EDITORIAL
The finish line is in view in the three-year drive to reform and modernize the Pedernales Electric Cooperative, which has been providing electrical service to a sizeable swath of the Texas Hill Country for more than 75 years.
Voting, by both mail ballot and online through a secure website, is well underway, with a deadline of June 11 and even then procrastinators can show up at the annual membership meeting in Johnson City on Saturday, June 19 and cast their ballot.
Results will be announced that day. Procrastinators should go ahead and do their duty before the absolute deadline. Folks who can’t find the time to make a choice by one of these easy methods certainly have that right, but they need to keep their mouth shut if they don’t like the results.
This newspaper is proud of the role we played in bringing about the reforms that have transformed PEC from a virtually closed corporation operating under archaic and secretive rules into one that has sought inclusiveness in its managerial style and participatory democracy in its governance.
We have a new management team and a majority of the board of directors has pushed hard to eliminate favoritism and secrecy. This election marks the departure of the last two “old guard” directors and brings in 13 members who want to join the board.
Because we still operate under the old rule of allowing all 200,000 members to vote for all seven directors, this election includes participation by us all in selecting a new director for the district that includes most of Blanco County and a sliver of Hays in the Henly area.
Five people are running for the post and we recommend that our readers cast their ballot for Steve Carriker of Henly. He is uniquely qualified, not because he lives in our county, but because he has such a varied and valuable background.
Before moving to Hays County he served in both the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. He was a people-oriented political leader, whose rural background and deep Texas roots stood out in broad contrast to many of his contemporaries.
Another unique attribute is the fact that he helped start and finance co-operatives. He is also campaigning for the four amendments that we will also vote on in this election.
One proposes the establishment of a Member Bill of Rights; that’s not even debatable. The other three are less important but should be adopted. They will allow board vacancies to remain unfilled until the next annual meeting, authorize the cooperative to list its registered agent in the bylaws and one that will increase the quorum required to conduct business at a meeting.
They all democratize our PEC and that’s something we certainly want.
In the other Director’s race there eight candidates. Chris Perry of Dripping Springs is being supported by the coalition that has taken the lead in much of the “airing” out of past misdeeds, and we lean towards his selection.
