Electric Cooperative Transparency Scorecard: Board Meetings
By Brian Kassof
Most Alaskans living along the Railbelt (the region stretching from Homer to Fairbanks) receive their electricity from one of four electric cooperatives—Homer Electric Association (HEA), Chugach Electric Association (CEA), Matanuska Electric Association (MEA), and Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA). All of these utilities are member-owned cooperatives with boards of directors who are elected by member-owners to represent their interests.
More and more member-owners have been taking an interest in the work of their electric cooperatives as these institutions are facing crucial decisions on a range of questions. How will they deal with looming shortages of natural gas? To what degree will they incorporate renewable sources of power generation into their systems? Will they work together to create a more integrated and efficient Railbelt electrical grid? How will they approach upcoming contract renegotiations with their workers? These are some of the questions facing the Railbelt cooperatives and their members, and the choices they make will shape Alaska’s energy future for decades.
Although members have a number of ways to voice their opinions and be informed about their cooperative, the monthly meetings of the board of directors provide a crucial opportunity for members to be engaged with the decisions and policies that impact their current electric bill and the energy future of their community. These meetings are where important information about operations, plans, and the financial health of the cooperative are shared. They are a place where members can voice their opinions about their cooperative’s policies and plans, and hear about relevant board decisions.
Helping member-owners understand how their cooperatives are governed and how they can be more involved in this process is a core mission of the Alaska Energy Transparency Project (AETP). This is the first of two parts of the Transparency Scorecard AETP has developed for the Railbelt cooperatives. The second part, which will appear this summer, will cover the availability of information and documents on cooperative websites and information about board elections.
This part of the scorecard examines how open and transparent cooperative board meetings are to member-owners and what impediments may exist to members becoming more active participants in shaping policies and decisions. It evaluates how easy it is for cooperative members to find information about and attend board meetings remotely, how easy it is for them to address the directors at meetings, and how much access they have to information and board discussions of key issues.
When compared to some states, the floor for meeting openness in Alaska is already fairly high due to the requirements of the Alaska Electric and Telephone Cooperative Act, which establishes basic rules for how cooperative boards operate. (In the coming weeks AETP will be publishing an Explainer about the state statutes concerning electric cooperative boards, what role the boards play in cooperative governance, and what the bylaws of each cooperative say about their board). Access to meetings has also been greatly expanded since 2020, when all four Railbelt cooperatives started to allow members to attend meetings remotely due to Covid-related restrictions on in-person attendance. The impact of this change cannot be overestimated—it makes it much easier for cooperative member-owners to attend these meetings (and opens up access for those with limited mobility or transportation challenges). All four cooperative boards are now permitting in-person attendance of board meetings as well, although there are still some restrictions in place.
Basic information about board meetings for all four cooperatives is readily available on-line and the process for signing up to join board meetings is generally straightforward. Cooperative websites encourage members to attend meetings and time is set aside at each board meeting for members to address the board.
There are some things that could be done to make meetings more accessible for members and allow for greater member engagement. One is meeting time—of the four Railbelt electric cooperatives, only GVEA holds its meetings (at least the public portions) outside of regular business hours (after 5 p.m.) Meeting start times during the working day limit who can attend—it is probably not a coincidence that member attendance at GVEA board meetings is far higher than at any other cooperative (statistics in this article are based on regularly scheduled monthly board meetings in 2022).
The other major impediment to greater member engagement is the extensive use of executive session by cooperative boards. While the use of executive session is both legal and at times necessary, in 2022 Railbelt electric cooperative boards spent significant portions of their regular monthly board meetings in executive session. On average HEA’s Board spent the lowest percentage of their meeting time in executive session, at 38 percent. Both GVEA and MEA’s Boards averaged 47 percent of their meeting time in executive session. And CEA’s Board spent 65 percent of their regular meetings in executive session. (Tables on the use of executive session by cooperative boards in 2022 are included at the end of this article).
