by JEN BIUNDO
After years of turmoil on the Pedernales Electric Cooperative board of directors, an election this summer will replace the last of the old guard with fresh faces.
In 2008, an exhaustive report investigating ten years of management practices at PEC painted a grim picture of wasteful spending, questionable financial transactions, and an iron-fisted former general manager enabled by a complacent board of directors.
The last two remaining directors from the old era at PEC, R.B. Felps and O.C. Harmon, will not seek reelection at the annual meeting on June 19. Harmon has served since 1975 and Felps has served since 1994.
Felps and Harmon helped kill a recently proposed bylaw revision that would have limited board members to four terms of three years each and added provisions for removing board members in the case of misconduct.
However, PEC members will still be able to vote amendments to the PEC Articles of Incorporation. The amendments would add a member bill of rights, fill board vacancies through election rather than appointment, and raise from 75 to 5,000 the quorum, or number of members required to vote or be present in person to transact business at a member meeting.
Eight individuals have filed to seek the District 4 seat, which represents the northwestern portion of Hays County and portions of Travis County. The sprawling District 5 seat is anchored in PEC’s Johnson City headquarters of Blanco County and includes slivers of no less than 15 different counties. All of PEC’s 200,000-plus members can vote in each race.
To make the ballot, candidates had to file a petition with the signatures of at least 50 PEC members.
Ballots will be mailed out on May 5. Members can vote online or via mail through June 11, or can vote in person at the annual membership meeting on June 19. Election Services Corporation (ESC), an independent election services company, will distribute and tabulate ballots this year.
In years past, the PEC board virtually elected itself in a closed-loop proxy voting system to lucrative board seats with salaries of more than $30,000 for attendance at monthly meetings. The board appointed a nominating committee that would select a single candidate – almost always the incumbent – to run for each spot. Challengers could run as write-ins, but stood no chance.
But since the first open election in 2008, PEC members have voted in large margins to throw out former leaders and bring in new reform-minded directors.
Former General Manager Bennie Fuelberg, who ran the co-op for decades, is now facing felony charges of money laundering, theft in excess of $200,000 and misapplication of fiduciary duty in excess of $200,000, as is former co-op general counsel Walter Demond.
District 4 candidates
Ted Lehr, Geoffrey VanderPal, Ken Rigsbee, Deborah (Deb) Ballew, Dan W. Pedersen, Tom Griebel, Chris Perry, Bob Driscoll
District 5 candidates
Joe Summy, Ross Fischer, Steven Carriker, Thornton Keel, Don Casey
