2022 Election Results

 5,800 Rachel Morse (Greens, IBEW Union) – Elected 4 yr term
4,392 Sisi Cooper (IBEW Union) – Elected 4 yr term
 3,453 Fritz Krusen (Chugach Consumers)
3,194 Harry Crawford (Greens, IBEW Union)
2,457 Bernie Smith (Chugach Consumers)

10,677 voted (11.8% of ~90,483 members)

Elections and Election Committee Bylaw
7,816 YES | 2,713 No 
10,529 voted on the bylaws

The new board majority elected Bettina Chastain as new chair.

2022 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 20 at ChangePoint Alaska (6689 Changepoint Drive)

Chugach Consumers 2022 recommendations:

Vote for Fritz KRUSEN and Bernie SMITH

Do NOT vote for known IBEW Union operative Harry Crawford

And it's OK to,

Vote YES on the bylaw change
(Mail-in Ballot Deadline Extension)

CANDIDATE and SITUATION ANALYSIS

FIVE candidates are running for TWO 4-year slots on the Board. They are all pooled together; the two top vote getters will be seated:

Leslie C. "Fritz" Krusen III - Formerly Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and ConocoPhillips.  Electrical Engineering, 42 years of oil & gas industry experience
Sisi Cooper - Process Safety Engineer for Applied Engineering
Solutions. Is the only candidate by petition (the other three went through the Nominating Committee).  Former incumbent that had to resign because she lived in the ML&P service territory and thus was improperly on the board under the rules at that time.
Harry Crawford - Retired ironworker union and former Alaska state legislator and Chugach director.  Crawford is a long standing IBEW Union operative.

Rachel Morse - Senior Vice President, United Way of Anchorage.  Incumbent, current chair of the board.  Natural resources and business degrees.

Burnell "Bernie" Smith - Former Regulatory Commission of Alaska engineer and commissioner.

2022 ENDORSEMENT SUMMARY

	Chugach Consumers	Alaska Center	IBEW Union
Fritz Krusen
Bernie Smith
Rachel Morse
Sisi Cooper
Harry Crawford

Chugach Electric customers are continuing to pay grossly excessive rates.  From 1992 to the end of the last pro-consumer board majority at Chugach in 2008 Chugach rates were 40 to 50% above the US national average electricity cost!  That was certainly an appalling state of affairs for an energy resource-rich state like Alaska! 

The case then was clear that broad and deep reforms for Railbelt electric utilities -- and especially Chugach Electric -- were necessary and long overdue.  The Chugach reform board tasked an unprecedented Blue Ribbon Panel of top executives to investigate and make recommendations.  But after the 2008 IBEW Union overthrow of that last pro-consumer board, rates skyrocketed to well over twice the national average electricity cost!!

While it's obvious that the Chugach board once again needs to acknowledge the above history, lack of performance and solidly embrace reform, we don't see that the board has the interest, commitment or what's necessary to do that and none of the candidates clearly have such either.

This year it's very interesting that the two allied IBEW Union & Leftist-Green special interest groups unusually delayed for weeks after the voting began to reveal their candidate endorsements (above).  Normally they are lockstep together in their candidate support but not this year.  Fascinating that long-time IBEW Union water carrier, Harry Crawford didn't get the IBEW support.

Our own endorsements were also delayed until the last 24 hours of the election because of an extensive investigation and interview process we felt necessary to undertake.  Why?

In addition to the discussion above it needs to be understood that the Chugach Board and the cooperative could well be in a near crisis situation.  They have a financial crunch from falling electricity sales and have to deal with a failed CEO hire (see below).

At a time like this there can be benefit from stability on the board.  It costs ratepayer money for expenses and board fees (including travel and training). Several years can be needed for director to feel confident and useful.

Three of the five candidates for the board have previous Chugach board experience:  Cooper, Crawford and Morse.  

Harry Crawford is an absolute no because he is a rigid IBEW union anti-reform vote.

Considering the situation the board is dealing with we seriously looked at Sisi Cooper and Rachel Morse even though they were the two selected for support by the IBEW Union. However, we do not consider that either are likely to be hard-core IBEW Union defenders of the costly status quo at Chugach like candidate Crawford or current board member Sam Cason.

