A follow-up from my
Feb 2012 blog on transparency. I was waiting for the minutes to become available
from the May 21, 2012 meeting.
The GVEA board voted at that meeting to endorse roughly half of my proposals:
1. Post complete meeting packet and maintain historically (they agreed for 3 years)
2. Post a list of GVEA committees and membership
3. Post a list of external committee members (of board and CEO, my intent)
4. Post meeting agendas and minutes of subsidiaries (and Good Cents, the board's idea)
5. Post historical minutes of Membership Advisory Committee (MAC) (instead of just the last meeting)\
6. Post Form 7 (GVEA's financial statement to the Rural Utilities System) - the board also will post the IRS Form 990 on their website.
And finally, CEO Newton agreed to find a way to set up a notification system for when GVEA is heading into expensive peak power and see if we can get members to reduce and thus save us all high cost energy.
With Newton's departure, I hope the implementation of these items won't be delayed as more than competent staff remain to carry forth the board's request.
It took me a nearly 5 year effort to get the board to agree to post the meeting agendas and minutes. I'd been working on these other items for several years as well, but consolidating them into a single readable document for the board seemed to resonate. One of the interesting side facts is that I caught some flack for handing out the very same issues on transparency to the MAC board in May. I think they have worked that out, but most amazing to me that it was an issue at all.
Finally, I welcome my
new District 4 board member Frank Eagle to the GVEA board and thank outgoing District 4 board member Ward Merdes for his efforts on the board the last 3years. Ward's main issue when running was 'Susitna Now'. I opined to him that he would soon be inundated with an incredible amount of work on the GVEA board. He now agrees, but was still surprised how much. And Susitna-Watana remains a long ways off.
Public Embarrassment - David vs. Goliath
For some reason, GVEA President-CEO Brian Newton, perhaps a result of his 'for shame' comment at the Annual Meeting, decided it would be a good idea to organize a protest/rally outside the Northern Alaska Environmental Center (NAEC). The NAEC is one of the 4 organizations who oppose restarting the Healy 2 coal fired powerplant without some conditions GVEA didn't like. The board found out some days before and required Newton to be open about his and GVEA's involvement, which he then followed. Chena Hot Springs and Chena Power owner Bernie Karl was the featured speaker.
The rally of about 75 was outnumbered 2:1 by Northern Alaska Environmental Center very enthusiastic counter-rally attendees and became
quite the happening. (This article isn't exactly correct). A generally friendly event, as the GVEA sponsored rally faded out, people on both sides mixed in the side street to share opinions.
A couple weeks later, the GVEA Board of Directors held a
special board meeting at Sophie Station with the one executive session topic - Personnel Matters. A few days later,
GVEA issued a press release that Brian Newton had resigned from GVEA effective immediately to 'pursue other opportunities in the Lower 48'.
It seems logical that this resignation is the result of the bungled rally, but more deeply, I believe, the result on escalating board dissatisfaction with Newton's performance on a number of issues of late. There has been lots of negative press besides about his high salary and benefits ($450,000 though that likely includes some travel costs).
GVEA local counsel Cory Borgeson was announced to be acting CEO. Perhaps his long time legal partner John Burns (recently Alaska Attorney General) will be taking Cory's place as local counsel. While John seems a straight up guy, this might be a bit of a conflict of interest. GVEA said they will be doing a nationwide search for a new CEO.
As a side note, Chena Power (see Bernie Karl above) apparently owes GVEA over $56,000 in past due electricity charges. Unlike most consumers, Chena Power has not had their power cut for delinquency as is required by tariff. I would hope that Chena Power can make payment so they don't get cut off.
For the record, this is the first time a head of GVEA has left under such circumstances. It's hard on an organization and the board when this happens. I hope they can find a replacement who is able to work with the various constituencies to bring affordable and environmental sound energy to GVEA members/ratepayers.
Public Hearing on Livengood line extension
GVEA had requested the RCA (Regulatory Commission of Alaska) to allow them to expand their service area to Livengood in expectation of providing power to the proposed Livengood mine. I've found out that the expectation is a need of 100 mw of power, more than any single source of generation or demand we have now. GVEA admits they would need to build new generation.
