More than laundry needs cleaning at MEA

Having attended numerous Matanuska Electric Association board meetings over the past two years, and personally witnessing board President Lee Jordan and members Larry DeVilbiss and Dave Dahm’s arrogance and disdain toward the opinions of our cooperative’s member-owners, I am not surprised that in last week’s mail I received a ballot with worse-than-ambiguous wording concerning the proposed bylaw amendment.

This logical amendment endorsed by 620 members simply calls for newly elected board members to be seated within 15 days of election rather than waiting four months, as would happen under current bylaws.

The MEA ballot contains absolutely no wording explaining the initiative, only a statement saying the MEA Bylaws Committee recommends a “no” vote and search the accompanying information packet for information. The packet sports a headline proclaiming “Vote ‘NO’” and presents points written by MEA’s self-serving legal counsel. Nowhere is there an open discussion concerning why voting “yes” may be a bright idea.

This leads me to wonder what is MEA trying to hide? Perhaps MEA’s upper management realizes that Peter Burchell and Janet Kincaid, running on a platform of transparency and honesty, have an excellent chance of being elected to the board.

Waiting until mid-July to seat new board members allows plenty of time for a lame-duck board to inflict damage to interests of member-owners voting for change. We only need consider the current board’s efforts to cram a coal-fired power plant in Palmer’s backyard without ever asking the residents of the Valley whether they wanted a coal plant.

Dirty coal may not be the only thing needing cleaning at MEA. Should the board’s composition change, four months allows ample time to quietly clean the laundry. Items needing whitewashing might include

• details behind MEA spokesman Mike Pauly’s statement that Matanuska Electric has spent “in the millions” on litigation over the years,

• why MEA recently paid up to $186,000 of member money on Channel 2 News ads featuring the smiling face of Lee Jordan in the months leading to Jordan’s run for re-election

• or the details behind $280,000 paid on last year’s two advisory ballots whose agendas were clearly aimed at burning all bridges with Chugach Electric Association and building a coal-fired plant in the Valley.

MEA has perennially been involved in controversy. Our cooperative fails to cooperate with its owners or the other Railbelt utilities.

Now we really can vote for change.

Fred Hirschmann

Wasilla