 
Although Morse has been board chair for only a year, she does have four years of board service.

Sisi Cooper had seven years of board service from 2012 to 2019 when she was forced to resign from the board after discovery that she had moved out of the Chugach service territory and was living in the ML&P area in violation of Chugach bylaws.  

Cooper has a good resume and we received favorable third-party references for her.  However, she refused to be interviewed after multiple attempts at contacting her.  We were left with the feeling that this was likely a recommendation of one or more other Chugach board members that she not talk to us.

 
It is troubling that candidates for the board run for office on a perfunctory few minutes of videotape interviews, a brief candidate statement, but then there be no way for a Chugach member to easily contact them in the campaign.  Their contacts are concealed by Chugach.

From this, our conclusion is that it's better that new blood on the board be supported (Cruzen and Smith).  Fritz Cruzen has relevant experience in the energy industry and Bernie Smith is a former Regulatory Commissioner of Alaska (2000-2003).  They appear to have a higher potential to rise to the occasion of this current crisis for Chugach Electric and hopefully work on necessary reforms to truly help the public.

KEY ITEMS IN THE PAST YEAR

4/11/22 - Chugach Electric Association hires, then cancels new CEO - Must Read Alaska - By Suzanne Downing - Hal Halpern was supposed to start work as the new chief executive officer at Chugach Electric Association this week, as current CEO Lee Thibert is set to retire at the end of the month after six years on the job.

But suddenly last week, the Chugach Board of Directors canceled the contract with Halpern, without explanation. Word is that it was because a background check didn’t come up with entirely favorable results.  Chugach Electric Association has named Arthur Miller acting CEO, effective immediately, a day after the board said it was “not moving forward with employing Hal Halpern” as the utility’s new CEO.

4/4/22 - Alaska Energy Transparency Project - Chugach Electric Withdraws Job Offer to New CEO - After interviewing multiple candidates in February 2022, the Board offered the position to Halpern on March 8, and his appointment to the post was announced the next day. Halpern has been the CEO of Cooperative Light & Power, an electric cooperative located in Two Harbors, Minnesota, since 2019, and had also worked in the fiber optics industry.

The Board’s decision came after a special meeting that stretched across three days. The first part of the meeting, on the evening of Wednesday March 30, was dedicated solely to a discussion of “CEO Evaluation” in executive session. This discussion was resumed on Friday April 1. The motion, not to proceed with the hiring, was passed immediately after the Board left executive session.

10/05/21 - Chugach Electric faces revenue shortfall from pandemic - Alaska Journal of Commerce - Elwood Brehmer - Chugach Electric Association is having a hard time meeting its financial obligations, and utility leaders are asking for help from state regulators.  
ML&P Acquisition has made the situation worse

2021 Election Results

5,234 Erin Whitney – Elected
3,075 Stuart Parks
2,040 "Fritz" Krusen

Bylaws (%Yes) - See results below; 9,989 to 10,038 voted on the bylaws.  

10,453 voted (11.4% of the members)

2021 Chugach Electric Elections
Virtual COVID-19 compliant annual meeting and election May 18

Chugach Consumers 2021 recommendations:

Vote for Stuart PARKS

Vote YES on the four bylaws changes
(Board and Committee Eligibility (93.6% Yes), Manner of Holding Meetings (92.0% Yes), Executive Sessions (89.7% Yes), and Capital Credits (92.1% Yes))

CANDIDATE ANALYSIS

Three candidates are running for one slot on the Board. They are all pooled together; the top vote getter will be seated:

Leslie C. "Fritz" Krusen III - Formerly Alaska Gasline Development Corp. and ConocoPhillips.  Electrical Engineering, 42 years of oil & gas industry experience
Stuart Parks - Incumbent running for reelection to his 2nd term.  Vice President of Operations, NANA Worley; Civil & Electrical Engineering degrees.
Erin Whitney - Research Professor, Alaska Center for Energy and Power, University of Alaska.  15 years experience in the energy sector.

Each of the three have background that could be useful on the board however none clearly stand out as the bold reformer needed.  We think in balance that returning Stuart Parks is preferable because of his experience on the board that the others would not have as newcomers.

