Five candidates seek two seats on MEA's board

MAT-SU -- The Matanuska Electric Association Nominating Committee has released the names of candidates nominated for this year's election, but some are questioning the committee's addition of candidate rankings, including MEA board members.

Ballots and other official election materials were mailed recently to more than 33,000 MEA members. Five candidates are running for two at-large seats on the board of directors, both for three-year terms.

Seeking election to the co-op's seven-member board are Scott Daugharty of Eagle River, James Hermon of Palmer, Wesley Pollock of Wasilla, Kim Kalmbach Robinson of Palmer and Thomas Staudenmaier of Eagle River.

Although last year MEA members voted for three candidates to fill area-specific seats, this year's election seats will be filled by at-large candidates. Next year, seats will again be filled on a by-area basis.

Of the five candidates up for election, Hermon, Pollock and Robinson were nominated by MEA's member nominating committee. Hermon and Pollock were rated "most qualified" by the committee. Robinson was rated "qualified" by the committee. Daugharty and Staudenmaier were nominated by petition and did not go before the nominating committee.

The rankings are a new feature added by this year's nominating committee. Committee chairman Tom Logan said Friday the ranking is an effort by the committee to distinguish between candidates who have had previous experience with utility-related topics and those who have not.

"We found that everybody [can be nominated]," Logan said. "According to the bylaws, if they buy power and are using power, they're qualified."

In the past, the nominating committee has nominated only those members they felt were qualified to serve, but Logan said they took heat for not nominating everyone, so they changed the format. During last year's election, Ken Klunder appeared before the committee but was not nominated. The previous year, the nominating committee did not nominate candidate Lois Lester, and prior to that, board incumbent Rod Cottle was not nominated by the committee.

"I wanted to nominate all of them, say 'Yeah, they're qualified to run, but these are the two top ones,'" Logan said. That, he explained, is why the "most qualified" ranking appears next to Hermon and Pollock's names. "They have been on the board, they've had the training and they're qualified."

But some MEA members believe the ranking is a not-so-subtle indicator by MEA management of who they should vote for.

"It's providing a value judgment and a recommendation by a group of people who have been hand-picked by MEA management," said Tony Pippel, an MEA member and spokesman for Utility Watch, a consumer watchdog group. "They've never done it before. I don't see any reason why they need to now."

Utility Watch, last year, sent a letter to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska asking the commission -- which oversees public utilities -- prohibit MEA from advertising, claiming it was attempting to influence the outcome of the election. Agnes Pitts, RCA's chief of consumer protection and public information, replied to the letter, stating that while the RCA does not have authority to prohibit MEA from advertising, MEA was not allowed to recover through rates the money expended for "promotional, political, or goodwill advertising."

But Pippel wasn't the only one to notice the change. At MEA's March 11 meeting, board member Lois Lester questioned both why the nominating practice had changed and why the board was not informed about it at MEA's last meeting, when the names of nominated candidates were forwarded to the board.

"This is the first year … that the nominating committee stuck on 'qualified' or 'most qualified'," Lester said. "They did not report that they were going to do this to the board."

Board president Bill Folsom said the nominating committee should act on its own.

"There should be a separation [between] the board and the nominating committee," Folsom said.

Board member Michael Janecek said he felt the committee had crossed a line.

"So essentially, the nominating committee voted … and then we mailed out to all of the members their vote, and who they should choose," Janecek said.

MEA General Manager Wayne Carmony said the nominating committee reported all it was required to report.

"The bylaws require the nominating committee to tell the board the names [of the nominated candidates]," Carmony said.

Biographies of the candidates, as well as their campaign statements, are included in meeting notices that have been mailed to all MEA members. The material is also posted on MEA's Web site at www.matanuska.com.

MEA members may vote by mail or in person at the co-op's annual membership meeting at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at Raven Hall at the Alaska State Fairgrounds. Registration starts at 1 p.m.