Members short-circuited by MEA

The member-owners, by delegating authority to the board of directors, do not give the board the right to decide what is good for the members to know and what is not good for members to know.

- From the bylaws of Matanuska Electric Association

Valley residents familiar with what passes for business as usual at Matanuska Electric Association, our member-owned cooperative, will likely not be surprised at the latest round of double talk emanating from a board of directors and management team that is supposed to be representing us, its members.

The uninitiated ought to tune in, too, though. Because the long-term financial and quality-of-life ramifications for everyone are potentially staggering.

At its March meeting, the board responded to growing cries for more transparency from its member-owners - MEA ratepayers - by passing a surprisingly unambiguous resolution, the full text of which appears on page A10 of this newspaper. Addressing the secret 76-page integrated resource plan that details the specifics of MEA's proposed coal-fired power plant, the resolution stated “... be it resolved by the board of directors of Matanuska Electric Association Inc., that staff is hereby directed to post a copy of the association's IRP ... on the association's Web site following (Chugach Electric's) public disclosure of its new IRP.”

Last week, however, it became clear that MEA has no such intentions. Chugach Electric publicly released its new IRP without fanfare, and the powers that be at MEA couldn't back-pedal fast enough.

Despite the very clear terms of the board resolution, ratepayers are still being denied access to something that should have been public to begin with. MEA's baseless excuse for doing so amounts to little more than “well, that's not really what we meant.”

People who value transparency and integrity should be outraged. This action will do nothing to quell mounting criticism of MEA or growing suspicion that the co-op's board and management has something to hide by not releasing the plan. The fact that cost estimates in the public summary of the plan already strain credulity amplify those suspicions.

What can be done? Call MEA board president Lee Jordan, who is up for re-election in less than a year for an at-large seat everyone will get to vote on. Urge him to abide by the terms of the resolution he signed. His phone number is 907-688-9068.

Call your borough assembly representative and urge him or her to get involved. Then call the Regulatory Commission of Alaska at 907-276-6222. Let them know what our board is up to.

The member-owners of MEA deserve better than this. Sadly, it seems unlikely that satisfaction will be granted by MEA voluntarily.