2020 Election Results

3,947 Sam Cason (IBEW Union) – Elected
3,411 Mark Wiggin (IBEW Union) – Elected
3,045 Brad Authier
2,948 Mitchel Roth

8,249 voted (11.85% of the members)

2020 Chugach Electric Elections
Virtual COVID-19 compliant annual meeting and election June 15

Chugach Consumers 2020 recommendations:

"BULLET VOTE" ONLY  FOR Brad AUTHIER
Why:

BOARD STATUS:  Out of seven seats, there are NO clearly pro-consumer directors.  Chugach Consumers recommends maximizing your voting power.  Vote for only one director, Brad AUTHIER.

CANDIDATE ANALYSIS

Four candidates are running for two slots on the Board.  They are all pooled together; the top two vote getters will be seated:

Brad AUTHIER is the only new face running for the board.  The other three running described below are all compromised and unsuitable.  Authier is the only candidate that has the potential to be a pro-consumer director.  He has a good business background for the job.

Sam Cason and Mark Wiggin are both deceptive and cunning IBEW Union water carriers in long service to those benefiting from Railbelt Electric Utility inefficiency and waste.

Mitchell Roth is running again on his green power platform (see the Chugach Green Energy website).  His mantra, "Lower electric rates through renewable energy".  Outrageous claim that 100% conversion by Chugach Electric to renewable energy will save all the fuel cost ~35% and that your electric rates will go down by that amount [5/14/20 AkPIRG candidate forum].  That is absolutely untrue!  Only if the enormous capital cost for windmills, solar panels, dams etc. is paid by the tooth fairy!!  The reality is his agenda will cause your electric bill to skyrocket even more than it already has.

For more on the sorry state of Chugach Electric and the board, see:

1) 3/16/18 Report on the ML&P sale to Chugach Electric by Ray Kreig, Former President, Chugach Electric Association.  Includes background on why electric costs have exploded for consumers. 

2) Self-serving bylaws changes board directors put on last year's ballot.
3) Blue Ribbon Panel of top executives tasked by reform board to investigate Chugach Electric problems.  KEY NECESSARY ACTIONS NEVER ACTED UPON!

2019 Election Results

4,673 Chastain – Elected
3,402 Hollis – Elected
2,200 Roth
1,244 Stafford

Board Qualifications Bylaw – 5,857 Yes 766 No
Director Compensation – 4,398 Yes 2,221 No

6,719 voted (9.69% of the members)

2019 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 21

Chugach Consumers 2019 recommendations:

"BULLET VOTE" ONLY  FOR Harold HOLLIS
Why: 

BOARD STATUS:  Out of seven seats, there are NO clearly pro-consumer directors.  Chugach Consumers recommends maximizing your voting power.  Vote for only one director, Harold HOLLIS.

Vote NO on the two bylaws changes
(Board Qualifications and Director Compensation)

CANDIDATE ANALYSIS

Four candidates are running for two slots on the Board.  They are all pooled together; the top two vote getters will be seated:

Mitchell Roth is running again on a green power platform (see the Chugach Green Energy website).  He deceptively claims, "Lower electric rates through renewable energy".  The reality is his agenda will cause your electric bill to go up-up-up. 
Perennial candidate for everything (School Board, Assembly, Chugach) Ron Stafford can't be taken seriously.  He obviously loves seeing his name in print.
Board Chair, Bettina Chastain continues as a director in violation of the Chugach Electric bylaws residency requirements.  We fault her for, among other things, allowing the board to put the self-serving Board Qualifications and Director Compensation bylaws on the 2019 ballot (see BYLAWS ANALYSIS below).

   
Harold Hollis is new on the board.  He is the only candidate that has the potential to be a pro-consumer director.  He has the best background for the job and is the only candidate that has indicated even a shred of common sense regarding renewable energy:

"Technology in renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds and any utility that fails to embrace it will be left behind. That being said, as most renewables, including solar and wind generation, are not competitive with gas fired or hydro generation. Therefore, sound business decisions need to be made when it comes to adding renewables to the mix without unduly raising customer rates." [4/30/18 Facebook Post] 

BYLAWS ANALYSIS

Board Qualifications - The background for this is that two directors, Bettina Chastain and Sisi Cooper, were found last year to be living in the ML&P, not Chugach Electric, service territory, thus they were on the board without authority.  Sisi Cooper resigned but Board chair Chastain was able to evade the requirements by claiming she was actually living in a Girdwood cabin instead of her obvious home overlooking Westchester Lagoon.  We recommend voting against the Board Qualifications bylaw change because if current language is being ignored, why will new language help?  And there is better, tighter language that could have been used, but wasn't.

