— from Michael Karp —
To: OPALCO Board of Directors General Manager
Re: Member Review Committee on Elections
I am compelled to communicate my views regarding the recent report from the Member Review Committee on elections and feel I would be remiss to not do so. I am very interested in seeing progress made toward an inclusive, transparent and “healthier” OPALCO. This letter will focus on areas I see as “red flags.” I hope you take my comments with serious consideration.
The Selection Process and Composition of the Committee
I believe committee composition should be reflective of the Coop membership, especially considering diversity. Gender, ethnicity, age, should be represented. It only takes one look to see that this committee is comprised only of older white men. I see no younger folks, Latinos, women. What about ensuring representation of low-income members, small business, and other stakeholders? It is hard to have a credible result without member confidence that diverse world view and experience informed the recommendations. I know that the committee members put in a lot of hard work and time to make recommendations that they hoped would be discussed. . . .and ultimately adopted. I thank them for their efforts. However, member confidence in the committee selection process, including diversity as one criteria, is paramount for a healthy OPALCO.
I recommend that an impartial third party (similar to the third party that OPALCO hires to count election results) be engaged to nominate members for future OPALCO member committees.
Committee Recommendation #2
This recent election process was extremely unhealthy, lacked credibility, reeked of manipulation, and ultimately resulted in public apologies from the General Manager and similar statements from some OPALCO board members. The members voted clearly to keep the districting of board members the same. Should the board accept the recommendations of this committee, it will override the members’ direct vote and set the credibility of the board and management even further back than this last election fiasco. Has OPALCO learned nothing from the public embarrassment about this issue and process? Would you so quickly accept a recommendation that members just voted down? I hope not.
Committee Recommendation # 5
The Committee is recommending the selection of two additional board of director members that are not drawn from the OPALCO membership but from outside the District. The idea is to recruit specific expertise that may be helpful to the board. I am against this recommendation. I feel strongly that the board should only be drawn from the OPALCO membership. The board already has the option to form committees that include outside expertise. For example, a board could create a committee, have it chaired by a board member, and solicit non-board members with specific expertise for that niche committee. Lastly, should the board accept the notion of adding members to the board that are not current OPALCO members, those members should only have EX Offficio (non-voting) status.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of these comments.
Thank you Michael, for this very clear summation! I agree! It is clear to me that OPALCO is running our member COOP like a large Corporation rather than as a Member-Owned COOP.
I would like to see Maps of all of the areas where there are now, and will be in the future, EMF antennas for Rock Island’s access. The Public has a right to know where these Proven Cancer=causing technologies are now and will be in the future.
Spirit Eagle
I hope those with concerns will attend the upcoming Opalco Open Houses (Oct 11th on Orcas) to discuss our committee’s proposals. I see a lot of misinformation being circulated.
Mr. Karp objects to only two of our 7 categories of proposals. I appreciate his kind comments about all the work that went into the entire 20 page package. We welcome all comments, objections, and kind words — one of my personal goals was to stimulate interest.
Speaking to the concern about all us old white guys on the Election Review Committee, I should point out that from the entire Opalco membership there were not enough volunteers to fill the intended 8 committee positions! Racial and gender diversity would be nice, but the larger problem is a lack of interest in our electricity cooperative. And I believe our proposals can help play a part in addressing that.
Because Orcas was overweighted, I offered before the first Committee meeting to drop off so the ratios would be closer to population by Island. The other members said they did not feel geographic balance was as much a concern as the need to have more participants. The seven of us included: three local small business people (including me), two business people who have retired to the Islands, a semi-retired accountant, and two who have run for the Opalco board in the past — we at least have diverse experience in making organizations work, if not gender or racial diversity.
I truly believe all the committee members understand and support the principle of democratic control of cooperatives. In addition to addressing procedural improvements, our proposals attempt to create more participation and involvement, and thereby more participation in cooperative elections.
If you want to help stimulate member involvement, let’s all work together to discuss ways to build a stronger cooperative. The upcoming meetings are part of that process.