Electric Co-op Sets Dates For Member Meetings

By John Severance

SOCORRO – The Socorro Electric Cooperative will hold a member informational meeting on March 27 at 1 p.m. at the Finley Gym and will hold its general member meeting on April 17 at 7 p.m. at the same facility.
Registration for the informational meeting will begin at noon and registration for the general meeting will begin at 5 p.m.
The informational meeting was the hot topic at Tuesday night’s co-op meeting.
Informational meeting committee chairman Donald Wolberg presented to the board the issues they wanted to discuss with the members.
“It’s what we do from here on in that counts,” Wolberg told the board.
Wolberg handed out a four-page summary to the board detailing what the informational meeting wanted to accomplish during the meeting.
Trustee Charlie Wagner said, “I want to ask some questions before I vote on this.”
Wagner asked if there was going to be voting at the informational meeting.
Attorney Dennis Francish said: “There is nothing to vote on.”
Wolberg said: “There is nothing to vote on but we left it vague in case we do have something to vote on.”
After a lot of back and forth, the board decided just to set the time, date and place for the meeting and directed the attorney to look at the report to determine if there are any legal ramifications.
According to the summary, the program will include an introduction of the board, the introduction of division/department heads of the SEC and brief statements of department functions, recognition of SEC staff in the audience, presentation of an overview of the SEC, presentation of the scale and scope of SEC operations and a presentation of board functions required by bylaws, regulations and efficient oversight functions.
The meeting also will cover the required costs of a functioning board, the presentation of a board budget, questions from the floor and responses by appropriate trustees and SEC Staff and other business including any motions requiring a vote by members.
The informational meeting committee also discussed resolutions that would be brought forward at the special meeting.
The resolutions involved board compensation, medical insurance, per diems and quorums.
Wolberg suggested in the summary that the board consider adoption of the resolutions already approved by district meetings and that will be voted a t the annual meeting, but Ulibarri and Cordova disagreed and they left it up to the board to determine its position.
The committee did agree that the president or a trustee that he chooses should hold a press conference regarding the special meeting.
Wagner suggested the board go through and discuss each of the resolutions that the committee discussed.
“If we do that, we are going to be here all night,” Trustee president Paul Bustamante said.
That’s why the board determined just the time, date and place for the special meeting and tabled discussion of the resolutions for another meeting.
The board also awarded a two-year contract to CB Ray Incorporated to serve as the co-op contractor.
Wagner said the board should look at other bids from other contractors.
“Just as a matter of form, it looks better if we go out and get competitive bids,” Wagner said. “CB Ray would probably have the inside track. We just owe it to our members to get the best for their money.”
Pineda said that CB Ray was asking for a two-year contract with a 2.5 percent increase to cover its payroll obligations. Although CB Ray is based in Arizona, Pineda said, most of their crews are from here and their equipment is in the Socorro County area.
“If we have a big outage, their crews would come out and help us,” Pineda said.
Ulibarri added, “They hire local people.”
Wagner’s motion to open it up to competitive bids failed 7-3 and the motion to award the contract to CB Ray passed 9-1.
The meeting opened with an address from member Don Steinnerd of Socorro.
“I am here to ask for clarification of the by-laws and on a 1967 resolution and to inquire whether the current Trustee compensation is in compliance. Specifically, is the current health, dental and vision insurance compensation for Trustees and his/her family in compliance with the bylaws?”
Steinard cited Article 5, Section 7 of the bylaws that stated that trustee compensation shall be specifically authorized by a vote of the members. The 1967 resolution said that the sum of $15 plus insurance as compensation to be paid to each member of the board for each day or portion there of spent on Cooperative business. The resolution does not define the types of insurance compensation. He said this is in conflict with the current “annual” insurance policies.”
Bustamante directed Francish to look into the matter.
In other business:
•The board will send two co-op linemen to take part in utility underground traning in San Diego.
•Trustee Leo Cordova was not attendance because he was in a car accident, according to Pineda, who added that Cordova was unhurt.

Electric Co-op Sets Dates For Member Meetings