Transparency was the catch word. After all the campaigning and calls for change on the board, the board members remain the same. Lois Lester retained her seat and Kit Jones fills a full term now.
Interestingly, those two appeared to oppose Proposition 1. While they won by several hundred votes, the proposition also won by several hundred votes in somewhat of a contradiction.
|
|
While that group tried not to point anybody out, it seemed aimed at unseating Janet Kincaid, who has a son who works for a subcontractor that has business with the utility. But she had something to say about that: “I’ll tell you this, I’m not leaving the board. You can put your bet on that.”
The essence of the bylaw is credible. The utility shouldn’t leave the impression it favors board members’ kin over people or companies that don’t have that kind of pull at MEA. On the same token, just because a member’s cousin works for a company that does business with the utility, that company shouldn’t be penalized. The competition for business is hard enough without a bias thrown in. All any ratepayer wants is to get the most out of their money. A level playing field accomplishes that.
If a man works for the company for decades without problems and now he’s canned, it raises eyebrows. Obviously there are privacy issues here. If there is some kind of criminal wrongdoing among employees, the ratepayers should know that and charges should be filed. People are beginning to wonder what is going on behind closed doors, an all too common practice at MEA.
Ratepayers, the real bosses at MEA, don’t like secrecy. They’ve called for transparency and they should get it.
If this board wants to fire Wayne Carmony, then it should do that and explain why.
As for the other bylaws, there needs to be much more clarity. For example, Prop. 12 was defeated, leaving $500 as the most a candidate can receive, while Prop. 16 makes that limit $750 and was overwhelmingly favored. Which amount is correct?
The MEA Board of Directors and its management have much work to do before they are viewed as being trustworthy and competent in matters of personnel, spending, management, and yes, transparency.
Comments
9 comment(s)longtimevalleyRES wrote on Apr 30, 2009 11:56 AM:
AKValley wrote on Apr 30, 2009 8:12 AM:
MEA Ratepayer wrote on Apr 29, 2009 4:16 PM:
Did anyone call the Board and ask? If you did, put the response on here. We need to get this straightened out. "
RE David Kincaid Throwing Mud wrote on Apr 29, 2009 4:12 PM:
DAvid Kincaid throwing mud wrote on Apr 28, 2009 11:24 PM:
Want to move forward wrote on Apr 28, 2009 10:01 PM:
Hey Frontierman wrote on Apr 28, 2009 8:36 PM:
Correct former Director wrote on Apr 28, 2009 8:32 PM:
irate wrote on Apr 28, 2009 10:37 AM: