RECORD OF DAVID COTTRELL, CPA
ON THE CHUGACH ELECTRIC BOARD

Do not vote for David Cottrell.  He has an abysmal 15% pro-consumer vote rating.  That means he votes 85% for the IBEW Union.  We need a 100% pro-consumer director.  

• Even though he is a founder of Alaska's largest CPA firm and a member of the Chugach Electric board Audit Committee, David Cottrell undertook no investigation nor did he advocate that the board look into why Chugach Electric management lied to the public and regulators about the benefits of the Southern Intertie. Had the deception not been uncovered by Chugach Consumers, $70 million would have been wasted on this IBEW Union make work project. [Anchorage Daily News 1/21/03] 

• On 4/19/06 and 4/27/06 David Cottrell, CPA joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board in a coordinated boycott to prevent a special board meeting called to release information to the public on bloated costs of the IBEW Union contracts and the economic inefficiency of Chugach. [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 4/19/06 and 4/27/06]  

• On 12/19/06 David Cottrell, CPA joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board to oppose recording board executive sessions to increase accountability like other public bodies in Anchorage and Alaska [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 12/19/06] 

• Even after being privately briefed by a former Anchorage mayor and the merit shop contractor's association who all urged him to not prematurely approve an IBEW contract rollover that sidestepped free, open and competitive bidding provisions in Chugach Electric bylaws, David Cottrell, CPA did it anyway. Before providing the one vote majority on behalf of the IBEW Union that torched $20 million in electric ratepayer payments he made a speech recorded in the minutes as follows:

  • "...everyone keeps talking about free and competitive bidding. He [Cottrell] said it sounds like a policy situation and that he doesn't know how it fits into the equation. He said the issue came and went before he got on the board and that he has put it aside because he needs more information on the subject. But, based on the information he does have, he said he is voting to support the contract extensions." Cottrell speech [6:15 min]  clip on competitive bidding [36 sec]

  The contract did not even expire for another 16 months! There was no reason that this CPA could not have postponed his decision until he had the information to make a proper decision. And as a CPA Cottrell well knows that policy definition is what boards do. [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 4/17/02]   

• David Cottrell, CPA joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board to refuse to give the members of Chugach Electric three weeks to review the obscenely bloated IBEW labor contract before the board passed it. Members had only six days to review this 40 page document which was never mentioned in any publicity and only obscurely linked deep on the Chugach Electric website.  [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 11/15/06] 

• David Cottrell, CPA joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board to once again oppose making public information on the labor negotiations in a similar manner to the practices of the Municipality and School District, including release of a financial analysis of the bloated IBEW labor contract so the members would know the costs before it was rushed through approval. [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 11/15/06 and 12/19/06]

• David Cottrell, CPA joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board to rush through approval of an IBEW labor contract that was so outrageous with massive raises, the biggest in over twenty years and a public process so flawed that it generated a Temporary Restraining Order from the Superior Court! [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 12/19/06; Case # 3AN-06-13323] 

• Even though he is a CPA and should know better, David Cottrell supports board secrecy policy (#128) which prevents members from learning about mistakes and waste committed by management and the board. [Chugach Electric Association Board of Directors official minutes, 2/5/06, 6/21/06, and 12/19/06] 

• David Cottrell, CPA allowed Chugach Electric management to lie to Chugach members when it issued press releases and sent out a Chugach Outlet in December that claimed the IBEW Union contract approved in spite of the Superior Court injunction would cost Chugach Electric ratepayers “only 20 cents a month.” Chugach Electric management and David Cottrell well know the contents of the labor contract economic study they themselves conducted that identified $millions of costs in contract reforms that should have been included in the contract approved by Cottrell and his fellow IBEW Union sympathetic directors. 

• David Cottrell, CPA allowed Chugach Electric management to sue former board president Ray Kreig and the Chugach Consumers group for submitting the labor contract economic study to Chugach regulators that revealed the deception of the "20 cents a month" cost to Chugach Electric members. 

• On 8/16/06 David Cottrell joined the rest of the IBEW Union sympathizers on the Chugach Electric board to create a "Renewable Energy Committee". The committee was window dressing and useless. On 3/7/07 the Committee's chairman, former Commissioner of Highways and DOT Commissioner, Bruce Campbell resigned because the committee was too big and was restricted to considering only renewable energy instead of all solutions and because Chugach lacks a future base generation plan. He went on to say, "the Fire Island wind plan...has all the earmarks of an economic disaster from the member's viewpoint". 

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