Making up the rules as they go along . . .

Frontiersman editorial board

Matanuska Electric Association Inc. (MEA) and the Frontiersman have had a tumultuous history, during which the paper underwent editorial and management changes and the views of MEA shifted from union-controlled to union-hating.

In the earliest editions of the Frontiersman, there are front-page stories that call into question actions taken by the association. It seems only the names have changed over the past 50 years.

And so, it shouldn't seem surprising that MEA continues to turn a deaf ear to the concerns of its consumers. Or that requests to follow MEA's recently set precedent to turn over empty seats to the next-highest vote-getter were denied by MEA officials who said MEA really has no precedent in such cases. In fact, it seems MEA's only real precedent has been to use its (purposefully?) vague bylaws to subvert the democratic process whenever the opportunity arises.

As a result, MEA set a whole new precedent at Monday's meeting. Not only can MEA management officials overturn elections that have what they consider unsavory outcomes, they can now freely pack the so-called co-op's board with MEA puppets whenever they can convince a seated board member to step down.

Here's one way it could play out: the board or MEA management could encourage someone to run in an election. If the person selected to run does not win, charges could be trumped up to refuse his or her opponent the seat, as was the case in the Michael Janecek/Mae Tischer race.

The rank and file members of MEA spoke, but their voice in that contest was not what MEA management wanted to hear, so the election results were overturned.

Once the chosen candidate is in a board seat, if MEA spies another pliable prospect on the horizon and decides the person could be a powerful attribute on the board, MEA administration could ask the chosen candidate to step aside so they could slip their replacement into the seat without the approval of the utility's members.

It's just one more neat and tidy method MEA can use to side-step the wishes of the folks who pay their healthy salaries.

Think it won't happen? Previous to this May, it was pretty inconceivable that MEA management would completely disregard the overwhelming decision of the voters that a new voice was needed on the MEA board, but MEA management sliced Janecek out of the picture without a second thought and actually seemed surprised when their actions were called into question.

Why bother calling it a public utility when management won't sit for any public input?