Why is it that democrats and their supporters are singularly unable to actually read the rules and follow them?
Latest example comes courtesy of the Chugach Board where it appears that Board President Bettina Chastain is not a Chugach Association Member. https://www.chugachelectric.com/about-us/board-of-directors
Chugach Bylaws state the following: https://www.chugachelectric.com/system/files/bylaws.pdf
Article IV Directors
Section 3. Qualifications
7) Maintains i) his or her membership and ii) bona fide residency in the area served by the association throughout his or term in office
(c) Upon establishment of the fact that a director is holding office in violation of any of the foregoing provisions or violated the disclosure provisions of Article III, section 9(b) Subsection (2), the board of directors shall remove such director from office unless the basis for disqualification is remedied within thirty (30) days of notice of disqualification by the board of directors.
(e) “Bona fide resident is hereby defined to mean: 1) a person whose primary residence is in the area served by the Association, and who actually lives at this primary residence with the intention to remain there permanently or indefinitely and 2) a non-natural entity who chooses as their authorized representative a person who is a “bona fide resident” as defined in 1).
“Primary residence” shall mean the residence that is the chief or main residence of the person and where the person actually lives for the most substantial portion of the year. “Intention” shall mean the unequivocal intention of the person as evidenced by that person’s acts and words and by the circumstances.
The failure of a director to meet the qualifications for service shall not affect the validity of any action taken at any meeting of the board of directors.
Current Chugach Director Bettina Chastain lives at 1777 Forest Park in Anchorage. This is in the ML&P Service Area. Director Chastain has her mail from Chugach Electric sent to this address. Director Chastain is registered to vote at this address.
The property is owned by “Crestwood, LLC” which lists director Chastain and her husband as owners. Crestwood, LLC also owns a lot across the street from 1777 Forest Park. It is also in the ML&P Service Area. There is no evidence that Director Chastain owns any other property in the Municipality.
Director Chastain has a business relationship with Bodyphlo, a business located at 570 E Benson Blvd. This is also within the ML&P Service Area.
If I am correct, we have a Director sitting on the Chugach Board of Directors, the Board Chairman no less, who does not live in the Service Area of the Association. This brings into question what sort of job does Chugach or the Board do vetting candidates for Board elections?
Better still, what does the fabled IBEW front group, the Chugach Reliability Group, currently headed up by former Chugach lineman Frank Gwartney and former IBEW Business Manager Larry Bell, do to vet their candidates for IBEW support? Apparently not enough, as long as the candidate supports whatever the IBEW wants in upcoming contracts. Checks and balances are one of the things that disappear when you control both sides of the political process of electing Board members. http://www.chugachreliability.com/
As a result, we now have a Board member who was first elected in 2015, presiding over merger negotiations between Chugach, on whose Board she Chairs, and ML&P, whom she is a customer of. And apparently nobody knows or cares that she is batting for both teams.
I couldn’t think of a starker conflict of interest.
I notified the Chugach Board and management via e-mail of this problem 4/19. Received a response from Chugach CEO Lee Thibert 4/20 that said the Board knew of the issue and was working on a solution. At the request of the Chugach CEO on 4/24, I have updated that language as follows: “[t]he Chugach Board of Directors is aware of the concerns expressed in your email below and is working to address those concerns in a timely manner.”
By the Association bylaws, they have 30 days to act. Just to make sure nobody forgets, I filed a complaint with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska on the issue.
Should this analysis be in error (I don’t think it is), I will post a retraction.
Stay tuned.
Correction: At the request of Chugach CEO Lee Thibert on 4/24, I have changed the following language from: “Received a response from Chugach CEO Lee Thibert 4/20 that said the Board knew of the issue and was working on a solution.” To: ““[t]he Chugach Board of Directors is aware of the concerns expressed in your email below and is working to address those concerns in a timely manner.”
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
