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Show EDITORIAL Four Seek Post In Garkane District 6 Primary Election Ownerconsumers in three Garkane Power Association districts dis-tricts will be electing their representatives - their directors - to the company's Board of Directors shortly. Only in District 6 (which includes the Bryce, Bryce Valley, Hatch and Spry areas) will consumers be voting immediately in a primary election to reduce the number of candidates from four : to two. Consumers in that district have already received their ballots in the mail containing biographical sketches of each of the i four candidates. ? After last year's controversial election and the unsuccessful attempt by a 63 percent voting majority of consumers to have the company's headquarters moved onto its service system, the board decided (under pressure from the Committee to Move Garkane to Hatch) to move. In making that decision, the board f- added two additional new offices, one of which has apparently i since been dropped, but the actual plan and its details have never z been revealed to anyone other than board members. The actual 1; move was pushed off until 2001. Others who have asked to see : the plan have not been able to see it. Voters in all three districts need to be fully informed of all of the issues facing the Board of Directors but they are not because the current board keeps them only minimally informed . in its occasional expensive full color tabloid. Furthermore, since last year's election, minutes of the board : meetings are no longer available except in the Richfield office ; (more than 150 miles away for many consumers). A lengthy : and complicated form must be completed and submitted to the : board for review at its next regular monthly meeting to see ; whether the board will approve releasing the minutes. Individ-; Individ-; ual board members, however, could have kept their consumers informed. Did they? What takes place in Garkane' s board ; meetings affects each consumer's personal investment in j Garkane. Only those who attend the meetings or read the minutes ! know how their board member voted on any given issue, and i'. then only if a roll call vote has been taken. Consumers need to know the issues and how their board, members are voting on : those issues. Board members who supported the decision to make copies of the minutes so difficult to obtain must feel that I they individually (or Garkane as a company) have something to z hide. Since the company is the only source of electrical power for its consumers, it should be as open in its meetings as any city council or any school board where executive sessions are governed by a very narrow set of rules (See EDITORIAL On Page 3-A) EDITORIAL From Page 2-A More than a year ago, the board (again under pressure from the Committee to Move Garkane to Hatch) said yes, redistricting needed to take place. Garkane' s Articles of Incorporation state that members must be equally represented in their districts, and, currently, southern area member-consumers in the five southern districts where 73 percent of the membership lives have less than 63 percent of the vote. Realignment of districts would create another one or two more new districts, each represented by a another director on the board. Under the present alignment of districts, the directors from the northern portion of Garkane' s service system (where the company's Richfield office employees live) have been in a position to exercise a disproportionate amount of influence. The board has dragged its feet for the past year and now has an election at hand. Had they moved expeditiously, the consumers con-sumers in the southern parts of the system could be electing one or more additional directors. Even one additional new director should avoid the progress-hindering tie votes that have plagued decision-making on the board. Garkane is no longer small business; it is big business competing com-peting in big business circles. As it continues to grow, the issues is-sues facing its board of directors become increasingly more complex. Directors are needed who can comprehend complicated legal matters and equally complicated contracts and regulations. Consumers should look for directors whose backgrounds have qualified them to act decisively, effectively, and professionally and who have prepared themselves by making themselves aware' of Garkane' s issues and demonstrated their interest and commitment com-mitment by becoming involved in those issues. |