Has lost faith

The Jan. 29 Frontiersman editorial and letters to the editor were right on target, supporting the Matanuska Electric Association member initiative for prompt seating of newly elected MEA board members and questioning MEA’s summary rejection of member ballots on technicalities.

However, another equally important issue needs to be aired.

How are MEA members’ mail-in ballots handled to assure all fairly cast votes reach the election committee for counting? Rumors have repeatedly circulated that mail-in ballots are counted and culled in private at the MEA offices by MEA employees selected by management long before ever reaching the election committee.

Some timely investigative journalism by the Frontiersman might be appropriate to assure the public that MEA is using fair and honest vote-handling procedures prior to official vote counting by the election committee. Subjecting MEA vote-handling procedures to public scrutiny and demonstrating to the public that these procedures are fair and honest would benefit both our member-owned electric cooperative and its members by helping to restore trust in MEA.

My wife and I have lived in the Mat-Su Valley for almost 24 years, and we have been MEA members for almost that entire time. For our first 23 years here, I was willing to give the MEA board and management the benefit of the doubt in running the cooperative.

In my opinion, over the course of last year, the MEA board majority and management have repeatedly made incredibly poor decisions, shown open contempt toward MEA members with differing views, stonewalled and propagandized to the point that I have lost all trust and confidence in the MEA board’s majority and management.

Burchelll and Kincaid for the MEA board.

Steven M. Miller,

Wasilla