Co-op takes corrective action
Emotions ran high at a special meeting of the Socorro Electric Cooperative board of trustees on Monday when two separate incidents caused one trustee to walk out and an audience member was told to leave after a fight nearly broke out.
Despite the distractions, the board managed to get through the meeting called to ratify and confirm action it took at 20 meetings over a year's span while not complying with the Open Meetings Act.
Another agenda item was an executive session to discuss personnel. At the outset of the meeting, trustee Charlie Wagner, a leader in the movement to reform the co-op, protested that OMA calls for "reasonable specificity" to be provided for an executive session to be held on limited personnel matters and none was being given.
"'Personnel' is too broad. The language has to be more specific," he said, adding that OMA lists what types of things fall under limited personnel matters. "I think we should be more specific in letting our members know it's not 'personnel,' it's one of the limited ones."
Asked for his opinion, attorney Dennis Francish said, "What we're here to do is act on prior meetings to comply with the Open Meetings Act. We either approve them or reject them."
With that, trustee Donald Wolberg made the motion to proceed with the meeting and the motion passed, 7-2, with Wagner and Prescilla Mauldin voting against.
After the vote, Mauldin excused herself.
"I'm sorry but I'm not going to go to jail for contempt of court," she said, referring to a district court judge's ruling in May that bound the co-op to abide by OMA. "I want to make sure everything's right. You heard what the judge said. I'm not going to go to jail."
Before Mauldin left, audience member Mary Kate stood up and chastised the board.
"You know what you're doing is illegal!" she exclaimed.
Francish responded by saying, "What we're trying to do mam, is comply with Judge Mitchell's ruling. We need to comply; we are now doing that."
Moments later, Co-op President Paul Bustamante accused Wagner, who's involved in a countersuit against co-op board members charging breach of fiduciary duty and malfeasance, of trying to stir things up.
"You know what I think, you're trying to build something for your own case," Bustamante told Wagner.
Wagner countered that he was just trying to make sure the board was following the rules mandated by members and affirmed by the judge.
A Dust Up
The meeting carried on, but was interrupted several minutes later by another outburst by an audience member.
The board was reviewing action taken at the May 26, 2010, meeting at which the board passed a resolution condemning Wagner for alleged derogatory comments he made about Hispanics when Wolberg made a disparaging remark about Wagner.
That drew the ire of co-op member Roger Martin of Tierra Grande, who was seated directly behind Wolberg.
"That's unprofessional!" he exclaimed, calling Wolberg a seven-letter name.
Wolberg turned to Martin and told him to shut his mouth.
Martin stood up and placed one hand on the arm and then back of Wolberg, who remained seated, and it appeared things were about to escalate into a physical altercation.
Trustee Milton Ulibarri got up from his seat and confronted Martin, who then placed his hand on Ulibarri's back. Ulibarri took a step back and cocked his arm as if to throw a punch when Wagner's wife, Charlene, and co-op member Marie Watkins stepped between the two and a clash was averted. Amid the shouting, Martin was told to leave and he complied.
At that point, Wagner made a motion to adjourn. Though Francish said he thought that was a good idea and trustee Leroy Anaya said he was ready to leave, Wagner's motion died for lack of a second.
"Let's move on," Bustamante said. "We've got a lot of business to cover here."
The trustees then spent the next 2 1/2 hours going over every vote taken from the April 28, 2010, to the April 23, 2011, meeting, all of which had been deemed null and void due to the co-op's failure to follow OMA.
Ironically, the first set of actions taken by the board at the April 23, 2010, meeting was the board affirming all of the reform-related bylaws passed by member-owners at the 2010 annual meeting, including one that required the board to abide by OMA. Among the other action taken by the board in the year that followed was the decision to challenge three of the bylaws with a lawsuit against member-owners, a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, decisions to conduct a forensic audit to explore financial irregularities, the firing of the co-op's general manager and senior accountant, the hiring of a new general manager, approval of a $23 million loan from USDA's Rural Utilities Service, refinancing of previous loans taken through RUS and approval of a rate increase.
The trustees stopped after the April 28 meeting because minutes of the May and June regular meetings and special meeting on July 5 have not yet been approved.
Carrying on his protest of that night's meeting, Wagner cast the lone no vote against all of the action being ratified.
The board may have to revisit each action item again, as contrary to OMA how each member voted were rarely recorded in the minutes. Co-op Secretary Luis Aguilar was assigned the task of going over notes and recordings of the meetings to determine how each member voted.
The co-op meets again for its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, July 27.
Contact T.S. Last