Eugene Water & Electric Board voted to select Bonneville Power Administration CEO John Hairston as its next general manager, though the utility noted that no final decision has been made pending further negotiations over a compensation package.
EWEB’s Board of Commissioners voted Feb. 3 to select Hairston following a nationwide search for a general manager that started in September, according to a Feb. 4 news release from the Oregon municipal utility.
“We are aware of the reports regarding BPA Administrator John Hairston,” BPA spokesperson Kevin Wingert told RTO Insider in an email. “While he has been identified as a candidate for another position, the process is ongoing and no final decision has been made. Until any decision is finalized and formally announced, Hairston remains fully engaged in his role as administrator and CEO.”
EWEB has yet to make a formal offer and is negotiating Hairston’s salary package. If negotiations are successful, Hairston will replace Frank Lawson, who in September announced plans to retire.
“It’s an honor for us to have someone at that level with that degree of integrity interested in this position,” Lawson said in a statement. “I have a lot of respect for John Hairston.”
Lawson’s exact retirement date is still open-ended, but he’s expected to step down sometime this spring, EWEB spokesperson Aaron Orlowski told RTO Insider. Negotiations with Hairston are expected to conclude within the next couple weeks, he said.
The final salary package must be approved in a public vote by the utility’s board, said Orlowski, who confirmed the posted pay range for the position is $350,000 to $475,000/year. In September, the board set Lawson’s total compensation at $405,564 annually.
EWEB said in its news release that 18 people applied for the role of general manager, and the board selected two finalists for additional interviews.
“We saw a very clear picture. We saw a very clear vision from both candidates,” EWEB Commissioner Tim Morris said. “I think the vision lines up with our mission and vision and values as an organization.”
Hairston assumed the role of BPA administrator in January 2021 after former chief Elliot Mainzer left the agency to become CEO of CAISO. Hairston joined the agency in 1991 and worked as chief operating officer and chief administrative officer. (See Hairston Appointed BPA Administrator.)
Hairston has guided BPA through significant decisions both for the agency and the region. For example, following a lengthy and sometimes heated stakeholder process, BPA decided in May 2025 to join SPP’s day-ahead market option Markets+ instead of CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market. (See BPA Chooses Markets+ over EDAM.)
Under Hairston, BPA paused certain transmission planning processes and launched the Grid Access Transformation project to tackle an unprecedented interconnection queue. The most recent study includes 61 GW of new generation, compared with 5.9 GW in 2021. (See BPA Tx Planning Overhaul Prompts Concern for Northwest Clean Energy Compliance.)
Hairston’s potential departure would come after especially tumultuous year for BPA on the staffing front. Like other federal agencies, BPA in 2025 confronted an exodus of experienced employees after the Trump administration offered federal workers buyouts and imposed a blanket hiring freeze — despite the power marketing administration’s status as a self-funding entity. (See BPA Employees Confront Trump’s ‘Fork in the Road’.)
BPA lost about 200 workers — 6% of its workforce — and rescinded 90 job offers because of those policies. As of late 2025, BPA was still looking to fill 155 positions after its hiring freeze was lifted. (See BPA Looks to Fill 155 Positions After Hiring Freeze.)
