MEA board ousts member

PALMER -- Matanuska Electric Association board members adopted the two bylaw changes approved by MEA voters at the co-op's Saturday annual meeting and inducted the two winning candidates to the board, but ended the meeting with two fewer board members.

Board members approved the first proposition, bylaw changes pertaining to campaign disclosure and conflicts of interest, unanimously. Those bylaw changes will take effect July 1, 2003.

Board member Scott Daugharty proposed that the second bylaw amendment, pertaining to drug testing, be put into effect similarly, on July 1, 2003.

Board member Bill Folsom disagreed.

"This proposition is completely different, in that it has a time-specific part of implementation," Folsom said. "Proposition one did not have a time-specific [note] and therefor, would implement more easily, readily, with the next election."

Folsom added that, because the bylaw amendment was brought forward by members, he was unsure whether it would be legal to wait to implement it. Folsom said he believed the motion was out of order.

Board President Larry DeVilbiss agreed that the motion was out of order, but Daugharty disagreed.

"What it would give us is, a year from now, people would know before they ever ran for the board [they would be tested]," Daugharty said.

DeVilbiss held to his stance that the voters who approved the measure would have wanted it enacted immediately, and asked to hear a report from a representative from Worksafe Inc., a drug testing firm MEA contracts with to perform their employee drug testing.

The representative said he received hair samples from DeVilbiss, Folsom, Daugharty and board member Lois Lester. Through a subcontract with Valley Phlebotomy, he said, he had also received hair samples from board members Linda Shattuck and Jim Hermon. Shattuck and Hermon attended the meeting Monday telephonically and their samples were taken at their homes.

MEA's general manager Wayne Carmony said board member Michael Janecek refused the offer of a home visit.

DeVilbiss said Janecek was contacted by message machine twice and, at one time indicated he'd see DeVilbiss at the meeting. He said Janecek had contacted MEA at least twice as well, and said Worrell had a conversation with him at about 6:15 p.m. in which he refused to have someone sent to perform the test at home. During that phone call, Worrell said, Janecek indicated he would not be attending, either telephonically or in person.

"He said his doctor had advised him he should not go out," Worrell said.

Folsom moved that, pursuant to the new bylaw amendments, Janecek should not remain a member of the board and that the seat be vacated immediately.

"… I think it's a concerted effort by you people for the last three years to get rid of him," Lester said when objecting to the motion. "This is one of the things I speak of when I speak of openness and fairness … I think the next meeting is soon enough."

The board, through a 3-2 vote, agreed to vacate Janecek's seat. Lester and Daugharty opposed the motion. After the vote to remove Janecek took place, there were several shared smiles among audience members and one member, Fred Agree, stood to pat previous board member Barbara "Tamie" Miller on the back. Agree, at the meeting at which Janecek and other successful candidates in the 2001 election were to be seated, said he believed Janecek had not accurately reported what he had spent on advertising during his campaign. Miller had initially brought the drug-testing issue up at MEA's 2002 annual meeting, and later brought it to the ballot by petition.

Speaking from his home Tuesday, Janecek was less than surprised about the actions at Monday's meeting. He said he believes some members of the board and of MEA's management have been pressing his buttons since he won the election in 2001.

"It's more about how they have persecuted me for two years than whether I would take a drug test," Janecek said. "The principle is that Wayne Carmony and his staff would use drug testing for political gain -- that's what's important … there's just no limit to what they'll do, no limit about what kind of attacks they'll launch against me."

Janecek reiterated that he had seen a doctor on Monday who suspected he may have pneumonia and told him to stay home. As for refusing to allow the test to be performed at his home, he said he believed that was an invasion of his privacy.

He said he had been prepared to compromise about the drug testing issue, but had not been given a chance to do so.

"If we have some developed policy about how the drug tests would be administered … then I would consider it," Janecek said.

He said he had concerns about who would have been privy to other information about he and other board members' medical history, what medications they're taking and other matters -- matters that don't pertain to service on the MEA board. And, he added, it appears the desired outcome was reached.

"I dislike having my name tarnished in that way," Janecek said. "I, quite honestly, have spent a lot of time in healthy venues. But I do have my own personal rights and I'm not giving them up so they can treat me in this way … They've already done the damage without a single lock of my hair."

Janecek said he's considering whether or not to file suit over the action.

In the meantime, MEA has begun advertising in newspapers and on the radio for applicants for the vacated seat. The seat is only open to members from the Wasilla area north, and applications can be picked up at any MEA office or downloaded from the co-operative's Web site at www.matanuska.com.