Spectrum

MEA has members' best interests at heart

Last year I was elected president of the board directors at Matanuska Electric Association. I have enjoyed serving the Valley's electric cooperative and helping MEA achieve its goal of providing electric service that is safe, reliable and affordable.

These are good times at MEA. We recently implemented the 15th reduction in base electric rates since 1996. As a result, the average MEA consumer will save almost $140 this year alone. MEA's rates are, for the most part, lower than our Anchorage neighbor, Chugach Electric. However, it should not be possible for MEA members to buy electricity at a lower cost than Chugach customers in Anchorage.

Chugach Electric has more members than MEA, and fewer miles of electric lines to maintain. In fact, Chugach has 44 customers per mile of line to share the cost of operations and maintenance, compared to only 13 customers per mile in MEA's service area. This should create huge economies of scale for Chugach.

One of the main reasons MEA members are saving money is that our utility has a smart manager, Wayne Carmony. Mr. Carmony runs a tight ship, and he has worked hard to keep costs under control through disciplined management, and then passing on the savings through rate reductions.

I was disappointed to read in last week's Frontiersman that one of our own MEA board members, Mr. Michael Janecek, appears to have nothing but contempt for the management team that has worked so hard to run MEA like a competitive business for the benefit of MEA members.

The general manager has a contract that the board can review and amend every year. The bottom line is that the general manager works at the pleasure of the board. To claim, as Mr. Janecek does, that the general manager "has the power to overrule the board of directors at any time" is simply absurd and mischaracterizes the relationship between the board and the management.

Director Janecek also criticized the proposed reforms of MEA's bylaws submitted by our member-run Bylaws Committee. I don't mind criticism that is constructive, but it is hard to believe that Mr. Janecek's criticism is delivered in good faith. It was Mr. Janecek's own failure to comply with MEA's existing campaign disclosure rules that prompted the Bylaws Committee to propose reforms that would close loopholes. Mr. Janecek was also unhappy with the membership of the committee. In fact, Janecek specifically voted to remove Lee Jordan from the list of members that the board was considering for service on the Bylaws Committee. Lee was the chairman of the committee and did an outstanding job constructing some good reforms.

The goal of the proposed amendments is simple: require all candidates running for the MEA board to disclose the source of all their campaign contributions and campaign expenses. Mr. Janecek has still refused to disclose all the names of individuals who contributed under $100 to his campaign in 2001. Since Mr. Janecek repeatedly and willfully refuses to comply with the existing rules, I personally take his criticism of the new, proposed rules with a grain of salt. I am also troubled by the fact that Director Janecek often shows up at board meetings with extensive, legal opinions about MEA board actions, prepared by unknown parties with unknown funding sources.

Mr. Janecek's service on the MEA board appears to have been an unhappy experience for him. Mr. Janecek is often angry when his point of view does not prevail. At the February board meeting, Mr. Janecek shouted down the presiding chairman of the meeting, rather than let the chairman make a point with which Mr. Janecek personally disagreed. It saddens me that the good work and business success of MEA can so easily be overshadowed by the shrill criticism of a small minority of malcontents, among whom Mr. Janecek is the noisiest.

The campaign disclosure and conflict of interest bylaw amendments were carefully written by the member-run Bylaws Committee and unanimously endorsed by them. I supported the proposed amendments, but unfortunately the board reached an impasse on whether to place the amendments before members for a vote. Fortunately, concerned citizens stepped in and gathered more than 500 petition signatures, which means that the bylaw amendments will appear on the ballot for you to decide. I hope MEA members will join me in voting "yes" on the bylaw amendments.

Larry DeVilbiss is the president of the MEA Board of Directors.