MEA board still divided

PALMER — In light of changes to the co-op’s bylaws passed Saturday, one member of the Matanuska Electric Association’s board of directors moved to unseat two of his colleagues Monday.

During the first board meeting since the election, director David Glines moved first that Janet Kincaid’s seat be vacated and then that board president Lois Lester lose her seat. Both motions failed 5-2.

The first move, he said, related to a controversial bylaw change, referred to as Proposition 1, which voters passed on Saturday’s ballot. The rule decrees that directors not be allowed to serve if members of their family have a certain amount of business with MEA.

“I think the voters were pretty clear in what they were voting on,” Glines said.

Director Peter Burchell said he wasn’t exactly certain that the bylaw required Kincaid be unseated immediately and asked board attorney Robin Brena for an opinion.

“I think that there’s probably a series of legal issues that need to be examined with regard to proposition one specifically,” Brena said. “My advice would be for the board to ask for a legal opinion of the applicability of it.”

He pointed out that since the bylaw lists as a conflict of interest a board member’s family doing contract work for the co-op, in theory, at least, a member’s eligibility to serve could change daily or even hourly.

Board Member Kit Jones said she thought the whole question was moot from the start. Glines seemed to be thinking that Kincaid was precluded from serving on the board because of work her son does with the co-op.

“There’s no work going on. So at this point I certainly wouldn’t think this would be applicable,” Jones said.

In an interview prior to the meeting, Kincaid said much the same – that her son had no business currently with the co-op — as did one of the bylaw’s architects, Lee Jordan, a former board president and current member of Friends of MEA, the group that pushed the bylaw change forward.

“My understanding is it’s up to the board to enforce the bylaw and I would anticipate that they would not find any problem with any current members,” Jordan said.

Jordan, when asked about Kincaid specifically, was quick to point out that Friends of MEA wasn’t targeting any board member in particular.

For her part, Kincaid said she wasn’t buying that – she believes the change was singling her out.

“I’ll tell you this – I’m not leaving the board. You can put your bet on that,” she said.

If she was making a prediction, at least as far as Monday’s meeting was concerned it came true. The motion failed with Glines and board member Larry DeVilbiss in the minority.

Glines’ second motion, relating to Lester, he said was based on another change to the bylaws that instituted term limits of three terms per board member. He pointed out that Lester had been elected to her fourth term at Saturday’s meeting.

Board member Katie Hurley said she had a different view of the matter.

“It’s my understanding that these did not go into effect immediately,” she said.

Lester and others indicated they believed that the rules took effect in January of 2010. As proof, they cited a report the bylaw committee gave to the board before the election.

Maybe so, DeVilbiss said, but that date didn’t appear on the ballot.

“I don’t think either of us are disputing what the bylaw committee said in passing when they gave their report here. My problem is with what was put before the membership,” he said.

The motion failed with the same vote tally as the first motion.

And the board did end up taking Brena’s advice, asking him to draw up an opinion regarding how the bylaw changes should be interpreted giving him direction, in Jones’ words, to take, “whatever time he deems necessary.”

That caused a bit of a scuffle with Glines referring to the measure as a “blank check” and Jones saying she trusts Brena to do what’s right.

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