Co-op hires new attorneys

Socorro Electric Cooperative’s board of trustees voted on Wednesday to hire the Albuquerque law firm of Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins to handle the co-op’s legal matters, as the contract for the current attorney expires at year’s end.

Wiggins, Williams and Wiggins has represented the co-op before. Attorney Lorna Wiggins settled a wage and hour claim brought by former Accountant/Office Manager Kathy Torres in May of this year. The familiarity gave her firm the edge over three other finalists interviewed this month.

“Wiggins is an expert on labor issues, and we have a lot of those,” said Co-op President Paul Bustamante, who cast the deciding vote.

The co-op is also faced with another lawsuit from former General Manager Polo Pineda, claiming breach of contract and human rights violations, and an EEOC complaint from former Engineering and Operations Manager Richard Lopez.

According to its website, Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins practices in the areas of labor and employment law, litigation and alternative dispute resolution techniques, business and commercial transactions. It has represented such entities as Allsup’s Convenience Stores, several health service agencies, the New Mexico Finance Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, The University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

The trustees weren’t all in harmony on the decision, though. It took two rounds of voting and a tie-breaking vote from Bustamante to make the selection.

Initially, the board split its votes among three of the four firms that applied. Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins and another Duke City firm, Robles, Rael & Anaya, each received three votes in favor, while Roscoe Woods & Associates of Socorro got two votes.

Before the board voted again, there was some discussion about Woods, the only local candidate.

Trustee Milton Ulibarri, who nominated Woods, said there were some people who wanted the co-op to hire local business and noted that Woods was a member-owner of Socorro Electric.

But Prescilla Mauldin pointed out that Woods was both the most expensive and least experienced of the group.

Mauldin favored Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins, which also got the support of Charlie Wagner.

“I like that they’re members of the REBC (Registered Employee Benefits Consultant) and have worked for Socorro Electric before,” Wagner said.

With rates ranging from $160 to $175 per hour, depending on which of the firm’s attorneys handled the work, Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins charged the second-lowest price among the four finalists.

The second time around Luis Aguilar and Ulibarri voted along with Wagner and Mauldin, while Leroy Anaya, Leo Cordova, Dave Wade and Donald Wolberg voted against. With District 5 Trustee Jack Bruton absent, Bustamante cast the deciding vote.

After the vote, Cordova lamented in favor of the other Albuquerque firm.

“Well, if we see this person is not doing what they should be doing,” Wade responded, “we can come up with someone else.”

With that, Wagner motioned to offer the firm a one-year contract and extend it two years if the board was satisfied with the firm’s performance, and the motion passed unanimously.

The meeting was the last for attorney Dennis Francish, who was hired two years to the day earlier under suspect circumstances. A special meeting was called for the sole purpose of hiring an attorney, depriving three incoming trustees the opportunity to have a say in the matter.

Attorney costs nearly doubled during Francish’s first year on the job, when he was paid more than $68,000. Final totals aren’t in yet, but he has been paid more than $50,000 this year.

Under Francish’s urging, the co-op’s board voted to file a lawsuit against its member-owners in 2010 to challenge the validity of new bylaws that called for the co-op to operate with greater transparency. The co-op lost the lawsuit, which invited a counter claim that’s still pending.

Francish, who also represents Continental Divide Electric Co-op in Grants, said he was stepping down from that post as well, though he would continue to maintain a practice in Albuquerque.

“I won’t miss the drive,” Francish quipped.

Bustamante thanked Francish for his service to Socorro Electric and the attorney received a round of applause from the trustees.

While the co-op has hired a new law firm to represent it, it’s unlikely it will have much involvement in the pending counter claim. Albuquerque’s Kennedy Han law firm took over that aspect of the case after the original case was decided in May.

In Other Business:

• The board approved the cooperative’s budget for 2012.

General Manager Joseph Herrera went over some aspects of the $25,919,724 budget that were noteworthy. He told the board an increase in cost of power would increase the co-op’s costs, but revenues would increase accordingly with a rate increase.

There was some discussion about the future rate increases. A 4.8 percent rate increase will go into affect early in 2012. Tri-State Transmission and Generation Inc., from which the co-op purchases its power, is also projecting another 7.9 percent increase under a new rate design.

Herrera pointed out that cost increases in the budget include a 35.3 percent increase for line maintenance, the addition of an outpost at the northern end of the service area at the Burris substation, the purchase of a bucket truck for about $190,000 and the cost to conduct a Geographic Information System survey for the mapping of power poles.

Trustee Aguilar asked when the last time a GIS survey was done. Herrera said while mapping has been done previously, the co-op has never performed a GIS survey.

After the board passed the budget unanimously, Herrera received praise from two trustees. Donald Wolberg thanked him for providing such a detailed budget. Charlie Wagner said it was the first time in his five years on the board that the co-op had a budget in place prior to the fiscal year.

• During his manager’s report, Herrera said margins decreased over the previous month, partly due to adjustments made to interest rates. He said accounting methods were being “cleaned up” and noted that year-to-date margins were up by $3.6 million.

• The board approved policy changes for vacation time carryover, sick leave, meal reimbursement and personal leave for to employees.

Herrera said employees would now be allowed to carry over 40 hours of vacation time into the new year. He said language was changed in policies pertaining to meals, sick and personal leave for clarification. A new policy that spells out rules of conduct and corrective action was also introduced.

Other changes had to do with benefits and the 401(K) plan, beginning Feb. 1, 2012. The eligibility period for benefits for new employees will be extended from 30 to 90 days and from three to six months for the 401(K).

• The board elected delegates for various organizations of which Socorro Electric is a member.

Leroy Anaya was elected as the delegate for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, while Donald Wolberg was picked as alternate delegate for both groups. Wolberg was elected delegate for the National Rural Utilities Central Finance Corporation, and Anaya was selected as alternate. General Manager Herrera will serve as delegate to the Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange.

• The board set the date of its next meeting, to elect officers, for Tuesday, Jan. 10.

• The next regular meeting of the board was set for Wednesday, Jan. 25.

• The date of the 2012 annual meeting was set for Saturday, April 14.

 

-- Email the author at tslast@dchieftain.com.