Wagner won’t sign confidentiality agreement
While the nine other members of the Socorro Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees agreed to sign their names to a confidentiality agreement, District 5 trustee Charlie Wagner will not.
At the board’s last regular meeting on Dec. 22, trustees voted to approve an agreement aimed at keeping what is discussed in executive session confidential.
Wagner was the only trustee to vote against the motion, which was made by Leo Cordova and seconded by Donald Wolberg.
“My feeling is the confidentiality agreement is not enforceable,” Wagner told the board.
Co-op President Paul Bustamante said the agreement was necessary because Wagner had shared information with the media that had been discussed in executive session.
Matters discussed in executive session are supposed to be privileged and confined to such topics as personnel matters and pending or threatened litigation.
The confidentiality agreement states that “information, topics, reports testimony (from Board Members or non-board members) or any other matters” discussed in executive session are considered confidential and “shall not be disclosed to any non-board member or any board member excluded from executive session.”
Wagner was excluded from a portion of the executive session during the Nov. 22 meeting because he is a party to a countersuit filed against co-op officials.
The agreement goes on to state: “Violation of this Confidentiality Agreement shall render the party disclosing such confidential information liable for all consequential damages suffered by the SEC or other parties to this agreement and in no event less than the amount of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00).”
Wagner said he refused to sign the agreement because he sees it as an attempt by the board to hide information from the co-op’s member-owners.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “They want it because it allows them to make everything secret. They don’t want exposed issues that they don’t want to be made public.”