MEA board works toward accountability

With membership that includes several former Matanuska Electric Association board members, including immediate past president Lee Jordan, the newly formed Friends of MEA is positioning itself to be a vocal opponent of the cooperative’s current member-friendly group of directors.

Since Jordan was voted off the board and outspoken MEA critic Janet Kincaid added to the board, along with the re-election of Peter Burchell, the board has been vocal and persistent in holding General Manager Wayne Carmony and MEA’s top management accountable to the board and its member-owners. It seems Carmony and his supporters shrink in the harsh spotlight of a tough board that demands its manager be answerable to his board of directors and not the other way around.

When Kincaid attempted to bring legitimate operational concerns to the attention of management earlier this year — including evidence an MEA vehicle was being used to transport alcohol — Carmony put considerable energy into discrediting Kincaid rather than simply addressing an obvious problem. He further has shown a disinterest in representing the board’s wishes when instructed to back off on MEA’s advertising efforts to push its ballot proposal to have the Mat-Su Borough’s power plan ordinance repealed. Instead, Carmony chose to split hairs in efforts to circumvent the spirit of the board’s directive.

Now, some of the same people who supported, rewarded and backed Carmony’s policies and practices of non-accountability to the public are again working against our electric cooperative’s efforts to rein in an antagonistic management team.

It seems overly coincidental the “Friends of MEA” have formed and are pledging to work for a better cooperative just as the current board has laid down the law to management. It started by not automatically renewing Carmony’s contract which, by action of a previous board, is part of his personnel file and not available for public scrutiny. By demanding management pursue the directives of the board and not “advise” the board, this group of directors is saying enough is enough.

The Friends of MEA would have it the other way around, that the board take direction from its employees and otherwise stay out of the way. It’s the way MEA has been managed for years, and while the cooperative is a strong organization overall, this style of management has also destroyed its public trust to the point extreme action is necessary.

With the exception of a couple of old guard holdovers, this new MEA board is working hard to earn back the public’s trust by operating in an as transparent manner as possible.

All the posturing aside, all this hullabaloo comes down to is the simple fact that Carmony works at the pleasure of the board, not the other way around. This is something Carmony and the Friends of MEA can’t reconcile.

So far, this board has our support and we encourage it to stay the course of operating in an open and transparent fashion. As owners of the cooperative, we have a voice in how our cooperative is managed and we demand accountability, too.