Paul Peschel, General Manager

Paul Peschel joined the district in January of 2016 and oversees the management of KRCD. A registered civil engineer in California, Mr. Peschel has extensive, water resource, engineering and management experience. He was employed by IID for nearly 30 years starting in 1987 as an assistant engineer in the Water Department.

During his tenure, he has served as chief civil engineer/ assistant Water Department manager, and executive program manager/General Services manager before taking on his current role to lead planning and engineering efforts in the Energy Department. During his tenure at the IID, Peschel has managed capital projects and programs exceeding $200 million annually and resource, operation, and maintenance budgets up to $10 million. Peschel was a key player for the All-American Canal Lining Project, San Diego County Water Transfer and the historic IID/Metropolitan Water District Transfer. Peschel also served as the lead negotiator on California Department of Transportation issues for IID.

Peschel holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from North Dakota State University and has completed academic work toward a master’s in public administration at San Diego State University. He is a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Public Works Association. He has served on several key water and engineering boards including past involvement with the Salton Sea Authority Technical Advisory Committee. In addition, Peschel has served in leadership positions on the boards of Optimists International, Office of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and the United Way of Imperial County.

David Merritt, Deputy General Manager

Power Resources, Flood O&M and Environmental/Fisheries

David Merritt joined the district in September of 2010 and oversees the management of KRCD's power generation, river flood maintenance and river environmental divisions. Before coming to KRCD, Merritt worked for GWF Power Systems / GWF Energy LLC for almost 19 years, within both the operations and maintenance groups. His last assignment with GWF was managing three assets, a 28 MW solid fuel fluid bed combustor and two separate 2xLM6000 simple cycle peaking facilities. He was also very active with the environmental and regulatory compliance attributed to these facilities.

In addition to his role with KRCD, Merritt also serves as an officer of Western Turbine Users Inc. (WTUI) as Vice President; WTUI is one of the largest users groups of the General Electric product line of LM gas turbines. Merritt also served in the US Navy in the aviation field and was honorably discharged in 1990.

Randy Shilling, Deputy General Manager of Business Operations

Randy Shilling received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California State University, Fresno in 1979. He then spent the next 24 years with the Tax Branch of the Employment Development Department (EDD) as an auditor. Shilling was an audit supervisor with EDD when he came to KRCD in November 2003 as the Director of Finance. Shilling manages the finance division (which includes accounting, human resources and office administration)and the water resources division at KRCD.