New NLR Electric chief named
39-year department employee to take charge April 1
Approaching his 40th anniversary with the North Little Rock Electric Department, distribution engineer James Bray has pretty much done it all, except be the city-owned utility’s person in charge.
That will change April 1, when Bray moves up into the general manager’s position of the 103-employee utility. The promotion will raise his annual salary from $74,419 to $95,194.
“I’ve had a lot of hats here over those 40 years,” Bray, 64, said Friday after Mayor Joe Smith’s announcement. “I’m sure I’ll try to do my best. It’s not that I went out soliciting for the job. It just happened.”
Smith has been looking for a new general manager since before he took office Jan. 1, 2013, because former General Manager Mike Russ had left in December 2012. City Attorney Jason Carter has been interim general manager since Russ departed.
“It took a couple of years to convince him to take over the responsibilities of this very demanding and crucial position,” Smith said of Bray. “Judging by his past performance at the Electric Department, he is going to do a great job for us as the new general manager.”
Bray, who started with the department May 5, 1975, as a lineman’s helper, said that overseeing the utility was something he “never really
thought about doing,” until he accepted Smith’s offer. During the past 30 years in the utility’s engineering department, Bray has managed the power distribution system and overseen restoration work during major power failures.
The Electric Department serves more than 38,000 customers in North Little Rock and part of neighboring Sherwood and has a $95 million annual budget. The utility, located at 1400 W. Maryland Ave. also contributes $12 million from its revenue to the city’s $61.62 million general fund budget each year.
In leaving the interim manager’s spot, Carter will still divide his time between the utility business as its chief legal officer and his elected position as city attorney, he said. Running unopposed, Carter won re-election to a third four-year term as city attorney in November.
“Generally my plan is to work out of the city attorney’s office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and out of the Electric Department Mondays and Wednesdays, and respond as needed, where I’m needed, on Fridays,” Carter said. “That’s my new normal.
“I was elected to that position and I don’t need to neglect it,” Carter said of the city attorney’s job. “I need to stay engaged in that office.”
Carter has said previously that he promised utility employees he wouldn’t give up the interim position until the city found the right replacement. Bray fills that requirement, he said Friday.
“James has been with our organization since I played Little League baseball,” said Carter, 46. “I’ve been impressed with his decision-making and he is universally trusted within the organization. He’s a guy who started on the ground floor and worked his way up all the way through to the top ranks.
“Moving into this position, the only concern was who is going to do his job,” Carter said, listing the different responsibilities that fall onto Bray because of his experience and varied career. “He needed some time to train people in our engineering and design of our substations and the operations work group so he could kind of let go of some of the responsibility and take on some new ones. I’m very appreciative of him stepping up and accepting even more responsibility around here.”