Saturday's Internet Edition, July 05, 2008.
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The District 7 vacancy was created when former PEC Board President W.W. “Bud” Burnett resigned earlier this year. The bylaws call for the Board to use “a majority vote of the remaining voting Directors” to fill this unexpired term; however, this position will now be placed on the 2008 ballot, and the elected representative will represent the PEC district until the June 2009 election.
PEC Board President E.B. Price said, “While this position would normally be filled by an appointee of the Board, we felt it would be appropriate to put this unexpired term on the ballot since the nomination-by-petition process is still in the early stages. The new representative will serve out the remainder of the District 7 term and will be eligible to run for the full three-year term in 2009.”
The Board also took action on a number of agenda items including paying 2008 membership dues to two electric cooperative organizations and developing a loan program to use a line of credit from National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation until additional long-term financing is secured.
During the “Items from Members” portion of the agenda, members addressed the Board with concerns about Envision, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PEC, and the Board’s decision to hire an independent firm to conduct a complete audit of operational and financial practices. PEC’s current efforts to address the spread of oak wilt were discussed, and frequently asked questions about the nomination-by-petition process will soon be posted online at www.pec.coop.
Assistant General Manager Will Dahmann called for the approval of 3,593 new members (a net increase of 523 members), purchase orders totaling $4,636,206.96, write offs of uncollectible accounts totaling $181,524.48, and a routine transfer of $400,000 to Envision for labor, rent, maintenance and other standard monthly expenses. The unaudited power bill presented for approval was for the purchase of 443,622,582 kilowatt hours in January 2008 at $27,692,610.79. Assistant General Manager Jeanell Davis reported that in January 2008 the 24/7 call center fielded 59,534 telephone calls, and more than 17.7 miles of overhead line, 1,250 poles and 16.3 miles of underground line were installed. There were 831 employees, one personal injury accident and 16,749 members paying bills online in January.