Co-op trustees told reformers won’t quit
Socorro Electric Cooperative member Alvin Hickox of San Antonio, N.M., has the distinction of being the first person to answer the lawsuit the co-op filed against all of its approximately 10,000 member-owners last year in an effort to block three new bylaws that call for increased transparency.
At the co-op’s board of trustees meeting on Tuesday, May 24, Hickox took the opportunity during the public comment period to tell the board that the fight to reform the co-op would not end.
Reformers won a battle on May 18 when a New Mexico Supreme Court-appointed judge ruled against Socorro Electric. The judge decided that the bylaws were binding and the co-op must follow — and should have been following — the open meetings and inspection of public records acts, as members mandated them to do during the 2010 annual meeting.
“We know what the outcome is. You guys were defeated badly last week,” Hickox said. “What I’m telling you is we’re not going to quit. We’re not going to quit until all of you people have walked out the door and we start over.”
Co-op President Paul Bustamante responded by saying that the board did reconsider the lawsuit and the co-op filed a motion to have it dismissed.
“We wanted to let it go,” he said.
Hickox said there was no way he’d let it go, and he told that to the co-op’s attorney when he tried to get Hickox to dismiss his cross claim two days after it was filed.
Bustamante repeated that the co-op tried to drop the case.
“We’re not going to get into a debate here, but I just wanted to clarify that,” he said.
Also during public comment, member Paul Stoehr of Socorro asked the same question he did a month ago: when will members begin receiving reimbursements for four years overcharges discovered last year?
General Manager Joseph Herrera said the first batch were to be mailed the next day (Wednesday, May 25).
Manager’s Report
During his manager’s report, Herrera informed the board about a couple of accounting errors.
One was made recently and was quickly corrected, he said. Large commercial customers were inadvertently overcharged a total of about $4 million. Herrera said adjustments have been made and will show up on the next bill.
“It’s corrected and will be reflected next month,” he said.
Consequently, the line item for large commercial revenue on Form 7 the co-op submits to the USDA Rural Utilities Service each month is overstated by that amount for April. Trustees could expect to see it understated when they sign off on Form 7 for May next month, Herrera said.
The other error had to do with small commercial customers and came up during review of the 2011-2012 budget.
Trustee Luis Aguilar questioned a significant decrease in projected revenue from small commercial accounts as compared to last year.
“What I was told the numbers were misstated for 2010,” said Herrera, who started his job at Socorro Electric four months ago.
Trustee Charlie Wagner asked about how that could be traced back to the audits conducted last year, and Herrera said that was being looked into.
Herrera said this year’s audit, usually conducted in May, was pushed back to late June. He said he’d like to see the fiscal year changed from April 1 to March 31 to a calendar year.
“That’s what we’re trying to move toward,” he said. “We’re trying to go to a calendar year. The other way is creating havoc.”
On another matter, Herrera reported that a co-op power line may have been responsible for a fire that burned about 85 acres and one structure in San Antonio earlier this spring. He said fire investigators traced the origin to a pole in the area. As a result, he said the co-op may be getting a bill to pay expenses for extinguishing the blaze.
On the subject of poles, Herrera said three bids had been received for labor to replace 500 poles, the lowest of which was $500,000. Herrera said he thought the co-op could save money by handling some of the replacement on its own. He said poles generally have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years.
During his construction report, Herrera said the transmission line to the new Quemado substation was due to be energized May 28. He said the double circuit line between Quemado and Springerville, Ariz., was three miles short of completion and sections of the load will be picked up by mid-June.
In Other Business
• The board took action to remove former managers Polo Pineda Jr. and Kathy Torres as trustees for the co-op’s MainStay funds and replace them with Herrera and Office Manager Eileen Latasa.
• Herrera informed the board that Latasa had been assigned to handle human resources for the co-op and asked that travel expenses be approved for her to attend a seminar in North Carolina in July. The board approved the request.
• Trustee Leroy Anaya, the co-op’s representative to the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, reported that new rates should be announced next fall. The co-op purchases power from Tri-State, so new rates will likely translate to higher rates for customers.
• The board set its next meeting for Tuesday, June 28, at 5:30 p.m.
Contact T.S. Last