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Show Garkane Board May Ask Consumers To Decide Its Headquarters Relocation TORREY At the conclusion of their Oct. 27 meeting in Torrey, members of the board of directors of Garkane Power Association, who voted two months ago to move the cooperative's headquarters headquar-ters from Richfield to Hatch, asked the Richfield office staff to prepare statements for and against the move to be used if the board decides instead to submit the final decision for the move to its member-consumers. Board member Terry Griffiths, Orderville, opposed the Richfield staff preparing the statements, believing, he said, that the Richfield Rich-field general manager, attorney and staff should not be pressured to prepare statements supporting a move they don't believe in and also preparing an argument against the move. By-laws of the cooperative state that the general manager, when speaking for the cooperative, coopera-tive, must present the views of the board of directors. The board's August decision to make the move had been reached in a unanimous vote in favor of the move, with seven of the eight board members present. There has been no vote of the board since that time that reflects any other position. The issue, Griffiths said, should boil down to one question for consumers, "Do you want the office on the system or not? Until listening to their attorney, attor-ney, Marcus Taylor of Richfield, (See GARKANE Page 7A) Some Garkane Board Members Are Wavering On Relocation Decision (From Front Page) board members appeared confident confi-dent that their earlier decision had been made appropriately, citing the original board decisions to move the headquarters on two different occasions, almost 60 years ago, as precedents. Attorney Attor-ney Marcus Taylor, however, told the board at their most recent meeting that their decision might come under question because of certain changes in the law that took place after the 1992 November Novem-ber election that left some areas ambivalent and uncertain perhaps per-haps yet to be tested in court. At the board's previous meeting meet-ing in Richfield, board members had asked their general manager Carl Albrecht to prepare and expedite a letter to the State Attorney General's office for an opinion on the legality of their decision to move the headquarters without going to the membership :for a vote. At the next meeting in Torrey, rather than a response from the Attorney General's office on the agenda, Albrecht had placed the articles of incorporation incorpora-tion item as researched and presented by Taylor. After Taylor's presentation, board member David Skougaard, Duck Creek, pressed Albrecht for a copy of the letter sent to the state, but Albrecht was unable to produce it. Terry Griffith subsequently subse-quently introduced a motion asking ask-ing for Taylor's dismissal, seconded sec-onded by board member Bill Nelson. Skougaard, Nelson and Griffiths voted for the dismissal, With Marjie Spencer, Escalante; LaDon Torgersen, Koosharem; and George Blackburn, Fremont; voting to keep Taylor. Board president Michael Blackburn, Bicknell, cast the tie-breaking vo'te' in favor of keeping Taylor. Bflard member Nolan Button, Kanab, recuperating from surgery, was not present to vote. Taylor had told the board that in his opinion the net effect of the repeal of the constitutional amendment "might mean" that the board could no longer vote to move the office without going to the members. He said he Relieves the 1992 repeal "weakens "weak-ens the statute that says the -gwsniing board can change the place of the principal offices without amendment to the articles of incorporation and strengthens the argument that says you've got to go to the members. "...The risky way is to do it on your own, the safe way is to go to the members. If the members approve, it would be 100 percent safe." Skougaard said, "I don't have any problem submitting it to the members because we're not trying to pull anything or we're not trying to hide anything ... I would like to be involved in the wording ... before it goes out, I would like to review it." Nelson concurred, saying he didn't want "somebody down the road saying... it was a loaded ballot. The board needs to approve ... what we send out." In an attempt to move the office several years ago, the ballot told voters an increase in rates would occur and the measure failed to pass. Board members this time have indicated there would be no rate change connected with the move. Taylor suggested submitting a ballot to the voters with opposing viewpoints but Nelson responded, "When we were speaking as a board, in their August vote it wasn't 'some for and some against', it was a unanimous vote in favor." George Blackburn said, "Marcus "Mar-cus Taylor makes a strong point because I would dare say 70 percent of all the members don't really understand the issue. They're just putting their faith in us as representing them." Marjie Spencer: "A vote by the membership will give us some strength, you know, in whether we're doing what's right or what's wrong." Terry Griffiths: "They the voters may like the concept but if they don't like one part of it, they vote no." Griffiths suggested first making the decision to move the office onto the system, followed fol-lowed by a later decision about its location. George Blackburn asked Nelson: "What's your big hurry that you want to move it anyway? Is the house on fire?" "Yep," said Nelson, "It's time to get 'er done ... Get the office and the money on the system." Torgersen: "You have a perfect per-fect right to feel that way. It's an honorable thing for you to do that, but I don't think it's any less honorable for me to feel completely com-pletely opposite of that. Nelson: "You sure ... have changed your mind." Torgersen: "I think we've heard explained today a perfect way to get this off our back. Let the membership decide it." Michael Blackburn: "I don't know what 300 of my people want for sure. I know what five of them want. But I don't know what 7,000 people the full membership member-ship want." Skougaard: "I don't have any problem with it going to the body membership just so long as we board members approve what goes out ... it needs to say that the board has voted for this, and these are the positions." George Blackburn: "We have built ourselves an ark at Garkane. Years ago we used to have a little boat. We've built ourselves an ark, it's solid, it's sturdy. It's because of good management, good staff, good area managers and a willing board of directors. "With deregulation and attorneys attor-neys and the lawsuits that we're in with Deseret, it's iust shakv ground to me. ... If we can get through this and know where we're going with deregulation, I have no problem with moving this office if that's what the people want to do. Griffiths acknowledged he agreed with Blackburn, "But I believe be-lieve ... we'll be better off if we've got one less office and we're centrally located. ... The only way that I think you ought to take it to the members is if the board of directors controls the whole thing." Garkane currently has a satellite office on its 10-acre property in Hatch. That office would be enlarged to serve as headquarters if the board goes with its August decision. At this point, board members George Blackburn and Michael Blackburn argued that Albrecht, Taylor and the Richfield staff should prepare pro and con statements state-ments about the proposed move. Griffiths objected saying, "It's going to be pretty hard for somebody to sit down and write something if they don't want to move and know that it's going to cost them their job if they don't want to drive back and forth." Griffiths then suggested obtaining outside help if necessary neces-sary to prepare a ballot but said, the question should boil down to just one for the members: "Do you want the office on the system or not?" George Blackburn continued to urge Griffiths to trust the Richfield office to prepare statements state-ments but Griffiths was adament, saying, "I'm not going to put him Albrecht in that position ... to try and write something that he does not want." George Blackburn: "Well, he'll write both sides and I'll bet he can do it." Following an executive session, ses-sion, six board members voted to have Albrecht and the staff prepare pre-pare statements for their consideration consid-eration at the next meeting to be held in Hatch in late November. Griffiths remained opposed. |