MEA board seat

filled

Valley pastor selected

for vacancy

Cecember 4, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The Mata-nuska Electric Association board of directors on Wednesday voted 4-2 to select the pastor of a Lazy Mountain church to fill a vacancy left on the board last month.

David Dahms, pastor of Lazy Mountain Bible Church and a resident of the Hyer Road area for 15 years, was appointed to fill a seat left by John Alexander, who resigned from the board about two months after joining it when he learned that his daughter, who lives with him, had accepted a job at Valley Hospital and joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547.

MEA bylaws prohibit board members from serving if they live in the same home or are financially interdependent with a member of a union that deals with MEA.

The board had appointed Alexander to serve out the term of William Folsom, who retired in September after serving on the board for more than 10 years.

Board President Lee Jordan, Larry DeVilbiss, Linda Shattuck, and Treasurer/ Secretary Dallas Massie - who participated in the special meeting via telephone conference - voted for Dahms, while Peter Burchell, who also joined via teleconference, and Lois Lester favored candidate Dan Tucker.

Dahms will be seated during the next regular board meeting on Dec. 12 at 4 p.m., if he passes a drug test conducted on a sample of his hair, according to Jordan.

&#8220I didn't want to see the board seat filled by someone who would take MEA down the wrong road,” Dahms said, explaining why he applied for the seat.

Others who applied to serve the rest of Folsom's three-year term, which ends in July, included Barbara &#8220Tamie” Miller and Jose &#8220Joe” Vicente.

Runner-up in Wednesday's selection process, Tucker is a 27-year resident of the Valley who said that when he first moved into his home, a generator supplied electricity. He joined the U.S. Air Force Fire Department from 1968 to 1972, and continued a career in firefighting. Tucker has served on numerous boards since the 1970s, most recently on the Matanuska Valley Fish & Game Advisory Board from 1997-1999.

Miller, appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski to the Alaska Human Rights Commission earlier this year, served for 18 years on the MEA board. In 2000, Miller ran in an election to fill two board seats, but was the fourth-place vote getter and therefore lost her board seat to Lester.

Vicente is the general manager of the company developing Eagle Pointe subdivision, a 300-lot subdivision in Eagle River. With a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Chico State University in California, his career in that field spans 1976-1995. Vicente has served on a dozen boards or committees, including the Anchorage organizing committee for the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics.

Board members previewed the candidates' résumés, which were turned in by 5 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving and were not available in their totality until Monday.

About half a dozen questions were posed to candidates before the first vote was taken.

Some board members expressed the difficulty in choosing between what they viewed as highly qualified candidates.

&#8220This is the best list of candidates. Usually, we have one crackpot you can throw out,” DeVilbiss said, adding he voted for Dahms because he's seen how reasonable he has been in controversial situations.

Even Dahms, after being congratulated on his win, said that as a co-op member, he would have been pleased with any of the candidates taking the board seat.

&#8220If there was a way I could mold all of you into one person, I would vote for that one,” Shattuck said.

During the first round of votes, Massie chose Miller. Shattuck selected Eagle River resident Vicente. DeVilbiss voiced concern about an unequal number of Eagle River residents representing the board and voted for Dahms.

Three board members - Jordan, Lester and Shattuck - reside in Eagle River.

Burchell and Lester gave Tucker their OK during both votes.

Dahms earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the University of Missouri in 1980. For the next five years, he worked in his field as a consulting engineer for one company. He also worked as a consulting engineer in construction while attending the Dallas Theological Seminary from 1986 to 1990.

Dahms looks forward to researching other types of energy in preparation for 2014, when the purchase-all-power contract with Chugach Electric Association ends.

&#8220Like it or not, something conventional like natural gas or coal will probably be best,” Dahms said.

Contact Dawn De Busk at

352-2252 or dawn.debusk@

frontiersman.com.