A few MEA facts cleared up

To the editor:

Aaron Downing in a March 8 Frontiersman letter to the editor had some inaccurate information regarding the IBEW contract with MEA. Perhaps methods have changed since Aaron was on the board. Today, management negotiates a contract, it is presented to the union, whose embers ratify it, and then it is given to the board for acceptance. The board does not negotiate; the 2008 agreement was done by Wayne Carmony.

I take my duties on the audit committee seriously. In 2008, my first audit, I expressly asked Moss Adams LLP to look at the warehouse operations. (Former assistant general manager Tuckerman) Babcock had fired the warehousemen and replaced them with linemen. The auditors found disorder and discrepancies. This year the auditors found order, since (current general manager Joe) Griffith had installed computers and a bar coding system for inventory. Our reinstated warehousemen were complimented in the 2010 Moss Adams LLP audit report.

I have a wide diversity of supporters. I do not ask party or union affiliation, but am honored to call them friends.

An old saying: “When someone speaks ill of you, live so no one believes them.”

Janet Kincaid

MEA Director

Palmer