— by Alex MacLeod —
OPALCO’s board is holding a special meeting next Thursday (May 28) at its Eastsound headquarters. It begins at 9 a.m. There is a small note on OPALCO’s web site’s home page, but it neither says whether the meeting is open to the membership or, more to the point, what the agenda is. OPALCO put out a short release today saying the meeting is open, but provided no clue as to its subject.
That is indicative of how the OPALCO board and management have dealt with its membership since it began moving into the broadband business several years ago. It has done most of its important business behind closed doors, has ignored member complaints about its lack of transparency and, astonishingly, has asked us to believe that the cost of its foray into the Internet business will be no more than $72 per electric customer over the next two years.
Meanwhile, it has raised the basic “facilities charge” to each customer by about 40% — this is a base charge, absent the delivery of any electricity — and if it follows its own forecast will raise rates by a compounded 60% between the start of its broadband initiative and when it optimistically forecasts it will turn a profit.
At the same time, it has violated a covenant of its core loan agreements and had to promise the lender that it will raise the “facilities charge” as much and as often as necessary to be in compliance with the terms of the loan.
The huge increase in the “facilities charge” has been the subject of considerable member unhappiness. It hits low-income members hardest and does nothing to encourage conservation. It has been aptly described by one critic as “Robin Hood-in-reverse.”
It turns out next Thursday’s special board meeting is to discuss rates, or “insufficient revenues,” depending on who at OPALCO you ask, but you had to first spot the meeting notice and then contact OPALCO directly to find that out.
Curiously, a member-petitioned by-laws change which would have required OPALCO to notify interested members by email “when any board meetings are called or scheduled and whether they are open to the Energy Members” was narrowly defeated earlier this month.
Almost as curiously is why OPALCO, on its own, hasn’t set up such a simple, inexpensive system on its own. If fact, it already has one to distribute its newsletter. The openness and cooperative spirit of such a move would contribute a lot to actual transparency and perhaps help OPALCO earn back some of the trust it has squandered these past three years.
On the other hand, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest they’d just as soon not have us members around.
Alex MacLeod is a 25-plus year member of OPALCO who lives on Shaw Island.
“In addition, the cooperative shall maintain an email list to notify any Energy Members who sign up to be notified when any board meetings are called or scheduled and whether they are open to the Energy Members. Any amendments to these Bylaws shall be emailed to the same email list”.
The board may a mistake when it decided to turn our Plymouth into a Cadillac on a very short time frame. 11,200 members are paying for the upgrade. The warm weather has messed with their cash flow. I did not think that ramming the internet down our throats was the right thing to do. The internet I believe is a side show to the fact that upgraded without a plan B.
Alex, The meeting was announced in all local newspapers. The reason it is a “special” meeting is because there is no regularly scheduled board meeting this month. The purpose of the meeting is to review revenue shortfall due to the unprecedented warming winter heating cycle. As with regular board meetings, it is open to the public and all members are welcome.
Jay: First, if you can find anywhere that OPALCO has informed the membership of the purpose of the meeting (prior to my guest opinion) or provided the formal agenda and board materials it routinely promises to post at least one week prior (something it has failed to do for at least 18 months), I will withdraw my post.
Also, Bev Madan told me the sole agenda item is rates.
Finally, if you actually believe OPALCO’s “revenue shortfall” is due to “the unprecedented warming winter heating cycle,” you must be a paid OPALCO consultant.
The apparent arrogance and lack of respect by the current leadership and BOD of OPALCO for its members seems to continue. The special Board Meeting materials should be available in advance as the OPALCO website indicates is the COOP’s policy. Leaves one to wonder, “what are they hiding from us now”?
Jay,
You stated:
“there is no regularly scheduled board meeting this month”
ARTICLE IV, Section 1 of our cooperative bylaws require a “regular” meeting once a month. It states in part:
“A regular meeting of the Board of Directors shall also be held monthly at such time and place in San Juan County, Washington, as the Board of Directors may provide by resolution.”
The time and place is up to the board of directors and must be fixed by them in a resolution, but not having a monthly meeting of the board of directors is a violation of our bylaws.
I recently ran for a position on the OPALCO Board specifically to cause a new voice to question the decision making at OPALCO. I finished fourth; bummer!
I could suggest that the members get what they voted for, more of the same; however, I will suggest that it is now paramountly important that those folks who are concerned about issues at OPALCO and the manner in which decisions are made, FOLLOW UP, engage and question those decisions.
Too often virtually every elected board is operating without adequate oversight. One would think and hope that our neighbors as elected officials would, in fact, do that. It is far to easy, however, to end up in bed with the same people with whom you should be overseeing.
AND, those elected officials should be reaching out, NOW, to all of us who
were expressing concern during the just past election cycle. I am expecting Winnie Adams and Randy Cornelius to schedule a meeting here on Orcas to speak with all of us that they represent. I will clear my calender to attend.
In response to Gray: yes, there was a regularly scheduled Board Meeting this month, and that was the Annual Meeting. The primary agenda of the Annual Meeting is to elect directors, and that was accomplished. When there is the rare special meeting called, it is noted on the website and sent as a notice and media release to the local media. Board materials were posted over the weekend.
This is the time to support your Co-op
There is speculation about this Thursday’s OPALCO board meeting. Ideology and personalities, long focused on in our small community, are irrelevant when margins of choice narrow.
The bottom line is that OPALCO has to do whatever it has to do to stay in loan compliance. Co-op or not, this should not be distorted into a political or personality issue; this direction is unproductive. This is the time to support, not attack, your co-op.
In the meantime, if people really want to encourage usage based rates and at the same time lower the county’s carbon footprint and improve their own and the county’s balance of payments, they should be driving electric vehicles. Electric vehicles would increase consistent electric power sales so that the rate component of billings can increase and make room for fixed charge reductions. I understand that there will be Leaf exhibits (and test drives) at the energy fairs. Getting the county off fossil fuels and onto cheaper electric motive power to the extent practicable would be a real step with genuine and positive impact on the individual, the environment, and OPALCO.
Bill Appel
Waldron
Theresa,
Not sure if you are speaking on behalf of OPALCO management, but you seem to be conflating the Annual Meeting of our cooperative members and meetings of our board of directors.
They are entirely different types of meetings.
Our bylaws require that a regular meeting of the board must occur immediate after and at the same place as the annual meeting of our cooperative members. Specifically our bylaws state:
“ARTICLE IV – MEETINGS OF DIRECTORS
Section 1. Regular Meetings. A regular meeting of the Board of Directors shall be held without notice other than
this bylaw, immediately after, and at the same place as the annual meeting of the members.”
I believe this serves two purposes:
1) it allows the board to appointment a board president and vice-president and other officers in the event the members remove them by election at the annual meeting.
2) it allows any members who attended the annual meeting to also observe the board meeting. Hence the requirement to hold the regular meeting of the board of directors immediately after and at the same location as the annual meeting of the cooperative members.
I believe this is another area the board is not complying with our bylaws.