend some money to buy those resources.
We've got aging assets
that have served us well and it's time to invest in new assets.
And we are already seeing some impacts of climate change
with the extreme weather that we have seen over the past few years.
I am excited to be able to lead this organization to rise
to those challenges through innovation and through investment.
We will build partnerships with industry leaders,
with environmental communities, with nonprofits,
and of course, with our customers to create a clean energy
future for Seattle and the surrounding communities.
We'll continue to incentivize conservation
to help our customers save some money along the way.
Finally, I just want to say thanks to my family.
My mom is 86 and she is still
a leader, insists on driving all of her older friends
who most are younger than she is to keep those ladies safe.
And she also weighs in still in politics and in church matters
and in her community and makes a big difference.
She came to the workforce in the 1950s and she's part of that group of women
who really started to break through the ceiling,
making it possible for me to be here today.
So I want to say thanks to her, to my husband, Jay, whose leadership
always inspires me, and to my sons, Tyler and Eric, who,
boy, they keep you on your toes.
You know, you have the kids. They keep you on your toes.
But they've inspired me to really want that clean energy future.
And their tech savvy and their creativity have also inspired me
as we as your leader and as we face together our future.
I want to be a positive force by leaning into our creative talents
and unlocking our full innovative potential, because that's
what it's going to take to succeed in these challenging times.
Diversity of thought, respectful dialog.
But that is what will help to change our world.
That is what will help us to come together and ferret out
those tough new ideas that we need to have
as we reimagine how we generate,
how we deliver, how we use and how we recover energy.
So I am so grateful to get to live
in the Emerald City, in this Evergreen State,
and to be at the forefront to work with you to safely create
a sustainable, affordable and reliable energy future.
Thank you.
(applause)
Thank you, Don.
And that will conclude our official ceremony.
But that doesn't mean you can't give her a hug or a handshake after.
Thank you very much for being here. Have a great day.