Director Compensation – This is just another way to increase director travel junketing and pay with no benefit to the ratepayers.  It's been long-known that paid travel for co-op directors is considered to be a "perk" for serving on these boards.  The Board claims, "If all members of the board were to participate in the training, the average monthly residential customer bill would increase by approximately 2.7 cents." 

This is just another grossly deceptive Chugach Electric statement.  First triple it because consumers will additionally pay any increased electric costs paid by the MOA passed through in higher property taxes and in increased prices in stores to pay the higher electric costs hit by businesses.  Furthermore, the airfares, hotel, lodging costs and fees for the "training" are easily as much or more than the director pay collected on the trip.  Try $2/year as a more accurate cost you will pay for more director travel excursions.

They want 20 days within a calendar year for attending conferences and educational seminars...it's a ridiculous and brazen ask!

The reality is that Chugach Electric and all the Railbelt utilities should be considered to be in crisis.  Alaska electricity costs to consumers have soared and now are the second highest in the nation, just behind Hawaii!

If these directors were actually getting top-flight training on electric utility performance measures and how to competently hire, give direction to utility CEO's, and demand results, we wouldn't be in this situation.  But the training doesn't do that...  What they are getting is softball, non-challenging training and it's just an excuse for more travel junketing.  We strongly recommend a NO vote!

2018 Election results

Valid Ballots Cast:  6,789
[6,560 web, 149 paper, 121 mail, 68 at meeting]
Members eligible to vote:  ~68,576
Member participation:  9.9%

 Top two elected to four year terms:

Candidate	Votes	Backing
Rachel Morse	4,167	ELECTED
Jim Henderson	2,633	ELECTED
Harold Hollis	2,606
Mitchell Roth	1,934

Right after these results were announced, normally board officers are elected by the board in a special meeting.  But this time they adjourned without taking up that agenda item (probably because of uncertainties over the status of Directors Chastain and Cooper because they live in the ML&P service territory in likely violation of the Chugach bylaws. 

2018 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 22

 

Chugach Consumers 2018 recommendations:

"BULLET VOTE" ONLY  FOR Harold HOLLIS
Why: 

BOARD STATUS:  Out of seven seats, before this election, it had NO pro-consumer directors.  Chugach Consumers recommends maximizing your voting power.  Vote for only one director, Harold HOLLIS.

OK to Vote YES on the two bylaws changes
(Eligible Voters and Board Meeting Notices)

 

Our research on candidates:

 

Four candidates are running for two slots on the Board:

 

Jim Henderson, incumbent is teaming up with Mitchell Roth on a green power platform (see their Chugach Green Energy website).
Rachel Morse, incumbent has a Facebook page and is also heavy into the green energy sound bites.
Harold Hollis is the only candidate by petition (the other three went through the Nominating Committee).  Hollis has a Facebook page.  He has the best background for the job and is the only candidate that has indicated even a shred of common sense regarding renewable energy:

"Technology in renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds and any utility that fails to embrace it will be left behind. That being said, as most renewables, including solar and wind generation, are not competitive with gas fired or hydro generation. Therefore, sound business decisions need to be made when it comes to adding renewables to the mix without unduly raising customer rates." [4/30/18 Facebook Post] 

Interestingly, he applied for the board vacancy left by Janet Reiser on the Chugach board but lost to Rachel Morse on a 6-1 vote with Board Chair Chastain voting no because she wanted Harold Hollis [12/26/17]. 

 

IBEW Union is so confident of its absolute control of Chugach Electric, it is not even bothering to make any endorsements in this election Meet Our Candidates!

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Bettina Chastain is the Chugach Electric Board Chair 

4/23/18 – Alaska Politics and Elections - The Chugach Board Chair May Be Serving Illegally by Alex Gimarc, former Chugach Electric board secretary.

