Jury leaves MEA in dark

PALMER — After two weeks of trial and an afternoon thinking it over, a jury ruled against Matanuska Electric Association in its attempt to hold its former general manager liable for settlements with two fired executives.

MEA spokeswoman Cheryl Heinze said that the co-op was disappointed with the verdict and still believes its rules required then-manager Wayne Carmony to seek approval for theemployment contracts he put in place, which led to the settlements.

“We still believe that he should have gone before the board, but we respect and honor the decision of the jury,” Heinze said. “Now we just move on, go on doing the best we can building a power plant and looking to the future.”

MEA’s board of directors fired Carmony in spring 2009, not long after they directed him to fire IT director Bruce Scott and assistant general manager Tuckerman Babcock.

Scott and Babcock later field lawsuits against MEA, claiming they were owed severance pay the co-op refused to give them. MEA, Babcock and Scott settled those suits out of court. In the meantime, MEA filed a lawsuit against Carmony seeking to hold him fiscally responsible for that severance pay.

The two-week trial essentially asked the jury to decide who should have to pay the settlement to the two former executives; reported during the court proceedings as $650,000.

Attorneys for both sides gave closing arguments Friday.

See Sunday's issue of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman for a longer version of this story.