THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412080203
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Over the past few weeks, your readers have seen many articles concerning the Cape Hatteras Electrical Cooperative. We would like to set the record straight.
On Oct. 18, the manager of the cooperative unexpectedly resigned after only four months on the job. Later accusations attributed to the former manager, and resulting news reports based on this misinformation, prompted some members to express concerns. These allegations included board interference in staff duties, rate structures, high staff salaries, power outages, the safety and pay scales of CHEC linemen, high accounting fees and closed CHEC board meetings.
In November, the Avon Property Owners Association sent a letter to the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C., stating these concerns. This generated more erroneous or inaccurate news coverage.
At our Nov. 21 board meeting, representatives of a group calling themselves ``Citizens Committee for Responsible Utilities,'' asked for and were given an opportunity to cite their concerns.
In a very constructive and civil proceeding, Ward Barnett and Jack Leatherwood spoke for the CCRU group. They were granted considerable time to identify themselves and their affiliation, make opening statements, list all their concerns in complete context, and ask specific questions of the board.
After a very articulate address by their primary spokesperson, Mr. Leatherwood, the people who had the firsthand or technical knowledge of the matters in discussion - CHEC staff, board members, an engineer from North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. and a representative of Johnson & Dooley - directly answered the committee's concerns. Over the course of 90 minutes, the group's questions and those brought up by other independent co-op members present were addressed and supported with concise explanations.
It was our impression that the audience both understood and accepted our explanations. In fact, Mr. Leatherwood said that our responses satisfied his concerns on several topics. In closing, he remarked to the effect that, based on our responses that evening, he personally did not know whether the petition for the special meeting would continue. All this happened in the presence of three newspaper reporters and attending co-op members.
There was no unpleasantness, nor were there any heated or awkward exchanges. The meeting went on to other matters without further discussions on this subject. Your readers should know that if any concerns remained that evening, they did not make us aware of it.
It's important that members know the cooperative's board does care about their concerns and that they are welcome to bring such concerns to us. That policy is nothing new. Members of the cooperative have addressed the board in the past on a number of matters. For the past few years, our board proceedings been covered regularly by a competing local newspaper. It is our understanding that CHEC is one of few cooperatives in the state to have reporters in regular attendance at such meetings.
Now, we'd like to take this opportunity to brief the public on several steps the CHEC board has taken to improve the current climate of misunderstanding:
Accepted the resignation of the former manager after only four months on the job.
Requested a sheriff's investigation into the theft of CHEC records and receipts.
Requested and have undergone a safety inspection by the Job Training and Safety Department of the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives.
Began a new search for a full-time cooperative manager.
Assigned an independent, third-party firm to audit the accounting and consulting records over the past 14 months. The current firm, Johnson & Dooley, has welcomed this review and has pledged to cooperate fully with the auditing firm.
Asked the same independent firm to conduct a ``management audit'' to review and compare current CHEC managers' salaries with those of other state cooperatives.
Put out for bid the cooperative's year-end audit to third-party accounting firms.
Increased and improved the cooperative's member relations efforts using a communications firm.
Began review of current CHEC board per diem policies compared with governing boards of local organizations, other cooperatives and public bodies.
Approved a comprehensive survey to scientifically and confidentially gauge the opinions, feelings and concerns the membership may have about the cooperative. CHEC will share the results of the survey when it is complete.
Dale Burrus
John Robert Hooper
Officers, Board of Directors
Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative by CNB