Former co-op manager cries foul
Another former manager at Socorro Electric Cooperative has filed a retaliation complaint against the co-op with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Richard Lopez, former engineering and operations manager at the co-op, is the third former manager to register a retaliation complaint with the EEOC within the last year. He was fired last month, two weeks after being placed on unpaid administrative leave for allegedly violating co-op policies.
In addition to the EEOC complaints, the co-op is in the midst of defending a countersuit against members of its board of trustees and other former co-op officials. The lawsuit, which asks for class-action certification, was filed on behalf of member-owners of the private non-profit corporation, who ultimately pay for the co-op’s legal costs.
“I feel bad for the members, but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do,” said Lopez, who feels jilted after serving the co-op for more than 28 years, including a recent five-month stint as interim general manager while the co-op was going through a turbulent time.
Lopez was appointed interim GM last August, right after General Manager Polo Pineda and Senior Accountant Kathy Torres were terminated, and walked into a firestorm. During his short tenure a forensic audit was conducted in the wake of an investigation into financial irregularities. It was discovered customers were overcharged by $1.7 million, a rate increase proposal was being pitched to members and submitted to the PRC, the co-op fell into technical default on federal loans and the lawsuit the co-op brought against its member-owners went to court.
“I feel that after the previous manager got fired, I stepped in and kept the co-op from going belly up,” he said.
Policy Matters
Lopez said he was fired by the co-op’s new general manager, Joseph Herrera, for violating two policies. He doesn’t deny he did what he was accused of doing, but does dispute he broke policy.
“He told me I didn’t follow the chain of command after I gave a verbal reprimand to an employee for not wearing a hard hat in a construction area,” he said. “That’s part of my job description to serve as safety coordinator.”
The other policy prohibits employees from speaking with members of the board of trustees. Lopez said he wasn’t aware of such a policy and that kind of thing went on all the time.
“I’ve been doing that for 30 years,” he said, adding that it wasn’t uncommon for employees to interact with board members from time to time. “It’s hard not to talk to people when you live in a small community.”
Lopez said he doesn’t understand why he was singled out.
“It’s been a continual practice for board members to talk to employees. Why am I being picked out?” he said. “I’ve worked for this co-op for 30 years, got nothing but superior performance reviews and was never written up. Then all of a sudden I’m terminated.”
Lopez said he received a reprimand from Herrera on July 1 and was placed on unpaid leave July 6 after making a complaint with the EEOC for age discrimination.
“The reason I did that was because they hired a younger guy,” said Lopez, 53, who applied for the GM job but wasn’t offered an interview. “I had 30 years of co-op experience and (Herrera) had almost none.”
The retaliation complaint was filed July 20 after he was officially fired.
Lopez said it seemed the 38-year old Herrera was out to get him fired since the new GM started his job at the end of January.
“It could be he had a directive to get rid of me, I don’t know,” said Lopez, who is now looking for work within the industry.
Making Changes
Herrera would say little about what happened with Lopez, noting that it was a personnel matter. He did confirm that Lopez was let go for violating those two policies and added that there was more than one instance of alleged infractions. He also said the decision to let Lopez go was his and no one else’s.
“There was no directive to get rid of Richard,” Herrera said. “My directive was to turn things around at the co-op, improve its image and change the way things are done.”
In an interview last April, Herrera talked about reorganizing the office — even to the point of moving his own office from the front of the building to the back. Other office personnel shifted location under a plan that created three department heads.
“I’m having the department heads, what I call the senior managers, meet two times a month,” he said. “Everyone goes through what’s happening in their department and people get to hear what’s going on in other departments, so they all have a bigger picture of what’s going on.”
He said then that the restructuring defined a chain of command “to make everyone accountable.”
Herrera has made a few other significant internal changes in his first six months on the job. He hired a full-time accountant to handle the co-op’s financial matters. He’s made it procedure to send out requests for bids for equipment purchases, projects and services, a practice that wasn’t always followed in the past.
Herrera is making efforts to improve the image of the co-op, right down to requesting a clothing allowance for in-office personnel so they can wear clothing bearing Socorro Electric’s logo.
The board of trustees appear pleased with the job he’s done so far. He’s received praise from trustees for various things during meetings and the board has gone along with many, if not all, his recommendations.
Feeling Betrayed
Lopez doesn’t just blame Herrera for losing his job. He said he felt “betrayed” by the board of trustees and “stabbed in the back” by board president Paul Bustamante.
Bustamante, he said, appointed a selection committee for the GM job that was stacked against him and Bustamante gave him no support when Herrera brought up the alleged breaches in policy.
Lopez casts himself as a scapegoat for Bustamante and the other trustees who have been under fire for the co-op’s woes. He can’t understand why the board turned against him after all his years of service and what he did to keep the co-op afloat.
“I don’t see the co-op going in the right direction right now. It’s kind of gone into a spiral,” he said, adding that it’s gotten to the point where he thinks the city should take over management of the electric utility. “The board has done nothing but make bad decisions. I have no confidence in the board, no confidence in the president and no confidence in the manager.”
“I’m sorry he feels that way,” Bustamante said when asked to respond. “I’ve known Richard all my life and I know it was hard on him when he wasn’t selected for the general manager position. It’s tough anytime you get terminated, and he’s going to say what he wants to say. It’s too bad it turned this way. I wish him well.”
Bustamante said neither he nor the board had anything to do with Lopez’s firing.
“We gave Joseph that authority to do what he feels he has to do. He does the hiring or firing and the board only has authority over the manager,” Bustamante said.
While the other two fired managers have not publicly commented since their firing a year ago, Lopez doesn’t mind telling his story. He feels what the co-op did to him was malicious, coming when he’s just a year-and-a-half away from earning a boost in retirement benefits. He’s diabetic and the loss of his medical benefits will cost him.
“I’m going to have to pull money out of my 401K with penalties. I won’t be able to recover that,” said Lopez.
But he’s hoping to recover what he feels is due to him through the EEOC complaints, as are the other two former managers.
Last year, former general manager Polo Pineda and senior accountant Kathy Torres were let go for alleged policy breaches. They both have retaliation complaints against the co-op with the EEOC. Pineda has an additional charge of age discrimination against the co-op and Torres has one involving sex and racial discrimination. Those cases are still pending.
Contact T.S. Last