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Show Member-Consumers Will Decide On Garkane Headauarters Move HATCH Members of the Garkane Board of Directors voted Monday to place the responsibility responsibil-ity for deciding for or against the move of the power cooperative's headquarters from Richfield to Hatch in the hands of its member-consumers. member-consumers. A ballot, simply asking ask-ing for a yes or no reply to the question, "Do you want the main headquarters office moved to Hatch, Utah?" will be mailed out in early January to be returned by Jan. 22. They will be counted by the company's Certified Public Accountants, Kimball and Roberts, Rob-erts, located in Richfield. The company's headquarters has been located in Richfield for some 60 years, but the cooperative's coopera-tive's service area does not serve that city or the county in which it is located. All funds expended by Garkane at its main office relative to operating costs, salaries, sala-ries, vehicle registration, fees, etc. accrue to Richfield City or Sevier County rather than to communities or counties located on the system the cooperative serves. In their August meeting, seven members of the eight-member eight-member board voted to move the headquarters to Hatch which is centrally located in the electric company's service area. The issue of a move has come up several times in past years, but, because board members andor consumers were previously unable to agree upon a location anywhere on the system, the main office has remained in Richfield. In more recent weeks since the August vote, some board members mem-bers have appeared to waver about their decision. Upcoming deregulation has been raised both as a reason to move and not to move, as have the costs of the move itself, i.e., the cost of building on the company's 10 acres in Hatch where it currently maintains a small office, as opposed to reducing operating costs by centrally locating to a single location and closing the Richfield office. The question of the move itself appears to have split the eight-member board of directors squarely down the middle, even though they were finally able to come to the decision on a ballot vote for the move. The board meeting, scheduled this month for 10 a.m. in Hatch, was started early and was well underway and in heated discussion discus-sion when the Garfield County News arrived at 10. Board members were in the midst of discussing whether to handle discussion of the headquarters relocation in open session or leave it as it appeared on the agenda as an executive (closed) session item where it had been placed by the general manager. They also discussed whether by law Garkane is required to open their meetings to the public and the press and if they wanted to allow tape recordings to be made of the their meetings. Under Utah's "Sunshine Law," public bodies must conduct their business in meetings open to the public. They may conduct executive execu-tive (closed) sessions only for very limited purposes, such as specific personnel problems, litigation liti-gation that may be underway where disclosure could jeopardize their position, certain real estate sales or purchases where disclosure disclo-sure of prices or details could jeopardize negotiations, and other precise and limited purposes. The intent of the law is to keep the public's business before the eyes and ears of the public. Board member La Don Tor-gerson, Tor-gerson, Koosharem, said he felt the board should prepare a press release saying exactly what they want to be said to the press so that it reads precisely the way they want it to. "We want to come out exactly what we meant. not what the press wanted it to mean. So we object to have even a board member taking the minutes of the meeting and f oppose having a tape by the press," he said. Board member Terry Griffiths, Orderville, questioned the legality of preventing tape recordings of the meeting but Board President Michael Blackburn, Bicknell, said, "Sure, you can." Griffith persisted, saying, "It's an open meeting. I think they can bring a tape recorder in and record it." Board member Bill Nelson, Cannonville, asked, "Well, what is it that the press has said that you figure was hearsay or that they didn't get in order?" Blackburn said, "Some of the things were not in order. After Marcus Taylor, Garkane' s attorney gave the presentation, the motion was not made to dismiss him then. It was done way early in the beginning. So things that are getting printed are maybe what happened, but it's in there to make a good story and it's out of context. It puts out a whole different light from the way things really took place. That's what I mean." Board member Dave Skou-gaard, Skou-gaard, Duck Creek, replied, "Fm also on the Kane County School Board and we have the press sitting in there with us. They're there all the time for all the meetings, except when we go into executive session." He said that sometimes things may be quoted out of context but "sometiiftes you take a chance of those things happening." Board member Marjie Spencer, Spen-cer, Escalante, said that at another an-other electric company meeting she attends she was informed by the company's attorney that Roberts Rules did not apply except at meetings of governing (See GARKANE on Page 33) Member-Consumers Will Decide Garkane Relocation From Front Page bodies that were taxpayer-funded where such meetings had to be , open to the public. Other groups, she said, "do not have to allow anybody into the meeting unless they choose to." Board member Nolan Button said, "Whose money