MEA recoils when vassals are restless

We don’t pretend to understand the complexities of the intricate system that provides electricity — with infrequent interruption — to our homes, businesses and schools. Electricity is a marvelous, mysterious thing. We appreciate the many things it allows us to do and the impact it has on our quality of life.

We don’t really understand how we can use the telephone to speak to someone around the world or access the information highway from the keyboard of the equally mysterious computer. Let’s face it, in our high-tech, fast-pace world, there are many things we don’t fully understand. Thankfully, we don’t have to understand just how things work to make them work for us.

So we have a little trouble understanding why our member-owned electrical cooperative, Matanuska Electric Association, has so much trouble trusting its member-owners to understand issues that are less complex — like the delay between board elections and seating new board members and the signature verification system that means some members’ signatures on petitions and ballots are left uncounted.

The two issues — seating board members and verifying signatures — are not related, except that in both cases the cooperative’s management tells its members that management knows best. We are to take that pronouncement as being in our best interest, as are all edicts handed down from the management team. MEA takes this to the extreme, and an example is the upcoming election where member-owners are going to be asked to seat new members soon after the election. In addition to being asked this simple, easy-to-understand question, MEA is also including a statement about why we should vote against this without any counterbalancing opinion to allow for a more informed choice.

Most city councils, county commissions and borough assemblies seat new members within days or a few weeks of an election, yet MEA would have us believe it needs more time than the U.S. government does from the end of an election to the time of swearing in a new president.

For many years, MEA has set itself apart from its members and the community, like a feudal lord looking down on its vassals. From atop the motte, the members hear pronouncements, like MEA’s explanation for the four-month lag between the counting of the MEA board election ballots and the seating of the new board members. MEA officials say it is because officers are elected in July, according to bylaws. Chaos could ensue if, for example, the board president were not re-elected and the post left vacant until that July officer selection.

Please, give members credit for some intelligence. Should the president resign or pass away, would the organization screech to a halt? Surely the term “interim” is known to MEA staffers. Could not the bylaws be changed to reflect an earlier officer election in future? There is no reason the new board couldn’t take up as its first order of business to choose new officers. In fact, this is standard operating procedure for many government boards and councils.

Bottom line is member-owners vote to put people into office and there is no reasonable excuse those they want to represent them cannot begin as soon as possible after the election. Yet it will be only MEA’s position against the bylaw change in seating new board members that will appear on the ballot, as MEA’s management again attempts to think for its member-owners.

Recently the current board failed to act on a proposal to notify MEA members if ballots had been rejected because of a signature issue. It seems that process would be too time-consuming for MEA. Would it? The school district uses automated systems to contact hundreds of people in a short period of time. Surely MEA could use technology to give its member-owners the opportunity to be rightfully represented.

We think this frustration with our utility company is shared by many other member-owners. We own a piece of a company that would rather talk at us than to us; that would rather dictate than discuss.

Certainly thousands of member-owners cannot “run” MEA if we are to receive electricity reliably each day. But as member-owners we have the right to expect a company that is looking out for our collective needs, not focusing on its wish to keep the status quo in the kingdom.