The spokesman for People for Yes on Whidbey PUD, a group vying to create a public utility district for Whidbey Island, resigned Monday after he accused the organization’s leader of being on a secret payroll.

Former spokesperson Ed Jenkins said in a press release Saturday that David Metheny, the campaign director for People for Yes on Whidbey PUD, was a paid employee of a trade group that promotes PUDs, the Washington Public Utilities Districts Association.

“People for Yes” is leading the effort to take over Puget Sound Energy’s service area on Whidbey Island after the company announced plans to merge with an Australian investment group. Fearing that electricity would be outside of local control, the group garnered enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.

Originally, “People for Yes” purported themselves as a grassroots organization made up entirely of volunteers.

“I was paid $2,000 in June, July and then August,” Metheny admitted to the News-Times Monday. He was employed by the company last fall.

Jenkins said the group was unaware of any outside influence until three weeks ago, when Steve Johnson, executive director of WPUDA, notified him of the payments.

“My immediate thought was that I had put myself on the line saying this was grassroots. And PSE could use this against us,” Jenkins said. “But there was pressure by Johnson to not reveal Metheny’s paid status.”

Jenkins said he initially kept the issue quiet because WPUDA was funding their advertising, printing road signs, supplying them with expert analysts and planning the group’s series of upcoming public forums. However, at a dinner meeting Tuesday, Jenkins urged Johnson to go public.

“Steve went ballistic and threatened to withdraw support from our forums. He wanted complete control,” Jenkins claimed.

Johnson could not be reached for comment.

Metheny flatly denies that the group was being manipulated and said Jenkins’ press releases increasingly demonized PSE, which caused tension.

“We wanted to tone down the rhetoric. Thousands of people who work for PSE are good employees,” he said. “We didn’t want to frame it that we had angels or devils running our electrical systems.”

In one candid release, Jenkins surmised that PSE saw its customers as “cash cows” and said that an independent study used to price the company’s assets was a scare tactic.

“The press releases were never an issue until I wrote one about Metheny being paid,” Jenkins said. “They always told me I did a great job.”

But WPUDA was growing increasingly concerned with the group’s tone and was apprehensive about having a WPUDA executive speak at the upcoming forums. They voiced this concern to Metheny.

Sunday night, leaders for “People for Yes” held a meeting and decided to bar Jenkins from attending the forums. Metheny said Jenkins appeared calm and receptive. The next day, however, he wrote an email detailing WPUDA’s involvement with the group, and in the afternoon, formally announced his resignation.

In the release, he compared WPUDA’s “attempt to hijack the public forums” to blackmail.

“PSE has their juggernaut, trying to bring in outside control of power. And suddenly we had WPUDA strong arming us to do things their way,” Jenkins said.

Metheny said he has sided with Jenkins many times, and that WPUDA was only trying to protect their organization.

“They must feel comfortable at these forums,” he said.

Metheny first began studying PUDs in 2007 as a paralegal student. The previous year, a serious storm had taken out the power to South Whidbey for several days, putting a strain on his elderly parents. His original plan was to start a PUD in 2010, but WPUDA convinced him to act in 2008, partly because of the number of signatures needed for the ballot and because of PSE’s upcoming merger. He said his leisurely campaign strategy accelerated rapidly.

“Without them, it would be difficult to get this far,” Metheny said.

But he said he was not controlled by this organization.

“I’m nobody’s idiot but my own idiot,” Metheny said.

Jenkins will continue fighting for a local PUD group, but wants no outside intervention.

“I will not bow down to any threats from PSE or WPUDA, big organizations that do not live here. Nobody outside this island community has any right to dictate to us,” he wrote Monday. “I will attempt to organize forums where there will be no outside influence.”