MEA board member resigns

PALMER -- After narrowly winning her bid for a second three-year term on the Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) board of directors, Rose Marie "Tiny" DePriest resigned Monday from her position on the board.

DePriest, when asked about her decision to resign, and about her past service with the cooperative, declined to comment.

"I do not care to make any comments to the press, period," DePriest said.

In a letter read by board president Bill Folsom at the Monday board meeting, DePriest alluded to potential problems with campaign disclosure statements.

"I understand that the manner in which I completed my campaign disclosure statements continues to be an issue in the community," DePriest's letter stated. "While I stand by my reports, I do not want this issue to become a distraction from the many important issues which confront this Board."

After the April election, in which DePriest won the Palmer district race with 35 more votes than opponent Ken Klunder, the three candidates in the election -- DePriest, incumbent Linda Shattuck and Michael Janecek -- were all accused of violating MEA's campaign disclosure requirements.

Following a later review by MEA chief corporate counsel Stephen Ellis, DePriest was found to have "failed to provide sufficient detail as to advertising," but Ellis said he did not find the errors to be outstanding.

DePriest, in her pre-election report, listed a paid advertisement placed in the Alaska Star but did not list postcard advertisements mailed out on her behalf by Rural Electric Association Consumer Help (REACH), a group chaired by Bill Miller, the husband of longtime board member and past board president Barbara Miller.

In her post-election report, DePriest claimed she had no knowledge about the postcards sent out on her behalf by REACH -- that they were done without her approval and at an unknown cost.

DePriest was seated, and continued to serve as the board's secretary/treasurer. She leaves open nearly two years of a three-year term, and it is not yet clear how the position will be filled.

Board member Lois Lester, at the meeting, moved to accept DePriest's resignation.

She also suggested that the board let the people of Palmer decide who should represent them on the board, but MEA's bylaws are vague as to the manner in which board vacancies are filled.

". . . a vacancy occurring on the Board shall be filled for the remainder of the term by the affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining board members," the bylaws state in Article IV, Section 7.

The most recent precedent of filling a board vacancy was set when the board chose not to seat Janecek, the successful candidate in the Wasilla district race.

Instead, the board seated Mae Tischer, the next-highest vote-getter in the race.

Klunder -- who was the next-highest vote getter in the board election -- said he's hopeful MEA officials will seat him, and plans to step forward to request that they do.

"I was going to go ask them," Klunder said, "because nobody else was willing to run [in the Palmer district]."

Klunder said he plans to take a letter to MEA signifying his willingness to fill the position and requesting that MEA follow the precedent set in the Janecek-Tischer race.

MEA spokesman Mike Pauley did not return a telephone call Wednesday.