There were enough comments to the RCA that, 4 months later, the
RCA just announced a public hearing on the matter for May 2, 2012 at the Westmark Yukon Room from 1 pm - 5 pm. Here is the order for this.
I had suggested to the board that, should they go forward, GVEA consider installing a generator at Livengood and trucking gas direct and keep the accounting separate so that the mine pays the full cost for generating their own electricity.
GVEA Annual Meeting
I plan to speak about transparency, cost of energy, debt, and the proposed service area extension to Livengood. How I fit all that into 2 minutes, don't know.
Small progress, finally GVEA has raised the show-up rebate from $15 to $25. You might also win a 20 year old std cab pickup or some cash.
Membership Advisory Board March 2012 meeting
So, after presenting my
transparency ideas to the GVEA Board, I thought it might be useful to also present them at the next MAC meeting, particularly as a couple of these ideas were mentioned from the previous board meeting (reducing executive sessions). It is apparently rare that non-MAC members show up at the monthly MAC meetings, like only a couple per year.
As a courtesy, I printed up paper copies for each of
the members and, as I was walking up to where I would speak, I passed them out. Up jumps GVEA Vice President of Marketing & Member Services
Dave Gardner, who says I'm not allowed to pass out anything, only speak. When a MAC member asked why, Dave indicated it was against policy, that I might be handing out Avon brochures.
I don't normally call out individuals on issues, but in this case, the individual called himself out most unflatteringly.
I found this pretty absurd and was embarrassed at his shameless sputtering and what would seem to be a complete fabrication. GVEA has no policy on what members can pass out at MAC meetings, particularly as members rarely show up. I asked Bill Nordmark, president of the GVEA Board and he was unaware of any policy about this. Of course, their policies are far from transparent, so one can't look them up.
It seems to me that Dave Gardner, having been the facilitator of the MAC meetings for a couple of decades (according to him) needs to let someone else do it for a while. The perception is that he thinks the MAC is HIS committee.
GVEA does provide a lot of good educational information to MAC members at these meetings, but I'd like to see the MAC run their own meetings.
Labels: GVEA transparency MAC Dave Gardner Avon
On Transparency
It's been a while since I posted, but I have been attending GVEA board meetings and, as usual, bringing up various aspects where I believe GVEA could increase transparency, which is a part of their proclaimed mission/policy.
In that vein, at the last meeting in February, I presented the board with a 12 item list of things they could do to bring about increased transparency. The entire presentation can be viewed on the GVEA Ratepayers
blog: but here are the 12 topics. At the subsequent MAC meeting, one suggestion was actually on the agenda: to post MAC meeting minutes on the GVEA website historically (not just the most recent meeting's minutes) and it passed. More on that meeting in a subsequent blog.
- Post complete meeting packet and maintain historically
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- Post list of GVEA committees and membership
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- Post a list of external committee membership
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- Notification system
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- ‘Parsimonious’ executive sessions
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- Executive session notice
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- Subsidiary transparency
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- District based two way communication
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- MAC (Membership Advisory Board) transparency
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- Webcast Board meetings
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- Post Board policies
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- Post Form 7 (this is essentially a monthly financial statement GVEA is required to submit to the Rural Utilities Service and is thus a public document)
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Labels: gvea transparency mac
Will the RCA regulatory body ask utilities to implement conservation?
Will the Regulatory Commission of Alaska ask Alaska utilities to implement conservation measures? Not if their staff report is implemented. You can read more about this regulatory issue on
R-09-005.
The sad part about the recommendations is that the federal government offered some guidance and then offered it to the states to look at or come up with their own ideas. The Alaska Legislature, through an Energy Policy with SB 220 provided further incentive. Yet the RCA's staff recommendation is just to get trained up more. This docket has been out there for nearly 2 years, plenty of time for training.
I say it is time for the RCA to get off their duff and work for the long term benefit of the consumers they are charged to represent. I urge anyone who has the stamina to read the documents to at least comment to the RCA. Comments are due Dec. 9, 2010 by 4 pm.
Juneau electrical rate increase
Due to some substantive cost overruns and a non-functional project for the next few years at least, the Lake Dorothy Hydro Project in Juneau is costing all ratepayers at least a 20% increase. You can read more of the submissions from the RCA website. It's actually rather amazing.
http://rca.alaska.gov/RCAWeb/Dockets/DocketDetails.aspx?id=cbac123f-90b2-4ede-8234-4899e455f0fd
GVEA Bylaw changes - the analysis begins
Seventeen amendments to the bylaws of GVEA were passed by the membership after a count of over 5000 mail-in/drop-off ballots last night.
