Jim Fair
Jeff Tuttle, center, has resigned from Greer CPW to become CEO at Houston-based Heath Consultants Incorporated. Chuck Reynolds, CPW chief financial operator, is on the right.
File Photo
Jeff Tuttle, 57, is a member of the Heath Board of Directors and was supported by Carolyn Heath Haag, president of the 1,200-employee company. Tuttle will be headquartered in Houston.
Jeff Tuttle, General Manager for Greer Commission of Public Works, has resigned to accept the Chief Executive Officer for Heath Consultants Incorporated. Tuttle replaces Heath’s former CEO of 20 years, Graham Midgley, who is retiring at the end of November. That also reflects Tuttle’s last day, Nov. 30.
Tuttle, 57, is a member of the Heath Board of Directors and was supported by Carolyn Heath Haag, president of the 1,200-employee company. Tuttle will be headquartered in Houston.
“When Kathy (wife) and I came here we had every intention to retire here,” Tuttle said. “We had such a great team at CPW, Greer is such a beautiful place, with its two awesome lakes Robinson and Cunningham, and we built a home in the city.”
Tuttle said he fended off offers from the first four months he was on the job and from others recruiting him at least a half dozen times throughout his 32-month stay at CPW.
It was Heath, city officials said, who would not accept no for an answer and the offer was one that was too good to refuse. “I didn’t accept the offer until four months after it was made,” Tuttle said. “We prayed a lot and at the end God has never directed us to a bad place.”
Eugene Gibson, commissioner for CPW, said Tuttle was the right person for the job at the right time. “Jeff has been a great general manager,” Robinson said. “Jeff came here in a time when we were in transition.”
Commissioners have met in executive session to discuss a method for a search for a new general manager and whether to have an interim GM during the process if it moves into December. “We are trying to figure that out now,” Gibson said. “We have had talks with the consulting firm (MYCOFF Associates in Colorado) that brought Jeff to us and we also expect applications familiar with CPW.
“When we look for a GM we look at the overall CPW, people we service and staff we serve,” Gibson said.
Tuttle said serving Greer CPW “was truly a great honor and privilege. I was blessed to have a great staff. They are a great team.”
Chuck Reynolds, Chief Financial Officer, said, “Jeff came at a time we needed. “The things he has been able to do with employees and moral were very important.”
Tuttle joined CPW with the bulk of his employees working with the company for decades. After a few months learning the staff he began the first of four reorganizations.
“There were people in jobs they had done their entire time here,” Tuttle said. “I believe in challenging employees to perform at a higher level.”
Tuttle said the philosophy he emphasized to his staff was, “Our purpose is that we touch your life every single day.” CPW is unique in that it manages electric, gas, water and wastewater.
Tuttle empowered employees. He cited the company’s United Way campaign as an example. “The employees headed up that campaign and they made it fun,” Tuttle said. “This year we will have raised more than $35,000 and the employees contributed $28,000. We have the most caring employees.”
Tuttle is only the third GM at Greer CPW following Nick Stegall and Jerry Balding.
Among Tuttle’s accomplishments:
• Established multi-tiered employee performance incentive plan for annual raises ranging from 3 – 4.5 percent.
• Reduced drive-thru hours in response to customers paying more bills and transactions online.
• Adjusted fees at Lake Robinson and Lake Cunningham and reinvested the funds into park and lake improvements. It was the first time fees were increased in 10 years.
• Oversaw rate hikes in utilities that commissioners approved for consecutive annual increases.
• Oversaw capital improvements including a fifth substation to serve the future power needs at the Inland Port and eastside manufacturing expansion and housing communities.
• $1 million Wade Hampton Boulevard canopy lighting is virtually complete.
• $2.5 million downtown Greer infrastructure repairs (scheduled 2018).
• Made personnel changes in concert with its comprehensive strategic plan.
• Lobby undergoing entire remodeling.
• Moody’s Investor Service gave CPW an A1 long-term credit rating, an upgrade from the A2 given to CPW in 2007.
• Fitch Racings continued CPW’s A+ credit rating and revised the utility’s outlook from stable to positive.
• CPW has been awarded many regional and national awards, including the recent Green Fleet Award.
Heath is a third generation family-owned business in addition to its new status as a nationally certified Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance.
Since 1933, Heath Consultants Incorporated, a leading service provider and manufacturer, is based in Houston, Texas with over 1,200 employees across the United States.