Co-op trustees set meeting dates
Socorro Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees set dates for both an informational meeting addressing resolutions proposed by member-owners at district meetings last October and the 2010 annual meeting.
At its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 9, the board set the time for the informational meeting for Saturday, March 27, at 1 p.m., with registration starting at noon. The annual meeting will be held Saturday, April 17, with registration beginning at 5 p.m., and the meeting scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
Both meetings will be held at Finley Gym in Socorro.
Donald Wolberg, chairman of the informational meeting committee, began his report by saying that the reason he defeated incumbent Harold Baca in District 3 elections last fall, was because the member-owners wanted change.
The SEC board of trustees has been under scrutiny from its member-owners and the media since it came to light that expenses they incur are significantly higher than any of the other 17 rural electric cooperatives in the state. Average compensation, including insurance benefits, for each of the 11 SEC trustees exceeds $25,000 per year.
Wolberg was one of three challengers — the others being Luis Aguilar and Prescilla Mauldin — who won election in the Socorro district. A week later, District 5 incumbent Charlie Wagner, a strong proponent for change, won re-election. A series of reform resolutions were also passed at meetings in Districts 3 and 5.
Wolberg said he wasn’t interested in the past actions of the board.
“It’s what we do from here on that counts,” he said.
Wolberg said the SEC is supposed to be a democratically controlled entity and the trustees need to be accountable to the member-owners they represent. For that reason, he encouraged the board to have a budget prepared to present at the informational meeting.
“I strongly urge we present a budget for the board,” he said, and added that it would be better coming from them than having to be asked for it by the membership.
One resolution passed in District 5 last October, called for a $10,000 limit on the amount of compensation a trustee could receive in a year.
At the informational committee meeting on Feb. 1, Wolberg said he suggested an alternative resolution that would limit the compensation a trustee could receive to $15,000 per year and $20,000 for the president. The other two trustees on the committee, Leo Cordova and Milton Ulibarri, favored a limit of $20,000 per trustee and $25,000 for the president.
While the board can present their own resolutions at the annual meeting, Wolberg said at Tuesday’s meeting that the trustees need to respect the will of the member-owners, who called for change by passing more than a dozen reform-related resolutions in October.
Wolberg said the board needs to look at those without emotion, which may require them to change their mind set. He said the purpose of the informational meeting was to restore confidence in the trustees, so that “in the end, the board and membership will emerge from this united.”
Trustee Wagner expressed concern that under the SEC bylaws the informational meeting would be handled as a special meeting in which voting could take place.
Dennis Francish, the SEC attorney, said voting could only be conducted on matters that are included in the notice of the meeting.
“If it’s not part of the notice, it can’t be voted on,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting, Francish said he had his own concerns about some of the resolutions passed by the member-owners.
Francish said the resolution that called for reducing the number of trustees to five could potentially lead to multiple lawsuits from the trustees whose positions were eliminated.
Another resolution, passed at the District 5 meeting in Magdalena that called for a guarantee of transparency by allowing member-owners access to books, audits and membership lists had already been addressed by the state supreme court, he said.
“That resolution won’t fly,” Francish said, before citing the court case.
Francish said that a resolution passed in District 3 that would require the SEC to follow the Open Meetings Act was also problematic in that it conflicted with the SEC’s own bylaws.
“You’ve got so many conflicts right now with these bylaws and amendments, you’ll have one big mess,” he said. “When you talk about the Open Meetings Act, all you have is a big can of worms. It doesn’t apply to co-ops.”
Wolberg said one of the purposes of the informational meeting was to discuss alternatives to the resolutions. But the most important thing was that the member-owners’ wishes need to be respected.
“The intent of the member-owners is not to apply the (Open Meetings) Act, but the spirit of the Act,” he said.
Wolberg said the board would be in error to try to poke holes in the resolutions passed by member-owners or create “Trojan horses” that would confuse the issue. He said the board needed to act in the best interest of the SEC.
“To do otherwise would destroy the spirit of cooperation we’re trying to attain,” he said.
While the board agreed on the date of the informational meeting, it did not approve an agenda.
The agenda was approved for the annual meeting on April 17. It will follow the same format as previous annual meetings.
Wagner brought up the question of what guidelines will be used to determine a quorum at the annual meeting.
Francish said that was a “touchy area” that was open for different interpretations.
The board approved the committee’s report without resolving the question.
• The board agreed to a two-year contract extension for C.B. Ray to serve as the SEC’s contractor at a 2.5 percent increase. With trustee Cordova absent, the vote was 9-1 in favor.
Wagner, who cast the lone no vote, argued that it would be better to open the contract up for competitive bids. His motion to do so failed, 7-3.
• The board approved an expenditure to send to SEC employees to underground safety training in California.
Contact T.S. Last