SEC holds annual meeting tonight
A show of hands it is.
At its regular meeting on Wednesday, April 14, the Socorro Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees approved all of a committee’s recommendations for conducting voting at today’s annual meeting of members.
The SEC’s member owners — anyone who pays an electric bill with the SEC’s service — are to vote on about a dozen resolutions, some of which could drastically change how the co-op is managed.
The meeting will be held at Finley Gym. Registration is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The meeting is set to start at 7 p.m.
Trustee Leroy Anaya read the recommendations made by the annual meeting committee, which met Tuesday morning (April 13) to finalize plans. They include:
• Voting will be conducted by a show of hands
• The auditorium and bleacher areas would be divided into sections
• Judges would be appointed by the committee to do the counting within each section
• SEC employees will not be among the judges, but would assist judges
• Judges would be paid $30 apiece for their service
• The meeting will follow Roberts Rules of Order
Anaya said the show of hands method of voting was deemed appropriate by the SEC attorney.
“Attorney (Dennis) Francish stated that SEC members were not being denied a vote by using a show of hands versus using a paper ballot because every member is entitled to a vote,” Anaya said.
Francish was asked about how the resolutions would be addressed.
“Under the bylaws, Dis-trict 3 and 5 representatives can be chosen to speak in favor of changes. Likewise, someone with an opposite view can speak,” he said.
Anaya also announced that State Rep. Don Tripp withdrew as guest speaker. He said Ken Anderson, general manager of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which provides power to rural electric cooperatives in New Mexico, would serve as guest speaker.
After the board voted 9-1 to accept the recommendations, trustee Charlie Wagner, who cast the lone vote against acceptance, read into the record a letter he wrote protesting what he said was “an abuse of authority and desecration by the majority of the board.”
Wagner said the notice of the meeting contained “false or misleading comments and contrary propositions which the board has no authority to propose.
“It has failed to present the member approved propositions in their entirety without trustee comment intended to dissuade or negatively misguide voter’s decision.”
The notice of the meeting lists member-sponsored resolutions alongside board-sponsored proposals. The board added comment or asterisks to some of the member-sponsored resolutions, indicating the resolutions would be against the law if approved or may result in disclosure of confidential member information.
Wolberg asked attorney Francish his opinion regarding how the meeting notice was constructed.
“I’ve been involved in this, and this notice of meeting complies with the law. If you don’t agree, I’m sorry,” he said to Wagner.
Wagner also suggested the SEC employ an impartial parliamentarian to oversee the meeting.
Again, the attorney was asked his opinion, and Francish said he didn’t think a parliamentarian was needed.
The member-sponsored resolutions call for radical changes to how the SEC is structured and the manner in which the board of trustees goes about its business.
Among the proposals are:
• Realigning districts for more equitable representation
• Reducing the number of trustees from 11 to five
• Limiting the amount of compensation trustees can receive annually
• Placing term limits on trustees
• Allowing for mail-in voting at SEC meetings
• Having the board voluntarily abide by principles of the Open Meeting Act
• Allowing member owners to have access to SEC records, books, audits and information that do not violate the Privacy Act
Before the meeting, Audrie Clifford of Socorro, a member of the SEC Reform Group, distributed a petition to the trustees that declared the member-sponsored resolutions should be listed separately, labeled as member propositions and listed in their entirety without trustee comment.
The petition said the propositions should be subject to a “yes” or “no” vote, “rather than being commingled and confused with a list of trustee-sponsored ‘options.’”
Clifford told El Defensor Chieftain the petition contained 173 signatures.
Contact T.S. Last