Central Municipal Power: PUC Chair Weiss Honored with Distinguished Service Award

 

The Sleepy Eye Public Utilities Commission was on hand to see Chairman Bob Weiss accept the Distinguished Service Award by the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) at their 2021 Annual Conference. In receiving the award, Bob joins a distinguished group of Minnesota leaders who have maintained essential public infrastructure to meet quality of life and economic development expectations for city customers.

Since 1993, Weiss has provided leadership in the provision of electricity and services in Sleepy Eye. Bob Elston, Sleepy Eye’s city manager and former public utilities superintendent reflected on Weiss’s tenure at the Commission, remarking, “Bob was instrumental in many major projects from the dismantling of the city’s steam heat district in the mid-90s to the utility’s investment as a transmission owner in the CAPX 2020 project.

“Through it all, he kept the Commission and city focused on the big picture that has produced reliable and price competitive utilities for the citizens of Sleepy Eye.”

“Over the years, Bob has helped our utilities through many transitions in staff and changing technologies, we appreciate his dedication to customer-owned utilities and his commitment to the public power business model,” said Mike Hardin, Sleepy Eye Utility Superintendent.

In Weiss’s role at the Commission, he was also involved in the MMUA and the Central Municipal Municipal Agency Services (CMPAS) organizations that support local utilities’ ability to ensure safe, reliable, and price-competitive electric power and utility services.

“Bob is a dedicated public utility chairman who contributes at all levels of the public power network to ensure that Sleepy Eye Public Utilities is powered from a position of strength,” said Christina Pierson, Director of Public Affairs. “He exemplifies leadership that separates the truly involved from those who merely go through the motions.”

After his service in the U.S. Army Signal Corp., he spent his professional career working in the telecommunications industry. He has served his community in many ways as a youth hockey coach, church member, board member of a credit union, and in many other ways. Together, he and has wife, Rita, raised three children and enjoy their time with six grandchildren.