The next president and CEO of City Utilities is someone who already works for the company. Dwayne Fulk has been with CU since 2017, most recently serving as senior vide president-chief legal and economic development officer. He was chosen by the Board of Public Utilities, after an extensive search process, to lead the largest municipal utility in Missouri.
That four-month-long selection process included gathering feedback from the public and CU employees through surveys and focus groups. The chair of the Board of Public Utilities Kristen Carter said one key theme that arose from that process focused on the needs and challenges of the future.
“As we move into this next frontier of power generation constraints, regulations, we need somebody that is innovative, that is a visionary, that can see the big picture, that can think outside the box and be creative with solutions,” said Carter, “because, you know, we’re going into a an era of ‘we’re going to have to be really creative in how we solve our power generation…pressures,’ and so, you know, having somebody that’s visionary, that really cares about employees and the community is of upmost importance, and we definitely found that in Dwayne.”
She said they had a strong pool of both internal and external candidates to choose from. They screened at least 30 applicants before choosing the final four, which consisted of two internal candidates and two external ones. They had a “large number of very qualified candidates from all over the United states that applied,” she said.
Fulk, who’s lived in Springfield for 37 years, said it’s an honor to be chosen to lead City Utilities.
“I’m excited to work with our team, our customers and our community to navigate those challenges and opportunities ahead,” he said, “and there are a lot of those.”
The challenges, according to Fulk, include meeting the needs of the future. He said he believes that all of their “commodities and support services are currently in disruption, so we have a challenge, first of all, in the electrical area for future power supply; regulations, requirements from our Southwest Power Pool membership to have additional capacity, meaning we have to develop additional sources of power within our area.”
He said they’ll have to provide additional natural gas capacity to serve the future power supply needs.
They’re planning ahead for the longtime future water needs by acquiring additional allocation from Stockton Lake.
And changes are coming to the city’s transit system, operated by CU. Fulk said the utility company will propose to city council next month, lower transit fares and changes to the bus schedule and routes.
They’ve had “great growth” in their SpringNet division, but there’s a lot of competition, he said, and he wants to make sure Springfield residents and businesses continue to have reliable and high speed internet connection.
As a longtime resident of Springfield, he’s seen a lot of growth both in the city and in nearby communities and he said, “we need to work with those communities and their utility providers to make sure that we provide the right planned growth for our community and the bigger region.”
In the weeks ahead, Carter said, Fulk will work closely with current CU President/CEO Gary Gibson, who retires at the end of the year, to ensure a smooth handover.
Fulk will step into the new role on November 1. His starting annual salary will be $400,000.