— from Gabriel Jacobs —

In the minutes of the OPALCO Board meeting of May 19, 2016 there is a sentence about an audit, “Darlington recommended that the detailed document remain confidential to management and the board due the risk of exposing vulnerabilities of the organization.” This refers to an audit which was summarized but which summary gave no information about what the problems are. Keeping private personnel matters and business negotiations makes sense but refusing to reveal problems to the membership makes a mockery of being a coop. How can the membership make intelligent decisions if the problems are concealed from them? What moral right can justify hiding problems from the coop membership? OPALCO threatened a lawsuit against a Board member and others to prevent them from revealing problems. Do we want a coop that goes into non electric businesses without consulting the membership? Do we want a coop Board that runs OPALCO like its own fiefdom?

Rock Island sent out a note to its subscribers urging them to vote for the incumbents. They refused to give the opponents the same mailing list in order to rebut that point of view. Rock Island is a wholly owned subsidiary of OPALCO which in theory is a coop the members own. Thus OPALCO management and/or Board chose to favor the incumbents in an organization that is supposed to be a cooperative.

Rock Island has already expended almost all of its two year grant from OPALCO and it still needs more money. The recent repeated rate increases are a guide to who has to pay for this unchecked reckless spending.

Isn’t it time to replace this secretive spendthrift Board?

(Gabriel Jacobs, from Shaw Island, ran for a position on the OPALCO board this spring)

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