Don’t give MEA trust it hasn’t earned

Would you give a blank check to a known liar? Neither would I.

Blank checks are simply not given to people of dubious character. They are given to those you trust.

Proposition 1 asks us to give Matanuska Electric Association a blank check; to trust it, carte blanche, with our future.

In a nutshell, Proposition 1 would rescind the Borough Power Plant ordinance. It would take away the protection that we, the people, asked for last summer, when MEA tried to force a coal plant down our throats.

MEA, of course, says don’t worry. Proposition 1 is good. Trust us.

But the management of MEA has yet to learn that trust is something that is earned, something that can be broken, something that is not easily restored. Time and again, MEA has broken our trust. Over the past year alone, MEA has proven that it cannot be trusted with a blank check.

This past spring, MEA attempted to sneak a coal plant into the Valley without asking its member-owners if they were in favor of such a measure. The MEA board (which was pro-management at the time) did not even release the Integrated resource plan to the public until after its members had voted to approve the coal plant. Talk about trusting your own member-owners …

In response to the understandable outcry, MEA created a ballot for their members. In typical fashion, MEA saved their ratepayers the trouble of thinking, and spent $160,000 of your money telling you how to vote.

MEA then gave two ballot choices that were parsed with laudable delicacy and nuance: Stay with Chugach Electric or become completely independent … Phrased in such an all-or-nothing, heaven-or-hell fashion, MEA got the results they sought — and then crowed about their “mandate” to use coal.

We, the people, then asked the Borough to protect the health and safety of Valley residents by creating a power plant ordinance that regulates the process of building generation facilities. And they did so.

But MEA didn’t let silly things like people, health or safety get in their way. They simply used ratepayer money to pay a signature gatherer, whose goal was to collect enough signatures to get Proposition 1 on this fall’s ballot.

Not wanting to trust the people, MEA lent fate a hand. Instead of giving an honest pitch, the signature gatherer asked people if they would like to sign the petition in order to build a gas plant. Hundreds of well-intentioned people — including one from my own family— were tricked into signing the petition.

After their duplicity had been exposed, MEA officials did not apologize, throw those sheets away, or even stop gathering signatures. No, they continued to collect signatures. They even instructed their employees to drive to the Borough and sign the petition — all on company time.

And the half-truths and bullying continue to this day.

The MEA board ordered MEA to stop spending member money promoting Proposition 1. Despite this command, MEA’s management continued running radio ads and continued sending letters telling you how to vote.

Folks, MEA wants you to give them a blank check. They want you to trust them — but they have done nothing to earn that trust.

That’s exactly why I urge you to Vote NO on Proposition 1.

Darin Markwardt is a Palmer resident.