Highlights of President’s report to Annual Meeting

President Frank Mezzatesta’s report to the Annual Meeting discussed staffing plans following the retirement of GM Robert Eranio on May 25, to be effective in three months.  Mezzatesta emphasized that Mr. Eranio left on his own and has three times turned down offers of a time-and-materials contract to continue contributing his expertise to Crestview.

Durrel (“Mac”) McAdoo has been appointed Interim General Manager, and Tim Lewsadder has been hired as a Water Treatment Operator. Crestview is actively recruiting for a third Water Treatment Operator, which is required for 24/7 emergency staffing by qualified operators.  It is a very tight labor market.

Mezzatesta shared his thinking about organizing for the future based on conversations with a former Crestview director and the leaders of other water companies and on his own executive experience at Disney.  There are two basic models for Board and Staff relationships.  One extreme is that the General Manager sets the vision and agenda for the company, expects the Board to approve his recommendations routinely, and otherwise runs the company.  The other extreme is that Board members develop the vision, set the agenda, direct staff in detail, and do deep dives on important details; proposals for Board action may come from Board members as well as from the GM.

There is a continuum between these extremes, and Mezzatesta has been moving toward the Board-centric end.  One factor affecting how Crestview should organize itself is how much Board members are willing and able to do.  Another factor is what are the skill sets of Staff. Mezzatesta revealed that one option under consideration is augmenting the Staff temporarily with a person skilled in defining, getting permits for, and managing two well projects.  The implication was that, while operations have been well managed and are on track for the future, capital projects have been and remain a management problem.

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