Sometimes it doesn't matter who's the last man standing

Frontiersman editorial board

Like the Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck fight scene in the classic film, "The Big Country," Mike Janecek and his opponents on the Matanuska Electric Association board will apparently keep swinging until there's simply no fight left. As Janecek's tenure on the board nears an end, both pugilists are on their knees, but nobody seems ready to concede the point, if anybody remembers what it was.

Janecek was slapped with two sanctions at his penultimate board meeting, and the results of those sanctions will be discussed at his final meeting, Monday night. Depending upon the results from that meeting, more litigation may ensue.

There's obviously more here than simple disagreements over policy and procedure. There's bad blood here, as evidenced by the exchange of vulgarities and unofficial hand gestures discussed at last week's board meeting. The fact that the sanctions have been pursued, even after Janecek was voted off the board, speaks to something that cuts a little deeper than philosophical differences.

Janecek was portrayed by some board members, and by MEA management, as a union pawn. In the end, allegations of improper contact with the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' Union led to one of the sanctions against him. Janecek says MEA management and some board members essentially entrapped him into the sanction, while his opponents claim Janecek had something to hide.

Janecek is also perceived as something other than a staunch Republican, and MEA has strong ties to the Republican party. Some say the life expectancy of non-Republicans is short on the MEA board, and that was Janecek's demise. Others say Janecek was obstinate and that he simply threw up road blocks for the sake of stirring the pot.

The truth is buried in the past, and it has political, personal and philosophical aspects. What seems apparent now is that the MEA board is not tolerant of views that range too distant from the majority, and that healthy debate is not welcome in the MEA board room. Mike Janecek represented a voice of opposition on the board -- playing the role of devil's advocate more often than not. While that may have rubbed some the wrong way, it didn't seem to threaten the process that is ultimately supposed to benefit MEA members. Janecek forced the conversation into areas that were sometimes uncomfortable for some board members. If it's wrong to encourage debate, then this whole democracy thing must be a bad idea.