Co-op board re-elects Bustamante president

Little changed after Socorro Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees held its annual reorganizational meeting on Jan. 10.

Paul Bustamante was re-elected as president, Dave Wade remains vice president and Luis Aguilar is again secretary. The only change was Leo Cordova is now treasurer, replacing Milton Ulibarri.

This begins Bustamante’s seventh consecutive year as president. He said he looks forward to better days ahead for the beleaguered co-op, which has struggled financially and been embroiled in lawsuits in recent years.

“Hopefully, we can get through all of this litigation as painlessly as we can, and continue the board’s mission to carry out the members’ wishes,” Bustamante said.

Bustamante, who survived a recall election last spring, himself is named as a defendant in three lawsuits. One is a counter suit that came in response to a lawsuit filed by the co-op against its approximately 10,000 members in a failed effort to block bylaws members passed in 2010 that call for the co-op to operate with greater transparency. The others were filed by two former managers, Polo Pineda Jr. and Kathy Torres, who were fired in August 2010, claiming breach of contract, discrimination and retaliation.

Socorro Electric also is working to get itself out of technical default on more than $20 million in federal loans because the non-profit corporation failed to meet its margins (turn a profit) in both 2009 and 2010.

The co-op’s general manager, Joseph Herrera, said on Thursday that the numbers for 2011 aren’t final, but margins have improved.

In addition to those matters, redistricting will be on the agenda for the annual meeting in April and elections are due to be held in three of the co-op’s five districts this year. But one of a bevy of new bylaws passed during a wave of reform during the 2010 annual meeting calls for the number of board of trustees members to be reduced from 12 to five, raising questions as to whether those meetings will be held. The board has taken the tack that the board is to be reduced by attrition, meaning those elections may not be necessary.

However, as Bustamante noted, the problem with that is that if there were no elections this year people living in at least two of the districts would not have representation. It could go on that way until districts are realigned, allowing for new elections to be held.

“Hopefully, we can pass redistricting. That way there will be less confusion,” Bustamante said. “It’s up to the members this year to decide.”

A redistricting plan was up for vote at last year’s annual meeting, but a quorum was not established and no action could be taken.

Despite the snarls the co-op faces, Bustamante said the outlook is improving under Herrera, who was hired as general manager almost a year ago.

“The board feels positive with the change,” Bustamante said.

Up for Vote

Bustamante was re-elected as president by a 7-2 vote. Trustee Prescilla Maudlin was also nominated for the position by Charlie Wagner, a leader in the movement for reform.

Wagner, who has frequently criticized Bustamante for his handling of meetings, said the board needed someone in charge who was familiar with proper protocol.

“The person who becomes president should know Robert’s Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure, or be willing and capable of learning them,” he said.

Trustee Dave Wade said that may be a legitimate point, but he had no way of knowing how familiar anyone was with those rules.

“Maybe the other one is just as bad or worse,” he said.

After a brief discussion, Eileen Latasa, the co-op’s office manager who was appointed to administer the board’s election of officers, called for the vote, which was conducted by secret ballot.

Wade won the vote for vice president, 5-4, over Mauldin.

It seemed no one wanted the job as secretary, a position held by Luis Aguilar, who announced that he was not interested in serving in the position another year. But after trustees Cordova, Ulibarri and Mauldin each declined nomination, Aguilar was urged to reconsider and agreed to continue in that role.

Aguilar, Cordova and Ulibarri were nominated for treasurer. But Ulibarri, who has served in that position for several years, said he wanted to take himself out of the running, and threw his support for Cordova, who wound up winning by a 6-3 count.

Personnel Matters

The rest of the meeting addressed personnel matters, the first being approval of a contract with Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins as general counsel.

Wiggins, Williams & Wiggins were chosen over three other candidates as the co-op’s attorneys at last month’s regular meeting. At that time, the board voted to offer a one-year contract, which could be extended two additional years if the board was satisfied with the law firm’s performance.

The contract, however, contained different language that called for a renewal after one year. Bustamante said those were the terms worked out between the attorneys and Herrera and that might have been how the law firm wanted it.

“We’ll respect the attorney’s wishes on the contract,” he said before the vote was taken.

The contract was approved by unanimous vote.

The other issue was Herrera’s job performance evaluation and contract. The board decided to take up renewal of the contract at its meeting on Jan. 25. The board met for about 20 minutes in executive session to discuss the evaluation.

No other action was taken.

 

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