What About Bob?

Twenty years ago this month, Bob Jenks started as CUB’s Executive Director. The Board picked Bob in December, 1991 right before he took off to marry his wife, Jill, and he started his new job in January 1992. To honor his 20th Anniversary with CUB and two decades of leadership, accomplishments and wise-cracks, we will be doing a series of blogs about Bob.

First thing to know about Bob: he loves wise-cracks. My first experience presenting in front of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) was in early 2011. I was prepared but also nervous. As we walked into the building I asked Bob something work-related and his response was something like “darn, I haven’t thought of a wise-crack to start out with. Oh well, it will come to me.” (He may not have said ‘darn’ but we keep these blogs G-rated.) As one of CUB’s newest staff members, this took me by surprise. I was worried about the PUC approving four months of hard work and Bob was wondering what amusing comment he would start with.

When it was our turn to present, I realized this wasn’t just Bob’s expectation of himself but that everyone in the room, including the Commissioners, were anxiously awaiting Bob to begin our presentation.

How did I know? Commissioner Savage made it pretty clear when he said, “I can’t wait to hear what Bob comes up with today.”

Here at CUB we are looking forward to celebrating 20 years of Bob Jenks. We hope you will find our updates inspiring as well as entertaining.

So, what about Bob?

Here are 5 words that may describe him best:

Bearded – since growing a beard before he was 20, Bob has only shaved it off once. It’s iconic in a sense as we have seen it mentioned in a number of newspaper articles throughout the years. The following is a great example but Bob would like to note, that he’s only been barefoot in the office once:

“The two are the bearded (and often barefoot) Bob Jenks and his clean-cut cohort Jason Eisdorfer….With a deft combination of Jenks’ mind-boggling capacity to understand rate schedules, amortization and the physics of electrons and Eisdorfer’s ability to translate Jenks’ brainy analysis into English, the two are Oregon’s most outspoken and effective critics of Enron’s deregulation plan.” - Willamette Week, 1998

Oregonian – while he spent some of his younger years in Alaska, Bob is a native Oregonian and loves the state. He is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and Willamette University. After a post-college stint in Massachusetts to work on a bottle bill campaign (a very Oregon thing to do), Bob’s been back in Oregon since 1983.

Organizer – Bob started his career as an organizer as a college student. After graduating, he went east of the Rockies for the first time to work on the campaign to establish a Massachusetts Bottle Bill. Bob returned to Oregon in 1983 and began working with OSPIRG (the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group). Later, as an OSPIRG staffer, Bob was part of the original 1984 ballot measure campaign to form CUB. He strongly believes in organizing and grassroots support as essential tools for change and progress.

Advocate – CUB is first and foremost an advocacy organization and under Bob’s direction we have intervened on behalf of Oregon ratepayers in over 80 rates cases, saving ratepayers over $4.5 billion in his 20-year tenure.

Boisterous – for those of you who know Bob, he isn’t big in stature. What he may lack in height he makes up for in intelligence, personality and passion. Often times these three things combined lead him to be perceived as boisterous and here at CUB, it’s just another thing about Bob that we embrace. Especially when it leads to headlines such as this:

“Titans of Energy vs. the little guy: CUB’s Bob Jenks tackles Enron and PGE”, Portland Alliance, April, 1998.

Or more recently, as quoted in a local newspaper, referring to the Boardman coal plant:

“Oregon’s going to close a freakin’ coal plant,” he said. “And not just any coal plant — a freakin’ base-load modern coal plant built in the 1970s.” – The Columbian (Vancouver, WA); November 12, 2010

CUB is very proud of Bob and his time with the organization.  We’ll be talking about our ongoing work as usual throughout the year but Bob’s 20th anniversary gives us an opportunity to reflect on his work and all the changes that have occurred, both at CUB and on energy and utility issues. We hope you enjoy this next year reading about new issues and new victories but also some memories about Bob’s 20-year history with CUB.

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