are we spending? We're spending the Vco-ops money," and Spencer replied, "Co-ops come under different laws than the Sunshine rules, so that lawyer said." General Manager Carl Al-brecht Al-brecht said, "I like what Marjie is saying. Any state agency that is pperated under state guidelines, . with taxpayer money, school boards, state entities of any sort ; fall under the Sunshine Law ... Garkane and electric cooperatives fall under the non-profit statute of ... the state. And according to him the attorney could, you know, open the meeting to whomever. Now, it would be my preference that you operate the meetings as open as possible, as you are the . most democratic-controlled organ-01 organ-01 ization there is one member, - one vote. However, if there is an issue that is delicate, such as the .office move, I guess that's the group's prerogative." Button reminded Albrecht that . he Albrecht had been present jnany years earlier when con-, con-, sumers insisted on attending a t meeting and Garkane's attorney u; at that time had advised them a that consumers had a right to attend ... "and he made it very clear that there wasn't anything that we could do about who wanted to come, as long as they were a paying consumer. They had the right to sit in on our meeting." Albrecht responded, "That was an annual meeting. And ;! lhat's what I'm saying. I think as ;! ja rule, as a cooperative, we're .probably the most democratic-controlled democratic-controlled organization there is. i 'And we ought to be as open as we possibly can. However, if there are things you want to discuss in executive session..." Skougaard asked, "I guess my question would be, even if . ; we're not legally obligated to do that, conduct business in an open . meeting, maybe morally we are? 'And I feel comfortable with that. Maybe we should retake the vote ... I'm not sure what it is."on whether to discuss the headquarters head-quarters move openly or in executive execu-tive session. I -. Torgerson said, " I'm prepared j to vote. But I wanted to help everyone understand that I believe be-lieve that we will specifically issue a statement of our intent. You know, whatever was meant or whatever we want the public to .yn know. And I don't think there will 'Z''. be any secrets about it. But that news release will come out of an ' y executive session. I'm prepared to vote to leave it the agenda item to discuss the move in executive session where it's at. Blackburn: " We had four for and how many...?" Secretary Sherlyn Langston replied, "Three opposed that I know of... Griffith: "Three, so if you : ,- vote speaking to Board President Michael Blackburn, you tie it. If you don't vote it fails. If you don't vote, it comes out. ri Meaning the agenda item comes out of executive session into open meeting. Blackburn: "Well, I vote and it stays." Skougaard: "I just had one other comment, Mr. President Blackburn. I know that we're not following Roberts Rules and I'm not an expert on Roberts Rules. But I don't believe the president can vote to create a tie? He can vote to eliminate a tie Torgerson: "He can vote any time he wants." The board then voted by roll call on whether to remove the agenda item of discussing the move from an executive session into open meeting. Board members mem-bers Button, Griffiths, Skougaard and Nelson voted for. Board members George Blackburn, (Fremont), Torgerson, and Spencer Spen-cer voted to keep it in executive session. Board President Michael Blackburn cast the tie vote. President Blackburn then asked for a motion to approve the agenda which George Blackburn made and Marjie Spencer seconded. The vote was four in favor and four opposed. The four who had felt the agenda item should be discussed in the open now opposed accepting the agenda agen-da and the other four voted to accept it. President Blackburn: " I guess we won't have a meeting then." And everyone stood up and started packing up to leave. Then Blackburn said, "I think I'd entertain a motion to go into executive session right now." The motion passed and they went into executive session at 10:20 a.m. They did not explain for what reason or for what discussion. The company's secretary, the public, and the press were invited to leave; they spent the next nearly two hours in an unheated room with no chairs. The door was opened to them again at 12:10 p.m. Albrecht explained that they had come out of executive session at 11:45. President Blackburn asked Albrecht to explain what had taken place in executive session. Albrecht: "There was a motion mo-tion made by Terry Griffiths, seconded by Bill Nelson to send a ballot to the membership in January. It will go out the first part of January with a deadline to be back by Thursday, Jan. 22. It would be similar to the ballots that we sent out for director elections, which has the proposition propo-sition on it. It will have a stamped envelope for the consumer con-sumer to return. It will be sent back to our CPA's, which are Kimball and Roberts in Richfield, Utah, for an official tally. It will require the members signature on the ballot to be valid. The proposition will state "Do you want the main headquarters office moved to Hatch, Utah?" Yes or No? And there will be an official press release, released to all the press tomorrow Tuesday basically basic-ally stating this same thing. Is that accurate?" The board agreed that it was accurate and agreed to accept the balance of the agenda and proceed with their meeting. By 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, no press release had been received at the Garfield County News. |
