MEA bylaws committee gets an overhaul

PALMER — The Matanuska Electric Association has, essentially, a brand-new bylaws committee and, to hear at least two of those new members talk, they can’t wait to get started.

“I have a ton of notes and talking points about each bylaw change that they made that I think is wrong or complex or unconstitutional,” Mike Janecek said.

This wouldn’t be Janecek’s first run-in with the cooperative’s bylaws. A former MEA board member, he has for years said a number of changes to MEA bylaws were aimed at getting him or another board member unseated. In previous interviews, MEA management has said bylaws aren’t aimed at any particular individual and unseating a duly elected board member is not something they are interested in.

At this week’s meeting, the board of directors seated four new members and reappointed one whose term had expired. Board President Lois Lester has long said that, aside from Kit Jones, the rest of the committee saw their terms expire long ago. The seats were therefore declared open.

Jones is a member of the MEA Ratepayers Alliance and appointed to the committee in February.

The bylaws committee is basically an advisory body, coming up with potential changes, which must then be sent to the board to be approved or put to a vote of co-op members.

In addition to Janecek, the board chose:

• Dan Tucker, a retired firefighter and member of the Central Mat-Su Fire Department’s Board of Supervisors;

• Mark Kelsey, a former editor of the Frontiersman and a state employee, who wrote in his application, “as a recent critic of MEA I’d like to do something constructive and ‘give back;’”

• Dewey Taylor, a retired teacher and member of the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions board of directors;

• Tom Wood, a consultant and business, construction and project manager, who was serving on the inactive bylaws committee although his term had expired.

Janecek singled out Wood as someone he might disagree with on the committee, but said healthy discourse is a good thing. Wood, reached on his cell phone Thursday, did not have time to comment. Taylor and Kelsey could not be reached.

Tucker counts himself a critic of MEA management. He referred to a certain bylaw — the one that decrees board members take drug tests — as the “Janecek rule,” saying in his opinion it was directed solely at Janecek.

Janecek has said as much in the past, but said he never failed a drug test.

Tucker said he has that law squarely in his sights and proposed two alternatives — that it be eliminated outright or expanded to apply to MEA management.

“If we are going to be that suspect of private citizens who are board members,” and thus directing policy, “we should be just as suspect of management,” who implement that policy, Tucker said.

Janecek also believes the drug test should be stricken, calling it “unconstitutional,” and said another point to be straightened out is election disclosure rules.

“I’m OK with keeping a handle on people and who they get their money from and how they utilize it in campaigning,” Janecek said

But the rules now, he said, are more complex than those required of folks seeking state office. They require, he said, 11 reports over the course of the campaign.

He said he would propose either a strict $1,000 limit on campaign expenditures or simplifying the reporting process to make them identical to the requirements of the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

“If it’s good enough for legislators, Lyda Green, it’s good enough for me,” he said.

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