EDITORIAL: Time For Co-op Board To Mend Some Fences

By John Severance, Editor

The three new Socorro Electric Cooperative trustees – Luis Aguilar, Prescilla Mauldin and Don Wolberg -- vowed they want to make a difference.
Here is hoping they can.
But it is not going to be easy.
Needless to say, the wounds run deep between the members and the co-op board.
There was a full house at the first meeting of 2010.
And things escalated even before the meeting started.
At 6:30 p.m., trustee Charlie Wagner demanded the meeting start on time. But Trustee president Paul Bustamante insisted the board wait for Dave Wade, who was running late.
“Will you extend me the same courtesy if I am ever running late,” Wagner asked.
Bustamante said: “I sure will.”
Ten minutes later, Wagner said: “This is not professional. We have to go by our bylaws and we have to start on time.”
Trustee Milton Ulibarri told Wagner to keep his voice down.
“We have a duty to start on time and we have a quorum. We don’t have the right to not start on time,” Wagner yelled.
Bustamante scolded Wagner, telling him his tone causes a lot of hostility.
Wagner told Bustamante that he was not a very good leader.
After some more bickering, a woman in the audience yelled out, “here is your old fool,” as Wade walked into the meeting room.
Ulibarri swung around his chair and confronted the woman, telling her she had no right to say that.
The woman responded by saying, “we don’t need you either.”
Wade humbly took his chair and apologized for being late. “I almost forgot my shoes,” he said. “I appreciate you waiting for me.”
This little episode, though, indicates how much work the trustees have in front of them.
They have to earn the trust back of their members.
Bustamante should be commended because on more than one occasion he said the board has to go forward and not look backward.
Time and time again, Wolberg reiterated that the board has to reach out to its members. He said the members have to know who the co-op employees are who go out each day and risk their lives, making sure everybody has power in their homes and their businesses. He said the members have to know how the co-op board is spending their hard-earned money. He said the members have to know what resolutions are coming up in April’s general meeting.
But of course, how much influence the new trustees have remains to be seen.
They likely will be on the short end of most votes.
What’s good, though, is that there are some new voices to be heard on the board.
And hopefully, everybody on the board will be listening a little more carefully and making better informed decisions.

EDITORIAL: Time For Co-op Board To Mend Some Fences