MEA: Burchell must provide more information

June 15, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - During its monthly meeting Monday evening, the Matanuska Electric Association board passed three motions requiring the co-op election's top vote-getter, Peter Burchell, to turn over to the board by June 20 more paperwork and written statements regarding his campaign financial disclosure reports.

Before Burchell can step into his three-year-term seat, he must provide to the board all bank statements from his campaign checking account for February, March, April and May; write a statement describing the circumstances behind a $2,000 cash loan he made to himself and supply a written statement explaining why he failed to "timely disclose" a $484.33 contribution from former board member Michael Janecek on any of his pre-election reports or on his first set of revised disclosure reports.

"At first, I've seen a lot of this as carelessness. People need to know who is making the contribution. That knowledge could have changed the outcome of the votes," board member Larry DeVilbiss said.

MEA by-laws require newly appointed board members to have their campaign financial documents in order before taking a seat, according to DeVilbiss.

All the motions were recommended by MEA's member advisory board, which reviewed the campaign disclosure reports of the two successful candidates, Burchell and incumbent Lee Jordan, who also serves as board president.

Board members Lois Lester and K. Scott Daugharty voted against the three motions; they also said no to a fourth motion that will allow MEA General Manager Wayne Carmony to gather all reports from the member advisory committee to the co-op board regarding campaign disclosure issues and post the findings on MEA's Web site.

Dawn De Busk may be reached at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@frontiersman.com