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Primer
According to current plans, Cobb EMC members will have an opportunity to vote four times during the next several months to determine the future of the troubled co-op:
• A special election to determine the rules that will govern the election for Board of Directors.
• Three elections for members of the Board of Directors.
Nine local seats on the 10-member Cobb EMC Board of Directors are currently due to be voted on when elections are finally held. No dates for those elections have been set.
The election process has been thrown into turmoil because of litigation involving Cobb EMC's overall operations. In 2007, a group of disgruntled members took the current leadership to court on multiple counts of mismanagement, insider wheeling and dealing, and misuse of co-op resources.
The original lawsuit was settled in late 2008, but the judge ordered the suspension of the scheduled 2008 Board elections until Cobb EMC implemented changes to make the elections more democratic. Cobb EMC did propose changes, but the plaintiffs in the original civil lawsuit were not satisfied with the proposals and returned to court to prevent their implementation until Cobb EMC clarified the details.
The Georgia Court of Appeals suspended elections pending final resolution of the lawsuit. The Appeals Court issued a ruling in April 2010, finding in favor of the plaintiffs on all major points. Cobb EMC promptly announced its intention to petition the Georgia Supreme Court to hear an appeal. The date for elections remains uncertain while the litigation continues. (See our NEWS for details). Meanwhile three additional Board seats came up for election in 2009, and three more are due for the ballot in September 2010.
Net result:
• There is no date in sight for the courts to deliver a final verdict.
• Therefore, there is no date for holding the special meeting/election.
• Therefore, there is no date to vote in the postponed 2008 and 2009 elections.
The 2008 Candidates. The three challenger candidates who qualified to run against incumbents in the still-postponed 2008 elections presumably will still be on the ballot when the elections are finally held. (A fourth candidate, Hart Ramm, qualified to run but has since stated his intention to withdraw). The incumbents and challengers are:
2008 Candidates
| Area |
Incumbent |
Challenger(s) |
| 1 |
Donald W. Barnett |
Johnny Woodward
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| 6 |
Alan Fortney |
William Sharp
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| 7 |
R.J. Patel* |
Ralph Frey, Sr. |
*(Mr. Patel was selected in May 2010 to fill the term of Frank Boone, deceased. We assume he will stand for election).
CASE (as of June 2010) has not officially endorsed the 2008 challenger candidates. They have chosen to maintain low profiles since putting their names forward in2008. Therefore, we have little knowledge of their specific position on issues. We will learn more when we submit, and the candidates have returned, our candidate questionnaire. Incumbent Frank Boone was one of the Directors whose home was raided in April by law enforcement authorities looking for evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The Postponed 2009 Elections. Meanwhile, three additional Board seats were up for election in 2009 at the scheduled annual membership meeting. They are from Areas 2, 3, and 9. It is this 2009 meeting that Cobb EMC announced in would be postponed until December 2010. The Board cited the ongoing litigation as the reason for the postponement. Since the by-laws require the annual meetings to be held every year in September, the Cobb EMC Board of Directors met and amended the by-laws to allow for the postponement.
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HOW TO BECOME A CANDIDATE FOR COBB EMC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
According to the bylaws, potential candidates must:
- Get 15 Cobb EMC members to sign a petition endorsing the candidacy.
- Submit the petition to Cobb EMC no less than 30 days prior to the annual meeting, when elections normally take place.
- At a date specified by Cobb EMC, appear before the co-op Credentials Committee to be certified as suitable.
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The 2009 and 2010 Candidates. By the time the special meeting and the postponed elections are held, it will be time for the 2010 meeting and election that normally would be held in September. As of May 2010, CASE is aware of one reform candidate for a 2009 seat and two for 2010 seats. Eric Broadwell intends to run for a 2009 seat from Cobb EMC Area 9, which includes portions of eastern Cherokee and northwestern Fulton Counties. The District 9 incumbent, Larry Chadwick, is one of the officials whose home was raided by the Cobb County DA in April. David Lombrozo intends to run for a 2010 seat from Area 4, in East Cobb; and Mike Simard, from Area 8, western Cobb County. Check out Lombrozo’s Facebook page.
CASE is pleased that the answers to our candidate questionnaire show all three are largely in agreement with CASE’s policies, and CASE endorses their candidacies.
Broadwell, Lombrozo, and Simard call for basic reform of Cobb EMC, more transparency in its operations, and new policies that will put Cobb EMC in the forefront of utilities that advocate the adoption of a 21st Century energy program based on efficiency and the use of renewable sources of electricity production.
On the question of Cobb EMC’s proposed construction of a new coal-fired power plant that CASE concludes is economically unfeasible, environmentally destructive, and not needed to meet our electricity requirements: Lombrozo and Broadwell oppose construction outright, and Simard believes there are serious questions about the need for construction. All three agree that coal-fired power plants, in general, do not offer the best means of meeting future energy needs.
CASE has heard through the grapevine that other candidates have submitted petitions. We do not know their names or their affiliations. |