Article Contents:
—Board Meeting Vs. Member Meetings
—An Overview of Railbelt Cooperative Board Meeting Transparency
The Scorecard
Reports for Individual Cooperatives
—Golden Valley Electric Association
—Matanuska Electric Association
Tables on the Use of Executive Session
Board Meetings Versus Member Meetings
This scorecard looks at the meetings of cooperatives’ boards of directors. These meetings, which occur at least monthly, are where boards conduct their business and require only the attendance of a quorum of directors. They are distinct from meetings of a cooperative’s membership. Member meetings, such as cooperatives’ annual meetings, require the attendance and participation of a quorum of members.
Why It Matters
Democratic member control is one of the seven principles that define modern consumer cooperatives (popularly known as the Rochdale Principles). Principle Two states that “Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members…who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions.” The directors are members of the cooperative who have been elected by their fellow member-owners to represent their interests. But, as the second part of the principle suggests, democratic self-control does not end at the ballot box. Under the cooperative model, members are meant to be active participants in setting policies and to have a voice in important decisions about their cooperative’s present and future.
Monthly board meetings are a critical point for member engagement. They allow members to learn important information about a cooperative’s operations and financial health. They should also provide members with an opportunity to hear the board discuss key issues and debate policy decisions. Without ready access to these meetings, members cannot “actively participate in setting policies and making decisions.” Board meetings also provide members with an opportunity to voice their opinions on matters facing the cooperative and to alert board members to potential problems.
An Overview of Railbelt Cooperative Board Meeting Transparency
As mentioned above, Alaska state statute requires a fairly high degree of openness for board meetings. In some parts of the country, even basic information, such as the time and location of board meetings, is difficult to find. Some states do not even require that members be permitted to attend board meetings. And all four Railbelt cooperatives go beyond the minimum legal requirements for meeting access—state statute does not require that time be put aside for members to address the board, but all four Railbelt cooperatives encourage member comments at their meetings.
This first part of the Transparency Scorecard looks at three aspects of meeting access: the ease of finding information about meetings and access to relevant documents; how easy it is to attend meetings virtually (on-line or by telephone); and the rules for the use of executive session and how they impact members’ ability to follow the board’s work.
Of the four cooperatives, GVEA scored the highest, receiving 22.5 of 26 possible points—reasons include their evening meeting time and the comprehensive instructions they provide for joining meetings. CEA received 17 points, MEA 16.5, and HEA 12.5.
A detailed analysis of the procedures and challenges of joining board meetings for each individual cooperative is provided below. But there are some general trends worth noting.
Meeting Information:
As stated above, it is relatively easy to find information about the time and date (and usually physical location) of board meetings on each cooperative’s website—in all four cases, information about the board of directors (including meeting information) can be accessed from a pull-down menu located on the top banner of the cooperative’s home page.
Meeting Documents:
One important element of facilitating member engagement in meetings is to provide key documents (at a minimum, the meeting agenda, preferably a full meeting packet with materials related to the agenda) at least several days in advance. This allows members to know what issues will be discussed at what point of the meeting and, if a packet is provided, helps them to familiarize themselves with some of the relevant information. All four cooperatives provide agendas at least a couple of days before a meeting, though only two, CEA and GVEA, include meeting packets (MEA and HEA post copies of manager’s reports, but only after meetings have ended).
Meeting Time:
Meeting times are an important element in member access. While no meeting time will be accessible to all members, a start time after 5 p.m. can maximize the number of members who are able to attend. Currently only GVEA, which starts the public portion of their meetings at 6:30 p.m., does so. MEA and CEA both start their meetings at 4 p.m.; HEA starts its meetings at 12 p.m.
Joining A Meeting:
The process to join a meeting virtually varies from cooperative to cooperative. GVEA and HEA provide direct links to meetings on their respective websites (although HEA’s is difficult to find—see below). Those wishing to join MEA or CEA meetings must fill out a form and receive a link emailed to them. Only GVEA provides a phone call-in number on its website—for MEA and CEA, this information is provided during the registration process. HEA stopped providing phone-in instructions earlier this year.
