News-Miner Editorial
Powerful votes
GVEA ballots are in the mail; will you participate?
Published Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!Interest in our local electric cooperative should be high these days. The annual meeting boasted record turnout, and there was even a little shouting during the public testimony portion of the evening.
Likewise, elections for the Golden Valley Electric Association Board of Directors — now under way for Districts 1, 2 and 3 — should be of high interest this year. Never mind a localized flap over the nominations process in one district or the high cost of electricity these days, interest in the cooperative always should be high.
Like participating in local government, the opportunity to vote on GVEA board members gives a direct piece of the power to the member-owners of our local cooperative. It behooves the people to at least understand the issues at hand and know who represents their district.
GVEA ballots were mailed May 9 and are arriving in local mailboxes now. The mail-in votes are due back by 5 p.m. June 10 to be counted.
The mailings consist of a postage-paid return envelope, a ballot and biographies of the people running in your district. In their biographies, the candidates are asked to address their visions for GVEA’s future.
Districts that will receive ballots include the following:
District 1: General areas of College Road, the University of Alaska, Sheep Creek, Murphy Dome and Goldstream roads, Farmers Loop, the Old Steese Highway, Graehl Townsite, Slater Subdivision and the Railroad Industrial Area.
District 2: General area south of College Road, Danby Street, Aurora Subdivision, Geist Road, University West, Chena Ridge, Goldhill Road, Ester and the Parks Highway. District 3: The area south of the Chena River (excluding downtown Fairbanks), the airport, West and South Fairbanks, Van Horn Industrial Area, Richardson Highway, the west half of Badger Road and Lakloey, Dennis, Holmes and Bradway roads. As with any local governing body or organizing committee, public awareness of issues and involvement should make for a stronger organization.
GVEA board members hold important jobs that address the needs of 90,000 members around the Interior and the management of a multimillion dollar operation — an operation that touches the lives of nearly every Interior Alaska resident.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
The problem is that the BOD is led like puppies down the path of stupidity and seldom deals with anything having to do with electricity or what's good for the end user. The BOD is a joke and only there by regulation. Some have been there too long and if you look back and you will see the past failures that were there.
GVEA has a history of poor decisions; the debacle at the refinery, Healey, the data business, fiber optics, multi million dollar maintenance heavy batter backup system, multi million dollar duplicate radio systems, double pensions, buying management contracts because they failed to hire qualified people, two of everything and only the best. They are rewarded for this performance.
Realistically we don't have a choice because of the price of oil so why worry about it? For those folks that think the APUC regulates/approves things you don't have any idea. GVEA rates are already about $0.24/KWH (when you add all the fees, not the $0.15 they advertise. Look at you usage and divide that into the bill = cost. I think GVEA is the only one in the nation that has a "customer charge" ... electricity is extra! GVEA can make the numbers look anyway they want and they will get any increase necessary to continue to do business as usual ... sound familiar?
GVEA is a cost regulated utility. The higher the cost the more they can charge (profit) and then divert that profit to worthless projects having nothing to do with electricity. Management claims everything is approved by the BOD (which it is) and the BOD says, gee we just want what's best for the members and that is what the management said we should do .... lol. The line department has always been first class and are damn good at what they do ... but the leadership is a pitiful joke.
I have no idea what you were trying to say, other than listening to yourself rant, but perhaps you could make better use of the edit function in these comments so that your grammer and spelling made what little sense there is to be had...........
I believe the editorial is encouraging you to utilize your right to vote as your voice of choice. Stop whining and start participating.
I think most of us know what James is trying to say. You can, as an unaffiliated individual, try to make an impact but in the real world it's not quite impossible only improbable and ranting might be what is possible.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.