MEA manager hangs in limbo

PALMER — With the board of directors apparently poised to ax General Manager Wayne Carmony, turmoil seems to have beset the Matanuska Electric Association.

On Monday, the board of directors voted to fire two long-time employees of the co-op — Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock and Information Technology Director Bruce Scott.

Also at that meeting, the board directed its attorney, Robin Brena, to enter into negotiations with Carmony regarding his termination.

Since then, Babcock has come out firmly in support of two challengers to board members in the upcoming board election and questioned the board’s motives in ousting him.

“Janet Kincaid wants to shut down the investigations into her son’s relationship with departments at MEA and any special relationships or advantages that he’s been receiving,” he said.

He said the board was also probably upset that his family had contributed money to the campaigns of Marvin Yoder and Crystal Nygard who are challenging directors Kit Jones and Lois Lester for their seats on the board. He further noted that the election that will decide Jones’ and Lester’s fates is slated for April 25 and he believed the board felt the need to act before the majority potentially shifted.

Babcock also pointed out that firing Carmony was a relatively simple task the board could have achieved long ago with a simple majority vote.

“They could have done that at any time but instead they’ve put this whole organization through an incredibly difficult and destructive year,” Babcock said.

As to why the board waited so long, Babcock seemed to be in agreement with most MEA watchers — both those who support the board and those who do not — when he said he suspects the board doesn’t want to go along with certain provisions in Carmony’s contract.

“It’s not going to succeed. You have to honor your contracts,” Babcock said.

As for what exactly is in the contract that’s causing consternation, very few people know for sure. Carmony’s contract is kept under lock and key at the utility, with very few people allowed to review it.

Years ago the contract got loose and at least one copy of it ended up at the Frontiersman. Dated February of 1994, the contract says little about termination but does say that Carmony is entitled to compensation if the board fires him “without cause.” Cause is defined in the 1994 contract as willfully acting against MEA policy or against the law despite warnings from the board.

The board has been noticeably tight-lipped on the subject of what went into the firing of Babcock and Scott or on the topic of why, exactly, they seem to be moving to fire Carmony.

But board members Peter Burchell and Janet Kincaid said the election did not play into the decision-making.

For her part, Kincaid said Babcock’s allegations regarding the investigation into her son’s conduct were unfounded.

She said her son doesn’t work for MEA but works for contractors who have business with the co-op. She pointed out that just Monday a contractor her son does business with came to the board asking for forgiveness of some bills he owed the utility. The board voted no.

“I can’t respond to everything that he says,” Kincaid said when asked about Babcock’s accusations. “I think my only comment is that it’s unilaterally untrue.”

Neither Burchell nor Kincaid could speak to the plans the co-op has for the future if and when Carmony gets the ax.

“There’s lots of options and every one of them has heavy-duty consequences,” Burchell said.

Both, however, said they hoped they could put the matter to rest soon so they could get onto the business of planning for the utility’s future. These are heady times in the utility business. Both seemed very excited over a meeting last week in which the boards of all Railbelt utilities sat down to discuss the possibility of consolidating some of their operations.

On Wednesday, the board called a special meeting to deal with an emergency situation that, it seemed apparent afterward, had something to do with another assistant general manager of MEA, Donald Zoerb.

Outside MEA headquarters as directors showed up, former Director David Dahms, who resigned in September, paving the way for Jones’ appointment, held up picket signs and shouted slogans.

“Peter! This meeting is breaking the law!” he shouted as Burchell walked in. “You’re breaking the constitution, you’re breaking the law.”

When the meeting started, Dahms took a seat in the front, hopping up shortly after it was gaveled in, disturbing a ceiling tile with his picket sign, to ask that the meeting be stopped, read from the bylaws and stated his case.

His point, he said later, is that meetings of the board require five days’ notice. This meeting was called shortly after 9 a.m. that day.

The issue has been a bone of contention among those who opposed the current board. Friends of MEA, a group made up of former directors, released a press release April 9 saying that not properly noticing meetings could potentially jeopardize the utility’s tax exemption.

Brena told the board that the notice requirements could be waived by the individual board members in situations like this, where an emergency situation needed to be addressed. At least one board member, Larry DeVilbiss, objected and walked out of the meeting.

“Monday we ordered the manager to fire two innocent employees,” he said before he left.

After three hours behind close doors, the board came back and handed out three directives to Carmony.

The first action said Carmony could not act on any compensation request, provide legal services for, or hire as a consultant, any “terminated salaried employee.” Babcock and Scott fall into that category.

The second motion apparently reversed a decision Carmony had made to fire Zoerb. The board directed Carmony to withdraw the two-week notice he’d given Zoerb and to keep Zoerb on as an employee.

The third told Carmony not to do anything to the salaried employees without asking the board first. Specifically, he was told not to fire them, change their responsibilities or “take any other adverse action.”

Carmony asked the board why it had gone out of its way to reverse a decision he’d made.

“I find that to be a bit peculiar and out of the ordinary,” Carmony said.

The board didn’t offer an answer, instead telling Carmony they would take the matter up on Monday at a meeting director David Glines called.

The purpose of that meeting, in Glines’ words, is “for a reassessment of the current situation.”

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