Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wagner questions co-op board ad and meeting minutes

T.S. Last El Defensor Chieftain General Manager

TSLAST Socorro Electric Cooperative trustee Charles Wagner raised a couple of concerns during last week's board meeting, including whether an advertisement placed in El Defensor Chieftain was proper use of co-op funds.

The advertisement consisted of a letter signed by nine of the 11 trustees and appeared in the June 7 edition of El Defensor Chieftain. The co-op paid $327.36 for the ad.

The same letter, with minor editing, appeared as a letter to the editor at no charge to the co-op in the June 4 edition.

The letter was in response to what the co-op stated were "misleading news articles and petitions," and was signed by all the trustees except Wagner and Jack Bruton.

Wagner said he felt it was "a serious breach if (the) co-op is using money in that way," and asked that the topic be addressed under new business.

"I don't think members should pay for that kind of advertising. That should be a personal expense of the trustees," Wagner said.

Essentially the same letter has since appeared under the heading "Co-op Informs Members about Board of Trustees" on the back page of "Enchantment," a monthly publication produced by the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association and sent by mail to co-op members.

Wagner, who represents Magdalena area members in District 5, raised his concerns after his motion to allow a group of co-op members to distribute a petition in billing statements failed to receive a second.

The petition proposes the board of trustees be reduced from 11 to seven members and that the districts be redrawn to achieve more equitable representation.

The letter refers to Wagner in stating "Although a board member has recently complained that the SEC has not redistricted for several years, the co-op has remained a democratically controlled organization that meets the requirements for conducting business as a cooperative under IRS guidelines."

Wagner has supported the petition effort, and a letter to the editor submitted last week by Wagner appears in this edition of El Defensor Chieftain (see Page 4).

Wagner argued during last week's meeting that the co-op is no longer following the democratic principle of equal representation because of the discrepancy in the size of districts.

Currently, some trustees represent districts made up of approximately 600 members, while others represent districts with more than double that amount.

The letter also refers to articles that appeared in El Defensor Chieftain (March 29) and the Albuquerque Journal (March 26) that indicated the Socorro Electric Cooperative has bylaws that permit them to exclude members from attending.

The letter states "nothing could be further from the truth. As a general rule, the Board of Trustees meets bimonthly on Wednesdays, at 7:00 p.m., in the co-op's board room in its main business office on Manzanares Avenue (sic). Any SEC member is welcome to attend to observe the conduct of business."

Trustee Harold Baca of Socorro spoke in favor of running the letter as an advertisement. Baca said he felt it was important that members knew the articles contained "untruths" and "lies." He said the suggestion that the co-op excludes members from meetings was one such lie.

"We've never thrown anyone out," he said emphatically.

Some discussion followed regarding co-op Policy No. 105, which addresses who may attend board of trustees meetings. Asked for clarification of the policy, SEC attorney Joanna Aguilar said 105 "inferred" that co-op members and the press could attend meetings.

Returning to discussion of the letter, Wagner said he felt spending money on the advertisement was "an abuse of co-op funds" and asked Aguilar to look into the propriety.

Wagner ended by saying that if the co-op wanted to "pretty-up" its image, advertising should be aimed at ways consumers can work to conserve energy and save money.

That wasn't Wagner's only complaint. He also questioned the accuracy of the minutes from the previous meeting. He called them "dubious" in that there were things described in the minutes that "either didn't happen, or didn't happen that way."

Wagner said he would bring a tape recorder to the next meeting.

"By having a recorder, at least I'd have an accurate record," he said.

There was some discussion regarding whether recording devices were allowed to be brought into meetings. Attorney Aguilar said she'd have to research the issue but suggested that a copy of the tape used by co-op staff to record meetings could be made available to trustees.

Wagner seemed satisfied with that arrangement but nonetheless cast the lone vote against approval of the minutes of the June 11 meeting.

tslast@dchieftain.com

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