MEA uncovers previous transcripts relating to Downing

PALMER -- Last Monday's Matanuska Electric Association Inc. (MEA) board meeting was not the first time questions have been raised about the newly seated and past board member Aaron Downing's working relationship with MEA, MEA spokesman Mike Pauley said Wednesday.

Tony Pippel, a Palmer city councilman and member of Utility Watch, a local utility watchdog group, raised questions at the cooperative's monthly meeting last week about Downing's previous history with the board.

"It seems to me Mr. Downing went to work for Irby subsequently after he lost his MEA board seat," Pippel said at the meeting. "Did he do bids for MEA less than two years after he held the board seat?"

Pippel said it was his understanding that MEA bylaws prohibited former board members from performing contractual work with the cooperative for two years after serving on the board.

At press time Tuesday, Pauley said the only resolution he was able to uncover relating to Pippel's allegations stated that board members are "ineligible for employment by the Association for a period of two years after their term on the Board of Directors has expired."

"Mr. Downing was not an employee," Pauley said Tuesday, "he was a subcontractor for Irby, which was doing work for MEA. This policy is talking about employment . . . it's simply not applicable."

On Wednesday, Pauley said a second look through the bylaws uncovered a 1992 policy that seems to more closely deal with Downing's situation. Pauley said he also found evidence in a May 1997 board meeting transcript that Downing's particular case had been discussed, and a legal opinion was issued by Andrew Hoge, legal counsel for MEA in the matter.

The resolution Pauley found states ". . . directors are ineligible to participate as principals or as consultants in contracts with the Association for a period of two years after their term on the Board of Directors has expired."

Downing, the owner of Alaska

Utility Construction, an electrical contractor, contracted with Irby Construction -- a Jackson, Miss.-based company with which MEA contracted in 1997 to perform six construction projects -- to fulfill contracts Irby had with MEA.

Hoge's opinion, as delivered by MEA attorney Stephen Ellis at the meeting, was that, since Downing was the owner of Alaska Utility Construction and was not a principal of Irby Construction, the company that contracted with MEA, Downing was in the clear.

"The contract was not with Alaska Utility Construction," Pauley explained. "Alaska Utility Construction had a contractual relationship with Irby, but not with MEA."

According to Hoge's opinion, a subcontractor could still hold a seat on the MEA board, or work as a subcontractor in the two-year window following a stint as an MEA board member.

Pauley, on Wednesday, expressed frustration that Pippel's questions came at the meeting, not previous to it, which would have given MEA staff time to research the matter.

"It just strikes me as a little curious that Mr. Pippel waited until that evening. . .," Pauley said, pointing out that Downing's rŽsumŽ was available online for at least two weeks prior to the meeting. "It does kind of put us at a little bit of a disadvantage, when somebody comes forward with vague recollections."

Pippel said asking questions of the board was what the audience participation portion of the board meeting was all about.

"It's my right, as a member, to go to their board meetings and be heard," Pippel said.

Aaron Downing said Friday he was familiar with the policy Pauley mentioned.

"I wrote it," Downing said.

He added that a written response to Pippel's questions would be given to the MEA board, accompanied by a request to make the information available to the public.