— from Suzanne Olson —
At the regular meeting of OPALCO’s Board on Lopez Island yesterday, General Manager Foster Hildreth apologized to the six candidates running for board positions and the membership as a whole for the inappropriate campaign endorsement sent by Rock Island Communications last week. After much discussion among the board and the more than 15 co-op members present, the Board passed a motion to stay the course on the April 30 board election and annual meeting and committed to establishing a clear policy on election neutrality for all employees, restricting campaign activities.
The two incumbent candidates recused themselves from voting on the motion. Staff presented an estimate of the costs to reschedule the election – approximately $50,000 – and discussed the logistical challenges. Board members and co-op members in attendance shared their opinions, raised questions and aired out grievances regarding the chain of events and OPALCO’s current election processes.
At the end of the discussion, all but one of the candidates agreed that it is not in the best interest of the Co-op to redo the election.
Hildreth thanked the Board, the members in attendance and especially the six candidates for their civility, respectful discourse and kindness in addressing a difficult topic. “This Co-op is very close to my heart,” he began. “I take it very seriously and assure you that this will not happen again.”
Over the next several months, the Board will review the entire board election process and activities with new scrutiny, promising to solicit member input. The questions that came up at today’s meeting will be examined, such as: How does the nominating process work? Should OPALCO hold candidate forums? How should incumbents be listed on the ballot? Should the timing of candidate forums be changed?
Board Vice President Vince Dauciunas, who led the discussion, assured those present, “This will be a thoughtful process that can’t be rushed. We will report our progress at regular Board meetings, post information on our website and plan to have new policies in place by the end of the year.”
For the latest information about OPALCO, go to: www.opalco.com, sign up for our email newsletter (www.opalco.com/about/email-signup/) and follow us on Facebook (Orcas Power & Light Cooperative) and Twitter (@orcaspower). OPALCO is our member-owned cooperative, powering more than 11,000 members on 20 islands in San Juan County since 1937.
It has long concerned me that our co-op bylaws allow the board to replace a resigning board member’s and that “appointment” can last more than 2 years. My impression is that most of the board members in recent years initially got on the board by appointment of the remaining board members. Incumbent board members are very hard to displace in our elections. In part, because of press generated by OPALCO that spins an image of goodness. Such press releases have frequently gotten into publications without it being explicitly noted as a press release. Orcas Issues seems to be more responsible than other outlets in this regard. Although I will note in this particular article the attribution is to Suzanne Olson and does not specifically note it is an official press release from OPALCO. This may not be evident to inexperienced members of our co-op or community. The same word-for-word content was posted on our co-op website the day before this article at https://www.opalco.com/opalco-leadership-affirms-4-3-16-election-new-policy-election-neutrality-works/2016/04/
As a practical example, the board seat vacated on San Juan Island last year was filled by the board, but should be voted on in this month’s annual meeting of the members, but is not going to be. That misses an excellent opportunity for our co-op owners to democratically elect the person they want.
It is my hope the “thoughtful process” promised in this article will include allowing vacated board seats to be voted on in the next annual meeting of the member-owners when the remaining time left in that position would extend past the following annual meeting regardless of the current election cycle. That way the board will more accurately reflect the wishes of the owners and not create the dangers of a group full of likeminded people where there is too little constructive clash of differing opinions at board meetings, at least the ones open to the owners. That doesn’t mean the board can’t fill vacancies for up to a year, just that our owners will have their rights of proper representation preserved in such cases.
Gray Cope
45 year resident of San Juan Island and OPALCO member-owner