LETTER: On The SEC

To the editor:
Regardless of what Co-op President Paul Bustamante said, “We don’t like to hear people say that we are ‘suing’ the members…”; the Socorro Electric Co-op is suing its members, He may not want to hear it said, but it is happening!!!
The suit holds that the newly adopted by-laws requiring transparency of the SEC Board of Trustees don’t apply to our Co-op, because the SEC is a private entity. This is smoke and mirrors!!!
The State of New Mexico may not be able to require the SEC to comply with New Mexico’s “sunshine” laws, but WE CAN!!! We own the SEC!!!
We have every right, obligation, and responsibility to require honesty and transparency from our trustees. The fact that we chose New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act and New Mexico’s Public Records Act as our templates merely saved everyone a lot of time and effort, and relieved us from drafting our own sets of rules.
The arrogance shown by the SEC Board of Trustees is beyond the pale. The blatant disrespect they continue to exhibit toward the owner/members is appalling. The lack of trust, eroded confidence, and loss of faith the owner/members have for the board is well-earned.
Rather than accede to the redounding wishes of the owner/members, the trustees have quibbled, prevaricated, complained, and ignored us.
The final insult is this legal action against the owners of the SEC.
When elected representatives of any jurisdiction lose their humility and respect for their constituents, they become petty autocrats. This seems to be the direction the SEC trustees are heading.
The idea that the trustees can’t conduct business with the owners of the SEC or members of the media in attendance is preposterous!!
Honorable commissioners of thousands of counties across the country conduct well-run meetings every week; and these meetings include residents, voters and reporters of every stripe.
Reasonable assumptions why the trustees would want closed meetings have to include incompetence, squandering of resources, lack of ingenuity, or downright malfeasance. All these reasons demand owner/member attention, recognition, and action.
The owners of the SEC have indeed paid attention, recognized some problems and then on April 17th we acted. We are not as cagey or evasive as Mr. Bustamante; we really mean we want open and transparent meetings and access to SEC’s books and records.
That’s my nickle.

Gene Brown
Quemado

LETTER: On The SEC