Two bylaw changes did show a marked difference with less support:
One change removed the bylaw section that limited the co-ops debt to $460 million. This now means that the policy the board developed and passed 3/29/10 that more than doubles this debt limit will be in effect and that the board can change at will. This policy (last page) and other policies modified with the bylaw changes can be found
here.
The second bylaw change passed with less support was GVEA proposed Roundup Program, where your bill will be rounded up to the next even dollar amount and the funds collected (est. $15,000/mo.) to be given to charities of GVEA's choice. The controversial aspect to this program was that it is Opt-Out, meaning you are included automatically and must call GVEA at 452-1151 or send an email to them (info@gvea.com) to opt out of the program.
With the many delayed and un-received ballots due to sending them via the Ruralite, I don't think that GVEA will be using that method of delivery again. More likely is a push to develop an on-line voting method, now allowed by bylaw change.
I would also hope that this many changes and some so poorly worded in one vote don't happen again. It was generally poorly organized and not worthy of what we should expect from our co-op.
GVEA Ballot Count #8 - all bylaw amendments pass
Here's the final vote on the bylaws. Analysis and commentary to follow after a night's sleep. WAY TOO many ballot issues, all those present agreed.
Received 5114 valid ballots, but 14 were spoiled, total counted 5100
Approve all - 3201
Disapprove all - 536
Approved individually
1. 1022
2. 898
3. 1110
4. 1124
5. 1144
6. 1058
7. 1096
8. 1102
9. 1001
10. 925
11. 1039
12. 1101
13. 1080
14. 414 (remove debt limit)
15. 1034
16. 976
17. 449 (round-up bill)
GVEA Ballot Count #7
Election judges are done with their tally. Multiple spreadsheets for tallying those who voted for individual bylaw changes are being tallied by Cory and Corinne.
In the meantime, the drawing for the free electricity was pulled out of the hopper by Hollis, one of the election judges, with his eyes closed. It was a fully loaded hopper with over 5000 envelopes inside. Obert Friberg (sp) was the winner. GVEA wasn't thinking they would call him tonight. I thought if I won, I'd want them to call up to 11 pm and it's only 10:40 pm now.
A handful (10) of questioned ballots were discussed, some with duplicate ballots, strange signature locations, some that were picked up at GVEA when their mail ballots didn't arrive and then later, the mail ballot did arrive. The general rule followed was that the first valid ballot to be received was the one counted.
Most elections judges are sticking around, talking, waiting to sign off on the final tally, being done with the aid of a tape based adding machine. There is a place for this now ancient technology.
GVEA Ballot Count #6 - incumbent Bergh wins District 5
Preliminary count in District 5:
Ron Bergh - 606 (44%)
Hank Bartos - 441
Tim Beck - 331
200 ballots came in without signature on the outside envelope. They are opening those to see if any were signed inside, as the instructions allowed for. To date only one did, with a few more that had a check for payment of their bill (but no ballot).
Extra ballots checked - 5 had signatures inside.
Final count District 5
Ron Bergh - 608 - 44%
Hank Bartos - 441 - 32%
Tim Beck - 331 - 24%
Total ballots counted - 1380
Looks like some of the observer staff are leaving, though a recent lightning storm resulted in some spotty electrical outages in various areas of town.
GVEA ballot count #5
Final bit of counting of District 5. 213 ballots that were unsigned on the outside are being opened to see if signed on the inside. Of the 1365 pre-verified ballots, it looks like one person got about 500 votes. 40% is needed to avoid a runoff with 3 candidates on the ballot.
Candidates were:
Ron Bergh - incumbent
Tim Beck
Hank Bartos
Beck didn't get very many ballots, but he didn't campaign that anyone could tell.
On the bylaw ballot, 3 piles are being made - Yes on all, No on all, Yes only as approved on the other side.
From my perspective, it looks like the "Yes on all" have the majority, with 2-3 times the pile size compared to the others.
GVEA Ballot Count #4
The bylaws group in the new board room just completed opening the outside envelopes.
