Colleagues gang up on Wagner
The Socorro Electric Cooperative trustees went on the offensive against District 5 representative Charlie Wagner at their regular meeting Wednesday night (April 14), chastising him for his actions and threatening to have him removed from the board.
After Wagner received a dressing down from trustee Donald Wolberg, SEC President Paul Bustamante assented by saying Wagner’s “tactics” betrayed Policy No. 102 of the SEC’s policy manual.
“There are grounds to remove Mr. Wagner due to fiduciary responsibility. It’s up to the board (to decide),” Bustamante said.
Wagner has been behind a campaign to reform the SEC that culminates today (Saturday) with the annual meeting of member owners at Finley Gym. Many of the resolutions to be voted on came out of the District 5 meeting last October, where Wagner won re-election to a second four-year term.
Wolberg, who joined the board the first of the year, after he won election in District 3, railed against Wagner during a diatribe that lasted several minutes.
Wolberg started by apologizing to the board for his own “incompetence,” sarcastically comparing himself to Wagner, whom he suggested was an expert on everything from the environment to managing the co-op.
Wolberg described himself as just “an ordinary guy — just a geologist” and didn’t have the expertise of Wagner, who made a career out of selling insurance.
Wolberg used the member-sponsored resolution, supported by Wagner, to reduce the number of trustees from 11 to five to illustrate his opinion.
“I didn’t know why the co-op needed just five trustees,” Wolberg said. “He (Wagner) thinks one trustee would be enough to run it.”
Wolberg then criticized Wagner for the amount of compensation he receives, even though Wagner has made an issue out of trustee compensation in his movement for reform.
“He’s taken over $200,000 in two years and three months,” Wolberg said of Wagner. “The perspective on this has gotten all screwed up.”
Wolberg suggested a way Wagner could straighten things out.
“The honorable thing would be to give back $200,000,” he said.
Trustee Prescilla Mauldin, also newly elected to the board, briefly interjected with another perspective.
“Mr. Wagner isn’t the only one,” she said, noting that other trustees have received like amounts of compensation.
“The point is one person thinks he’s entitled to it and others don’t deserve (as much compensation),” Wolberg responded.
Wolberg also chastised Wagner for publicly speaking out against the board, calling the behavior “intolerable.”
Bustamante said he allowed Wolberg to speak at length about Wagner because Wolberg was not a part of the “Old Guard” of trustees who have been on the board for multiple terms.
Bustamante then accused Wagner of spreading “lies and exaggerations” and leading people to believe the board was not following the bylaws.
“It should never have gotten as far as it has,” Bustamante said, declaring that “The resolutions passed in Districts 3 and 5 were done out of haste.”
It was then Bustamante said he believed the board had grounds to remove Wagner if it chose.
The contemptuous meeting took place the same day a column by Thomas J. Cole, critical of the SEC board’s handling of today’s election, appeared on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal. Bustamante apparently was referring to the column when he said, “We were criticized about the show of hands; (voting was conducted) the same way in Districts 3 and 5.”
Bustamante also took a jab at El Defensor Chieftain, cited by Cole in his column.
“Of course, the paper wants to print one side of the story,” Bustamante said mentioning the Chieftain by name.
Trustee Milton Ulibarri then added that when the Chieftain accurately reported last week that he was among three trustees who received more compensation than Wagner in 2009, his total was only $18.75 more.
Both Ulibarri and Wagner received more than $54,000 in compensation in 2009, according to a spreadsheet trustee Leroy Anaya wanted noted was distributed in executive session.
Items discussed in executive session are supposed to remain secret. The spreadsheet is among the material distributed by the SEC reform group Wagner supports.
Anaya joined the assault on Wagner, pointing out that Wagner was receiving compensation from the SEC when he attended a hearing in Santa Fe last month, where he spoke out against a resolution the SEC board passed in opposition of a petition calling for stricter controls on greenhouse gas emissions.
Again, Wolberg suggested Wagner pay back the money.
Wagner didn’t respond to Wolberg’s suggestion and said little in his defense.
“This is persecution; it’s not a meeting,” he said.
But Wagner had plenty to say about other matters.
Toward the end of the meeting, Wagner suggested that the board utilize an impartial parliamentarian at today’s meeting, like a “professional organization” would.
That aroused Wolberg’s ire again, who scolded Wagner for his use of “innuendo.”
“It’s insulting, demeaning and not how boards operate,” Wolberg said.
Just before the board went into executive session, Bustamante said he was not afraid of criticism from Wagner.
“I wish he was more mature,” Bustamante said.
Early in the meeting, Bustamante warned Wagner that materials being distributed by the SEC Reform Group were being stuffed in people’s mailboxes in the San Antonio, N.M., area.
Bustamante, who’s employed by the U.S. Postal Service in Socorro, reminded Wagner that practice was against federal regulations and had been reported to the postmaster.
“If you want to mail them out, put a postage stamp on it,” Bustamante said.
Contact T.S. Last