RCA denies request to probe MEA

MAT-SU — Procedural issues may have saved Matanuska Electric Association from the investigative eye of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

The RCA has denied a request by Mat-Su Valley resident and MEA critic William Erickson to launch a formal investigation into MEA’s management practices. The commission said the unusual form of Erickson’s investigation request influenced its decision to deny Erickson his investigation.

The RCA sought the opinion of the state Attorney General about whether the commission should pursue Erickson’s investigation request. Chief Assistant Attorney General for Public Advocacy Daniel O’Tierney said the Alaska Attorney General’s Office found questions regarding Matanuska Electric Association’s administration practices and the cooperative’s future generation plans serious and substantial.

Erickson claimed MEA management has acted improperly and against the wishes and best interests of its member-owners and named General Manager Wayne Carmony, Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock, Assistant General Manager Don Zoerb and Attorney Jim Walker.

Erickson said his request was filed properly and has appealed the RCA’s denial of his investigation.

“I gave them an opportunity to redeem themselves,” Erickson said. “We’ll see.”

Erickson also started petitions to recall MEA board members David Dahms, Lee Jordan and Larry DeVilbiss. Erickson has been in Prudhoe Bay working on an oil rig, but he said MEA Ratepayers Alliance has taken over gathering signatures for the recall petition. Erickson began the recall effort because the three directors had not acted on public pressure to kill the cooperative’s plan to build a coal-fired generator in the Valley.

Carmony recently recommended MEA’s board of directors shelve its plans to build a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant by at least five years.

MEA Manager of Government and Corporate Communications Lorali Carter said she feels the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s order speak for itself in responding to Erickson’s allegations.

“They rejected every single complaint Mr. Erickson made,” Carter said.

Although denied, not all RCA commissioners dismissed Erickson’s request. In her dissenting comments commissioner Kate Giard said she took a big-picture look at Erickson’s request.

“As to the filing made by Mr. Erickson, the expression, ‘Something’s wrong in River City’ comes to mind,” she said. “I do not look at Mr. Erickson’s charges one by one, as the majority [of the commission] does. My view takes in the whole picture, including the despicable and totally unnecessary deconstruction of Mr. Erickson’s character in MEA’s responsive pleading.”

As an example, in his official response to Erickson’s filing, MEA attorney Walker mentioned Erickson’s past legal record along with an alleged scuffle between Erickson and Carmony outside a public meeting in Eagle River early this year. Walker’s depicted Erickson as violent and out of control.

Giard comments on a statement by Erickson that his request of a copy of Carmony’s contract, a public document, was stonewalled by MEA.

“If the board, who embodies the owners who comprise the cooperative, cannot obtain financial information from MEA’s employees upon simple request, then the cooperative is not in the control of the board,” Giard said.

Carmony’s contract, among other provisions, includes a five-year golden parachute of his six-figure salary should the cooperative terminate his employment.

Giard also said sections of MEA’s bylaws are written too strictly. One section, which places limits on who can run for a board seat, “Does not comport with the cooperative principle of ‘democratic member control’ which espouses representative democracy, but rather portends an ominous authoritarianism and should be removed,” Giard said.

RCA Commissioner Janis Wilson also dissented from the majority vote. Wilson said the relief Erickson sought was an investigation into MEA management practices and that Erickson showed good cause for an investigation.