Letters spell out end for Carmony

PALMER — Wayne Carmony has been removed from his position as general manager of the Matanuska Electric Association.

In a 5-2 vote early Tuesday afternoon, the co-op’s board of directors decided to put Carmony on immediate paid leave and to begin the process of terminating him. Spokeswoman Lorali Carter said after the meeting that, for now, the head of the co-op will be Assistant General Manger Donald Zoerb.

Carmony had little to say in the parking lot as the meeting continued inside.

“I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it,” he said. “It’s pretty disappointing.”

He shared a letter the board had given him saying, in essence, that negotiations had broken down, that the board would not accept an offer Carmony had made. The letter also said the board had told Carmony previously that if they couldn’t reach an agreement on severance pay and a termination without cause that the board would move to terminate him with cause.

At the meeting, the board exercised that option, moving to fire the general manager with cause. What that cause was, though, was not made public. Asked if he knew what cause the board was citing, Carmony shook his head.

Prior to the meeting, Carmony had forwarded to MEA employees a copy of the letter the board had given him detailing their offer of a severance package. Compensation amounts have all been removed from the letter, which seems to offer Carmony the severance package stipulated in his contract, minus 20 percent. The board says the 20 percent reduction is a “risk adjustment” to take into account possible court action.

“If you were to prevail in litigation, your net benefit after the deduction of your attorneys’ fees and the recovery of a portion of those attorneys’ fees from MEA would be less than the slightly discounted amount offered,” the letter states.

But the offer comes with strings attached — Carmony can’t sue MEA and MEA can’t sue him, Carmony can’t participate in lawsuits filed against MEA unless a court orders him to do so. Carmony would have to participate in defending MEA if so asked. He couldn’t make public statements about MEA business.

In a later letter addressed directly to MEA Employees, Carmony describes the order he not speak about MEA as an infringement on his First Amendment rights. He also points out that the orders regarding his participation in court action would have him acting regardless of his beliefs — defending MEA even if he disagreed with the co-op and refusing help to others even if he agreed with them.

In a letter he sent to the board after it made him an offer, Carmony asks the board to reconsider its offer and do one of two things: Keep him on as general manager or cut him a check.

“Simply write me a check for what I am owed and we separate,” he says in the letter. “Your obligation to me is not a matter of negotiating a severance package, and my contract does not require me to agree to any terms not already specified in it.”

In April, the board seemingly began the process of firing Carmony. Since then, the consensus among MEA watchers was that the process was dragging on because the board was seeking a way to avoid paying Carmony the full amount of the severance pay detailed in his contract.

Comments from at least one board member Tuesday seemed to bear that out.

“I object in the most strenuous way,” said board member Larry DeVilbiss when the motion was made to fire Carmony. “If we can’t pay a man what a man is due then we pay the consequences.”

Carmony’s contract has not been made public. During his tenure it was kept under lock and key at the utility.

But the board’s action Tuesday left no doubt that Carmony’s time there is over. After moving to suspend him with pay, board member Peter Burchell proposed a successful motion to have Carmony hand over his keys and leave the building and to direct staff to secure his office and his computer.

David Glines and DeVilbiss voted against termination and barring Carmony from the building. Lois Lester, Kit Jones, Katie Hurley, Janet Kincaid and Burchell voted in favor.

Carmony’s letters also seemed to be assume his firing was a done deal.

“I wish you all the best in the years ahead,” he wrote to the employees. “MEA will either be a power company in the future or the vague memory of a few. Strive, and I know you will, to be a great power company.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.