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The results (YES 65.08% - No 34.92%) of the Prop 10 election vote below were completely predictable considering that 100.00% of all the flood of advertising by Chugach Electric was for a YES vote. However, the issues raised opponents to Prop 10 are still even more applicable than ever to how Chugach Electric
should be guided by its board and state regulation.

Read the report:

 

 

2018 APRIL MOA ELECTION
PROP 10

Authorize sale of ML&P to Chugach Electric in $1 billion deal

 

Mayor Berkowitz and Chugach Electric keep MOA voters and Chugach members in the DARK.  Appallingly little information available for this enormous deal.

 

So, Ray Kreig did a report with the Alaska Policy Forum and he personally now recommends:

 

VOTE NO ON PROP 10

 

RESOURCES & INFO HERE

 

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Snow River Hydro
Missed opportunity for clean, low cost power?

4/22/17 - Alaska Politics & Elections - The Snow River Dam - Alex Gimarc - This was a missed opportunity to diversify our energy generation, move a bit closer to meeting the state’s goal of 50% renewable energy by 2025. That need will instead be met with natural gas or coal. It will not be met by moonbeans or unicorn flatulence (wind, solar or tidal) or wishful thinking...

 

Chugach Electric Association (Chugach or CEA) early March proposed a 75 MW electric generation dam across the Snow River some 15 miles north of Seward. Reaction by the local NIMBYs, BANANAs and all the usual suspects in the anti-development crowd was immediate, negative, and deafening. It took a mere seven weeks for Chugach to kill the project to the cheers of all the Usual Suspects egged on by Alice Rogoff’s fish wrapper.  Alice helped kill the project by pandering to the “any development will kill all the fish” crowd

 

...this entire event is a failure of leadership, not from the CEA staff, but by the Chugach Electric Board of Directors. The IBEW [Union] exclusively populated the Board with their candidates since 2011. They all think alike. They all are fully compliant. And every single one of them hung the Chugach staff out to dry.  

 

4/21/17 - Craig Medred - The NIMBY state - Before scientists in Alaska ever got a chance to study what might have been the strangest of all hydroelectric projects – one that could benefit salmon – it died in the face of public outrage.  Only weeks passed between the time the Chugach Electric Association first announced it was looking into the idea of a dam on the Kenai Peninsula’s Snow River, and the cooperative’s announcement it was abandoning that idea.

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2017 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 18

Chugach Consumers 2017 recommendations are the same as last year!

"BULLET VOTE" ONLY  FOR Ron STAFFORD
Why: 

BOARD STATUS:  Out of seven seats, before this election, it had NO pro-consumer directors.  Three candidates are running for two seats. Chugach Consumers recommends maximizing your voting power. Protest vote for only one director, Ron STAFFORD, the only candidate not endorsed by the IBEW-Union front group.

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2016 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 19

Chugach Consumers 2016 recommendations are the same as last year!

 

2015 Chugach Electric Elections
Annual meeting and election May 14

Chugach Consumers recommendations:

"BULLET VOTE" ONLY FOR Ron STAFFORD
Learn why: 

BOARD STATUS:  Out of seven seats, before this election, it had NO pro-consumer directors.  Four candidates are running for three seats. Chugach Consumers recommends maximizing your voting power. Protest vote for only one director, Ron STAFFORD, the only candidate not endorsed by the IBEW-Union front group.

Please VOTE ONLY for Ron STAFFORD

 

Voting for one candidate only gives your vote extra weight by denying the other two votes to the IBEW Union. 

 

BYLAWS RECOMMENDATIONS:   YES 
(It is just editing to conform to the recently provided for electronic voting such as substituting "election materials" for previous "voter pamphlet" etc.)

 

Irrespective of the results of this or near term future elections, the IBEW Union will continue to have absolute control of the Chugach Electric board.

 

FOUR candidates are running for THREE seats on the board. 

Electronic voting here

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Legislative roundtable looks at options for reducing Railbelt power costs - Sean Doogan | Alaska Dispatch News - September 6, 2014 - Two lawmakers think the transco/ISO idea might not go far enough. Reps. Charisse Millett and Craig Johnson, both Anchorage Republicans, have another option: combine all Railbelt utilities into one company.

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