Pedernales Electric’s Board of Directors unanimously voted on Monday, February 22 to place a member bill of rights on the 2010 ballot, giving PEC’s 196,000 members the power to ratify the document at the Cooperative’s annual meeting on June 19 in Johnson City. If ratified, the bill of rights would establish core rights, such as election safeguards, which could only be changed with a member vote.

“The member bill of rights is a first-ever initiative that establishes the importance of the principles of openness and fair elections by making them permanent fixtures at the Cooperative, changeable only with member approval,” said District 7 Director Dr. Patrick Cox.

If a majority of members vote for the bill of rights, it will become part of PEC’s articles of incorporation. The Board voted to place several other proposed amendments to the articles of incorporation on this year’s ballot, and these proposals would change how Board vacancies are filled and what constitutes a quorum of members.

The Board members also considered proposed revisions to the Cooperative’s bylaws. However, after the directors engaged in a thorough, spirited and democratic debate, the revisions did not garner the necessary two-thirds support.

“One thing about a democracy is, in a democracy, there’s always another day,” said District 6 Director and Board President Larry Landaker.

In November 2009, the Board passed a resolution creating a policy allowing members to have access to a complete list of PEC’s membership for a limited number of reasons, including campaigning for the Board. On Monday, the Board amended that policy to allow any member to remove his or her information from the list available to other members.

The Directors heard a report from System Engineering Manager Robert Peterson about recent developments out in the field, and he praised PEC employees for their swift and effective response to an outage on January 28. The outage occurred at the Henley substation west of Dripping Springs, and PEC restored power to all affected members in 70 minutes by shifting the load to the Dripping Springs substation. PEC crews then got the Cooperative’s portable substation up and running less than three hours after the outage, minimizing the amount of time the Dripping Springs substation had to carry that additional load.

“That is really amazing and shows the strength of our system,” Peterson told the Board. “This was a fantastic job by all our employees.”

District 1 Director and Board Vice President Cristi Clement, who chairs the Financial Strategies, Contracts, and Budget Committee, spoke to the Board about the progress PEC is making in submitting a 2010 budget for the Board’s approval. She said that the budget is close to completion, and that she has asked staff to re-examine the latest proposals and make some adjustments.

“Meaningful cost control and improved efficiency, it’s not easy,” said Clement. “Nobody likes to tighten their belt. We just have to rise to the challenge. Our members are expecting that.”

The Board voted to finalize its meeting schedule for June. The Board will hold its regular monthly meeting one week early on June 14, and after the June 19 annual meeting, the Board will hold a special organizational meeting on June 21 to formally seat the newly elected directors.

During the member comment section of the meeting, many members spoke at length in praise of the work done by the Governance, Bylaws, and Legal Committee, which is comprised of District 4 Director O.C. Harmon, Advisory Director Lamont Ramage, Landaker and Cox, the Committee Chairman. Members said the committee operated with transparency and was open to suggestions from members as it worked on the member bill of rights and the bylaws.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, the Board:

• Heard a report from representatives of Somerset Guild about PEC’s corporate research project.

• Agreed to pay annual dues for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

• Approved a transformation service agreement with the Lower Colorado River Authority, and approved a blank transformation service agreement for future use.

• Approved an interconnection agreement with the LCRA, and approved a blank interconnection agreement for future use.

• Voted to authorize a formal response declining the offer to purchase the Cooperative made by Quentin Capital Management LLC.

• Approved a resolution to provide initial notice to the LCRA that PEC will exercise its contractual option to acquire 10 percent of its energy from other power suppliers in 2010.

The next regular Board meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on March 15 at PEC’s E. Babe Smith Headquarters Building.