IREA election time approaches!!!

[Neil Preister]

Hello IREA Voices!--------------It’s IREA election time...
 

Do you know where your board member is???

Have you ever seen your board member???
If not, join the club...

Ever tried unsuccessfully to contact your director???

Ever reached your director, only to have him ignore you???
If so, join the club...
!!! We know you have your own story to tell !!!

Right now, the IREA Board is made up of six appointed directors and one elected director in a body that all should be elected. The six appointed directors are supposed to be independent thinkers that represent the co-op member-owners. Instead they rubber stamp the decisions and policies of the general manager and make no attempt to improve the direction of our co-op. IREA's problems remain and will not go away with rubber stampers, only determined reformers!

If your co-op director isn't providing positive leadership, YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR DIRECTOR!!!  (This is the only thing that scares the IREA board!)
IREA does not hesitate to use your funds and their political connections to manipulate the vote. We don't hesitate to use what we have-- YOU!!!  We need your help!

We've found members of your communities willing to serve on your electric co-operative. Running for an elected position is not free. Keep in mind also that candidates are regular working folks just like us. Please consider a donation to defray their costs. We need your help! Every little bit helps and a lot helps a lot!  As and example, it costs approximately $1,500 for one mailing for one District. Too much emphasis can’t be placed on this campaign effort and victory will not be won without funds. Please trust that your precious contributions will be used wisely.


We have won some hard fought election and legislative victories, but much remains to be done. 
We are still seeking candidates for districts 4 and 6. District 4 extends from Castle Rock then north to Parker. District 6 extends from north of Parker, then east through Bennett, Strasburg, Byers and Deer Trail. Please let us know if you, or anyone you know, might be interested. IREA Voices will help with finances and campaigning. Here is a district map:
http://www.intermountain-rea.com/userfiles/DirDistMaps.pdf


Please make contributions to be used for the Board of Directors elections payable to: IREA Voices. Mail to:
IREA Voices
880 Welch Street.  Golden, CO 80401

Thank you for your support through the years.

IREA Voices – Creating a New IREA, Once Voice at a Time

Disclaimer: We are not endorsed, sponsored or otherwise acknowledged by or affiliated with Intermountain Rural Electric Assn. (Because we don’t want a law suit.)

[Michael Chiodo]

Hello fellow Voices,

 

With capital credit checks arriving in our mailboxes, I thought this would be an appropriate time to remind you of the need for donations to support challenger candidates in the upcoming director elections. You will be hearing about the candidates now that we are into March, and I think you will be excited about the challengers to our current rubber-stamping board. Plus we will be supporting the one challenging Voice already on the board. 

 

Here are three painless and/or fun options for making a contribution to this very important cause:

 

1. Sign over your capital credit check to IREA Voices.

 

This is a popular method that we have been doing for a number of years now. Sign the back of your refund check and write "Pay to the order of IREA Voices" under your signature. You were not counting on this money anyway, so why not donate it to our worthwhile cause? You are not going to miss it, I promise.

 
2. Make a matching contribution to your capital credit or a separate donation.

 

Just make the check out to IREA Voices, and donate an amount that you are comfortable with; but please read to the end before you decide your comfort level!

 
3. Buy an IREA Voices t-shirt.

 

Look at the attachment to choose between option A or B.  Decide the quantity and size of each (M, L, or XL). Send me an email with your order, Make a check out to "IREA Voices" with "t-shirt" in the memo line. Each t-shirt is $20, so multiply 20 by the number of t-shirts you want for your total. Once your check is received, I will contact you so we can get your t-shirts delivered, and you can become the envy of all your friends!

 

For any of these options, send your check to IREA Voices, 880 Welch Street, Golden, CO 80401. Your donations are NOT tax-deductible, and you can thank IREA for that.

 

So let me shine some light on why your contributions are so important to these elections. In 2009, our co-op's General Manager (who has retained that position for 37 years!) contributed $1000 each to the three incumbent candidates for their election campaigns. This is not just me making something up, as he openly told me himself at the annual meeting. I imagine he would tell you himself too, if you asked. Among other responsibilities that the board of directors has, they vote on the salary of the GM. Just this past November they voted to give the GM a 10% salary increase and pay him a bonus of $60,000. You can verify this for yourself on IREA's website, at http://www.intermountain-rea.com/userfiles/file/November%202010%20Board%20Minutes.pdf  Our GM's salary is now $330,000 with a $60,000 bonus, which comes out of the money that we pay monthly for our electric service. I sure would love to get a 10% raise, no less a bonus during these economic times!

 

So, let me recap and see if I can get this straight: the GM contributes a total of $3000 to the incumbent candidates campaigns in 2009 to help them get "re-elected" so they can continue to rubber stamp his agenda and then vote to give him a raise. Oh no, there is no conflict of interest there, and the GM walks away with a net gain of $27,000+ for a measly $3000 in contributions.

 

Guess who was the only voice of dissent in an otherwise unanimous vote on this little piece of corruption in our co-op? You guessed right if you said Mike Kempe, the sole director to have questioned anything during the past four years he has been on the board.

 

So this is a very simple and straightforward reason why your contributions are necessary to make sure that we can elect some additional directors to the board who will actually represent us, the member-owners of IREA, and not the managements' pocketbooks.

 

100% of the donations you make today will go toward the election of fresh voices on our board of directors, so that we will once again have real oversight of our electric co-op.

 

In the immortal words of our own Chuck Saxton, please give until it no longer hurts.

 

Thank you,

 

Michael Chiodo

303-731-6579

 

 

 

--
You received this message because you are
subscribed to the "IREA Voices" Google group.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
IREAVoice+...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/IREAVoice?hl=en