Letters to the Editor
Your electric co-op is under attack
Editor:
Socorro Electric Co-op members wake up!
Your co-op is under attack.
I have been a member of the co-op for over 25 years and enjoyed the privileges that go with that membership. I am talking about low rates, excellent customer service and a voice in the operations and future plans through my district representative Leo Cordova. Try getting that at the “big utility” of New Mexico.
Members, we need to wake up and defend our co-op against a threat to our independence. Co-op members have more say about their utility than any other form of organization.
Our co-op is under attack by sources from within and outside the co-op.
In my opinion, their motives are not to further the betterment of the co-op but to divide and conquer it. We do not want to tear apart the co-op and form some “corporate shell” that will not be responsible to its members. We want to maintain the independence and responsiveness we have enjoyed for many years.
We, the members, own the assets of the co-op and we should refuse to allow anyone to take them away from us. We pay some of the lowest utility rates anywhere. We elect our representatives. If we don’t think they are doing a good job we can run against them or we can vote them out. Try that at the “big utility” of New Mexico.
I urge each of you to contact your district representative and tell them that you like the low rates, the excellent customer service and the independence provided by the current Socorro Electric Co-op.
Tell them not to let the sources of discontent from within and from outside the co-op gain control of our co-op. Tell them to fight for you. Tell them to end any silly squabbles that could require the co-op to pay legal fees.
We do not need to sue each other. We need to settle our arguments inside our co-op.
District 1 – Leo Cordova
District 2 – Paul Bustamante
District 3 – Leroy Anaya, Luis Aguilar, Prescilla Mauldin, Milton Ulibarri, Donald Wolberg
District 4 – David Wade
District 5 – Jack Bruton
Jimmy C. Crook, La Joya
Whose idea was it in the first place?
Editor:
Whose idea was it to file a lawsuit against the member-owners of Socorro Electric Cooperative?
Did the trustees on the board not believe the Open Meeting Act pertained to them? Didn’t the lawyer, Dennis Francish, who should know these things? Didn’t trustees believe a vote by an overwhelming majority of members to insure transparency by voting for new by-laws need to be heeded? Didn’t the lawyer, who claims he represents the board of trustees, even though he is paid by the member-owners?
Now, at the last board meeting trustee Milton Ulibarri says he was misled by the co-op attorney, in fact he was actually duped into voting in favor of the lawsuit. Oh?
Is this a case of group stupidity, sense of entitlement, arrogance, mindlessness, desire for power? Malpractice on the part of the attorney?
Of course, by recommending such a lawsuit, the lawyer guarantees himself billable hours, at $190 per hour and some billable hours for his cronies who are needed to “help-out.” What a sweet deal for the lawyer who (it should be noted) was hired by the board of trustees in a special meeting before the newly elected reform candidates could have any say in the matter. Whose idea was that? Didn’t the whole “old board” institute that action?
As for the board belatedly trying to withdraw their suit, that came too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
Will we get to watch the blame game play out?
Whose idea was this anyway?
Ruth White, Socorro