The former Federal Coordinator for the Gulf Coast Region, Doug O'Dell, revealed he was approached by one of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's (PREPA) legal advisory firms with an offer to serve as an external director of the utility.

O'Dell told NotiCel he was approached by advisors from King & Spaulding during the summer of 2018. Since July of last year, King & Spalding has been retained by PREPA under a $1,500,000 contract, and before that they were awarded a contract worth $486,000 from August 2017 up to June 2018.

The offer, O'Dell recalled, was to the effect of becoming a potential director for the public utility in order to assist in PREPA's transition to a Public-Private Partnership, a process he assured had captured the interest of numerous private entities in the Unites States and abroad.

'Some people approached me about my interest in being an outside director of PREPA, and that had considerable appeal to me, this was last summer', O'Dell told NotiCel. However, his desire to spend more time with in his family farm enjoying his retirement lead him to decline the offer.

During the summer of 2018, PREPA faced a tumultuous period at the management level, due in great part to constant shifts in the Executive Director post as well as the constitution of the members of its Governing Board. After Ricardo Ramos resigned as Executive Director in the final weeks of 2017, Justo González took up the post on an interim basis until march of 2018, when Walter Higgins III was designated as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after a search process undertaken by the headhunting firm Heidrick and Struggles on behalf of PREPA.

Higgins, in turn, resigned at the beginning of July of last year, but not before announcing his integration to the PREPA Governing Board. Immediately after, the Board designated one of its members, Rafael Díaz Granados, as CEO.

Díaz Granados term lasted about a day, as he and the rest of the members of the PREPA Board, led by their chairman, Ernesto Sgroi, resigned 'en masse' from the Board. One week later, governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares named Jose Ortiz, a former executive director of the public water utility, as the new CEO.

Although O'Dell insisted his conversations regarding the offer were limited only to details that were provided to him by King & Spalding, he stressed that he never spoke directly with PREPA personnel nor with central government officers. However, the time frame in which O'Dell indicated he received the offer, summer of 2018, coincides with the crisis of leadership episode at PREPA, after the mass resignations at the Governing Board that lead to the designation of the current CEO.

O'Dell also indicated that he was not approached by Heidrick and Struggles -who were awarded a contract to procure a new PREPA executive director. However, King & Spalding's contractual obligations to PREPA include services regarding federal government issue for the PREPA Board and its director as well as, 'providing support and contacts on Capitol Hill and within specified federal government agencies and arranging meetings and follow-up correspondence with both elected and government officials'.

Is O'Dell willing to become federal coordinator for Puerto Rico?

O'Dell also admitted that shortly after hurricane María he was contacted again with an offer to be involved in the recovery of Puerto Rico, mainly due to his experience in New Orleans after Katrina. In that time, back in 2005, O'Dell served as Commanding General for the Fourth Marine Division leading support and rescue missions and commanding 2,700 marines stationed in that region.

Upon being approached, however, he expressed concerns with the task ahead, chief among them not having ever been in Puerto Rico. He was asked if he could come down to Puerto Rico for six months while they found something for him to do.

'Which is a little too general for me. And my further hesitation, as I said earlier, was that having never been to Puerto Rico, I would be starting from way behind, developing situational awareness, let alone developing relationships in the government and in the private sector', O'Dell said.

Asked directly if he would be available to serve as Federal Coordinator for Puerto Rico, a post the White House is seriously contemplating, the retired general emphasized that, after 40 years of military service, his immediate interests lie with his family. O'Dell has five sons and eleven grandchildren.

The Federal Coordinator position requires constant face to face meetings with federal and state government officials as well as players in the private sector with the capacity to collaborate in the reconstruction phase. In that sense, it's a job that demands a lot of time and requires the undivided attention of the designated person.

Although O'Dell expressed no interest in serving once again as Federal Coordinator, he left open the possibility of occupying that role. 'Being in public service is in my DNA', he said.

'It would have to be on my terms', O'Dell added, regarding what it would take for him to reconsider his current interests towards his family in order to serve again as a Federal Coordinator, this time for Puerto Rico.