Saturday, November 15, 2008

Co-op board certifies election results

T.S. Last El Defensor Chieftain General Manager, tslast@dchieftain.com

It's now official.

The Socorro Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees certified results from the October elections at its meeting Wednesday night, formally approving the reappointment of seven trustees.

All seven of the 11 trustees up for re-election this year prevailed during the district elections. They are: Leo C. Cordova in District I, Paul J. Bustamante in District II, Leroy Anaya, Manuel Marquez and Milton Ulibarri in District III, Dave Wade in District IV, and Jack Bruton in District V.

The trustees serve four-year terms. The four other men serving on the board — Harold Baca, Juan Gonzales, Herman Romero and Charles Wagner — will be up for re-election next year, assuming they file.

Following the certification, Wagner made a motion that the policy committee establish a set of rules for conducting district meetings. He said that it was his observation from having attended the district elections, at which member meetings were held afterward, that the process "falls short of democratic control."

Wagner said that the policy manual doesn't address how the district meetings are to be conducted and that he witnessed confusion among the membership that could be resolved had there been a policy in place.

The motion died for lack of a second.

Co-op attorney Joanna Aguilar was quick to point out that the final vote on amendments to Co-op bylaws at the District IV meeting in San Antonio, on Oct. 3, was conducted in accordance with Roberts Rules of Order. The amendments addressed co-op reform issues, among them the reduction of the number of trustees from 11 to seven, realignment of districts and opening meetings.

Some members who attended the District IV election have complained that the measures initially passed but were ultimately defeated on a fourth vote.

Aguilar emphatically denied that's what occurred. She said the measures were defeated each time and that those charged with determining the outcome of the vote were never confused by the result. The vote was taken multiple times in order to appease those in the minority, she said.

"What the Co-op did was do everything it could to ensure the integrity of the vote," she said.

Co-op General Manager Polo Pineda confirmed as much. He said that according to SEC employees who were present for the meeting, the vote did indeed fail each time.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, the board voted to keep Presbyterian Health Plan as the insurance carrier for Co-op employees.

David Esquibel, a representative of the insurance brokerage firm Aon Corporation, recommended that the Co-op retain Presbyterian as its health care provider.

Kathy Torres, a member of the employee committee that examined the healthcare plan, said that the consensus of employees was that they were satisfied Presbyterian and did not want to change plans.

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