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To review current voting records, see Director Voting Record on Contested Issues, or jump to Scoring of Directors Votes to see how our Directors measure up.
To see how these votes have affected your pocketbook, compare the electric rates that were planned for you by the previous IBEW-Union sympathetic board to what you are currently paying.
Voting Record Analysis Explanation & Meaning to the Consumer:
The best way to decide whether a director is serving you, the ratepayer, is by analyzing the voting record. All votes are provided to ratepayers annually in the voter's pamphlet which accompanies the Chugach ballot.
The vast majority of votes on the board (about 85%) are unanimously approved. Included are such things as approving the calendar, the agenda and minutes from the previous meeting. There is not much to learn from these votes. The real work of a board that is undergoing change and reform is in the remaining split votes.
Evaluation of these contested votes separates directors who are committed to ratepayers and actively working for reform from those who are not. It is possible for directors to look like reformers by voting for reforms (when their vote is not needed to pass a measure) but in reality work against reforms by using delaying tactics in procedural votes, etc.
All votes are not equal. Some contested votes are on issues that are of paramount policy importance (such as allowing members the right to vote on reform bylaws) while the split vote on where to hold a special membership meeting was of minor importance.
Chugach Consumers has prepared a table of all contested votes from May 5, 1994 through February 14, 2001. Chugach Consumers has added a column weighting the importance of each issue under consideration from "1", not very important, to "10", very important, from a consumer viewpoint. A vote on CEO is very rare but of paramount importance and is the one item given outside of this scale -- it is a "40".
Chugach Consumers has evaluated each contested vote as the "preferred" vote from a ratepayer's standpoint, indicated by capital letters "Y" or "N" (in YELLOW), or by small letters "y" or "n" (in GRAY) if not preferred. Any vote on an item weighted 1, 2, or 3 in importance is of little significance in evaluating a director's ratepayer commitment.
If a director must abstain from a vote, it is not scored. However, if the abstention is by choice and not otherwise required, it is counted the same as an "n", not preferred. If a director is present at a meeting and absented himself from a vote, indicated with an "A", that is likewise counted as if he had abstained. Beginning with 2005, we have begun coding this as "w" for weasel, as directors have started using this as a ploy to avoid (weasel out of) having their vote recorded. We apologize to weasels for using their good name for such low characters on the board.
If a director misses a vote due to absence from a meeting, marked by "a" or "e", they will be scored as an "n" only if it would have provided the decisive margin on an issue, otherwise the vote is not counted. When an important vote is lost due to director absence, excused or otherwise, ratepayer interests have been harmed.
Chugach Consumers has rated each director based on the ratio of his or her preferred votes to the total votes cast by that director between May 4, 1994 and January 31, 2007, weighted by the importance of the issue. Who is voting for your interests is clear!
To review the most recent voting records, April 25, 2005 through January 31, 2007, see Director Voting Record on Contested Issues, or jump to Scoring of Directors Votes to see how our Directors measure up.
To see how these votes have affected your pocketbook, compare the electric rates that were planned for you by the previous IBEW-Union sympathetic board to what you are currently paying. These savings are the result of the efforts of reformers at Matanuska Electric Association, Citizens for an Independent Chugach Electric and Chugach Consumers and the independent pro-consumer majority that you elected to the board. As you can see, your own voting record in Chugach elections is very important, too!
Please send comments or questions to Chugach Consumers
