MEA board member wants bylaws change


Published on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 3:32 AM AKST

The full Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors has been negligent in following the explicit directions in Article XII Section 2 of its bylaws as amended in 2006. Section 2 gives explicit directions for creating a bylaws committee.

It sets the number of committee members (seven), term length (three years) and the requirement that those terms must be staggered in three-year cycles. This means that each year the board must vote to appoint members to this committee.

Was there a vote to appoint members in 2004, 2005 or 2006? Check the board minutes. The year 2007 and January 2008 passed without a vote. The three-year staggered provision of the bylaws committee has been overlooked. Due to this oversight, an illegal committee has recommended a “no” vote on a member-owner petition signed by those who believe newly elected directors should not wait a full quarter year to be seated. Five members of this bylaws committee signed the report. Is this also a breach of Section 2 that dictates a seven-member committee?  

Unlike board president Lee Jordan, I urge a”yes” vote on this bylaw change.

On another note, member-owners should know that board candidates make several financial reports, the first being the last month of the previous year. Seven of these are made before the annual meeting on March 1, one on annual meeting day, plus three post-election reports. I doubt a four-month time period is necessary to view or analyze them.

Lois Lester,

Eagle River

MEA board director

since 2000

Comments

5 comment(s)

    Philip Munger wrote on Feb 6, 2008 8:55 PM:

    " Time for Mr. Jordan to move on to other endeavors. The bylaw change is a good first step to showing the upper-level mismanagement team that the members can determine these issues ourselves, without their help, thank you. "

    kwb wrote on Feb 5, 2008 12:44 PM:

    " Mrs. Lester, I'm impressed. You didn't name-call or blame others for the failing of the board to follow the bylaws. You took responsibility for it equally with the rest of the board. Now that the problem has been exposed, I hope you will be as honest and forthright in correcting it. And please don't let the 4-member-majority just reappoint the same people who met illegally on this issue. There have been some good new applicants to the Bylaw Committee, and I think it's time for some fresh perspective. Thank you for your candor...more board members should be so responsible. "

    So what happens now? wrote on Feb 5, 2008 12:26 PM:

    " So the MEA Bylaws Committee isn't obeying the bylaws? But they still get to tell the members how to vote as if they had some kind of legitimacy. Is there anything that can actually be done about this, or are we just stuck with it? "

    Good on you Lois wrote on Feb 5, 2008 10:39 AM:

    " Thanks for doing the right thing! "

    Well said wrote on Feb 5, 2008 8:47 AM:

    " Thank you, Mrs. Lester, for shining a light on yet another board-backed management abuse of power. Lee Jordan should be ashamed of himself. Not that I needed any further convincing, but I'm voting for Peter Burchell and Janet Kincaid, and I'm voting yes on the bylaw change. The madness has gone on long enough. "

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