District 7 Candidate
Edward Howard is a fourth generation native of the Gunnison area. After growing up on the family ranch in Powderhorn, he graduated from West Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and received his CPA certificate in Texas in 1989 and in Colorado in 2008. After graduation, he worked for the international accounting firm KPMG in Amarillo, TX for several years. In 1988, he purchased and owned a partial interest in the family ranch until it was sold in 1999. In 1989, he moved to the Dallas area where he began a 20-year career with Remington Oil and Gas, a NYSE company, as Vice President/Controller (Principal Accounting Officer). He moved back to Gunnison in 2008 and opened Edward Howard CPA, LLC.
Edward and his wife Pam have deep roots in the Gunnison community. He is an elder at Bethany Baptist Church and has served on the boards of several local entities including the CFGV’s Endner Fund, Six Points Evaluation and Training, Gunnison Valley Hockey Association, and recently he helped form a nonprofit organization, Gunnison Sanctuary Housing, to purchase and lease the first sober living home in Gunnison.
Edward adds that, “I am excited for the opportunity to serve the members of the GCEA co-op and believe that with my background in finance and my love for the people in the community, I can help continue GCEA’s commitment to provide service to the members by providing safe reliable energy with a strong cooperative tradition and vision for the future.”
I am running for the district 7 Board of Directors seat for GCEA because I care about you, the members of GCEA, and their ability to responsibly provide you with electrical energy, safely, reliably, and as affordable as possible.
GCEA is a co-op which means that we, the members, actually own the business that supplies us with electrical power, including the substations and distribution lines that connect to our homes and businesses as well as the equipment that services our electrical grid. In addition, GCEA is one of the owners of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which is also a co-op, meaning that we are also co-owners of the electrical generation plants and transmission lines that provide our electricity.
If elected to represent you on the GCEA board, my background in the energy industry as Vice President/Controller of a NYSE company will provide all members with representation regarding the significant financial issues of GCEA. Including the maintenance and upgrade of our distribution system and how that affects the electrical rates GCEA charges, to the analysis of the impact and cost recovery of alternative energy generation.
As your elected representative, I will call on my financial expertise in the energy sector along with years of assisting and understanding complex financial transactions as a local CPA, to advocate for you and communicate to you issues that GCEA is currently facing: to include the maintenance and upgrade of the current distribution system, current and future rates, a thorough cost/benefit analysis for alternative energy generation, distribution and transmission, as well as complex contract discussions with Tri-State and other energy providers. I will provide thoughtful, pragmatic, oversight as your district 7 representative. Thank you for your consideration.