I attended the GVEA board meeting last night, followed by the second meeting of the GVEA G&T ever since its inception in Dec. 2003.

The GVEA G&T finally has bylaws adopted, the same board as the GVEA Board, and the same officers for now. The appointed CEO is GVEA CEO Steve Haagenson. One board member suggested me for the position – I wisely refused.

There was no discussion over G&T board or CEO compensation, though the board was adequately compensated by their workshop all afternoon and the meeting that went till after 10 pm. I think they received between $800 and $1000 each. They usually get $350 for a workshop and $450 per board meeting. That’s over $100/hour. Plus good food.

During the GVEA board meeting board comments, concerns were expressed by staff and board about information that was out in the public about the G&T proposal. Staff felt like they’d been on a constant road show, but heard little back from members. Board directors felt like they’d received a lot of calls from members, some with what some felt was inaccurate information. Some seemed surprised and a bit perturbed. I’d opine that they should be pleased that members are calling on their district reps to explain the G&T proposal.

As far as inaccurate information, I can’t speak for others, but I’ve certainly tried diligently to be accurate. CFO Grubich indicated I blogged that GVEA intended to sell the assets. I only repeated what he and Tom Irwin said is that they could sell the assets. Interestingly, with all the discussion about communications, they don’t seem to realize that they are welcome to offer comments on any of my blog entries.

The Town Hall meeting earlier this month at Noel Wien Library was video recorded and one can download the video from the GVEA website. With a really fast connection, it will take at least as long as the meeting of 1 hour 40 minutes – it’s 200 mb big. One of the directors commented he tried with his dialup and gave up. It was the first they’d heard of it. For all the great reputation GVEA has for quality IT support, I’m surprised nobody warned the PR folks about this.

One of the more entertaining parts of the meeting was a presentation given by Tom Staudenmeier, a former Matanuska Electric Ass’n board member from the early 1980’s. He was lobbying for a regional utility, with Ross Perot’s people (whoever they are) to come in and set it up. He was ready to put many utility managers and former legislators in jail as crooks, even Gov. elect Sarah Palin’s father-in-law. Chair Bill Nordmark didn’t enforce any time limit, so knowing that, I feel that there must be no time limit on member comments (not that I would ever so abuse). Some of the old history makes an interesting read