Non-member Attendance:
While cooperatives are only required by law to allow members to attend board meetings, all of the Railbelt cooperatives currently also allow non-members to attend them (at least virtually). Although I live in GVEA’s service area, I was able to register for and attend the February 2023 board meetings of all four Railbelt cooperatives. The ability of non-members to attend is important, since the decisions made by the cooperatives can have direct impacts on non-members, such as renters who do not directly pay their own electric bills, but still receive service from a cooperative.
Member Comments:
Board meetings are an important venue for members to let the board know their concerns and opinions on issues facing the cooperative. All of the Railbelt cooperatives provide members with an opportunity to speak at board meetings—time is set aside for this sometime near the beginning of the meeting. All of the cooperatives except HEA encourage those interested in speaking to let the meeting coordinators know ahead of time, but some also allow people to speak even if they have not signed up in advance (in HEA’s case, members can simply indicate they want to speak during the member comment section of the meeting--see the discussion of each individual cooperative for details). Board policies usually suggest that only members can speak during meetings, although in practice non-members generally are allowed to speak when they ask (GVEA may be an exception to this).
The Use of Executive Session
One significant impediment to member engagement with a board’s decision-making process is the extensive use of executive session by cooperative boards. Executive session is a meeting tool designed for boards to consider sensitive topics in private. When a board enters executive session, everyone in the meeting except the board and invited guests (usually staff members) must leave. The ability of a board to go into executive session under certain circumstances is actually a necessary precondition for open board meetings—by providing a mechanism for the board privately to discuss confidential materials, it makes it possible to allow members to attend the rest of the meeting.
The use of executive session by cooperative boards is governed by the Alaska Electric and Telephone Cooperative Act (the relevant section is AS 10.25.175). A board has to vote to enter into executive session. No official action (such as passing resolutions) can be taken during executive session—this must be done in open session. There are four justifications a board can give for entering executive session: information whose dissemination could harm the financial position of the cooperative, information that could harm its legal position, discussions that could defame someone’s character, and personnel matters.
It is up to a board to decide what information is covered by these broad categories. A wide range of topics could be construed as being legally or financially sensitive, meaning that boards have significant leeway in deciding what does or does not qualify as a topic for discussion in executive session, and whether part of the discussion could be conducted in open session. In some cases, boards likely rely on staff advice concerning what information is legally or financially sensitive. And since nobody else can know the specifics of the discussions held in executive session, boards must police their own use of this tool. This is one reason why it is necessary to use proxy measures, such as the amount of meeting time spent in executive session, as a metric to evaluate its use.
State statute requires that a board specify which of the four generic reasons they are using to justify entering executive session, but not the specific topics to be discussed. GVEA and CEA have board policies requiring the board to identify both the reason for entering executive session and the specific topics to be discussed. MEA and HEA do not have board policies on this; MEA provides this information in agendas and minutes almost all of the time, HEA does so inconsistently. This gives members at least some idea what is being discussed during executive session, although the descriptions provided (‘Manager’s Report’, ‘Legislative Briefing’) are sometimes vague.
While the use of executive session is clearly necessary at times, some critics believe that the Railbelt cooperatives’ extensive use of it excludes members from hearing critical information and conversations about the most significant energy issues facing Alaskans. At a CEA Board Operations Committee meeting on December 7, 2022, CEA member Antony Scott addressed the Board on this topic. Scott, who currently works for the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP), has extensive experience in the electric utility sector, including having served as a member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which oversees electric cooperatives. In his testimony Scott talked about the problems created when a board chooses to hold certain discussions in executive session. He pointed to recent CEA board discussions about what position, if any, CEA should take on the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) introduced in the legislature last year (and reintroduced in 2023). By holding these conversations in executive session, he pointed out, the Board was not allowing members to know what information it was being given by CEA staff and what considerations were driving board decision-making. Scott went on to say: “Such transparency is ultimately the only way for the cooperative model to function as intended, such that members fully understand whether their representatives are making decisions with which they agree.” (For more on Scott’s concerns about the CEA board’s use of executive session, see this December 2022 article by Nat Herz).
Discussions of the cooperatives’ stance on issues like the RPS outside of public scrutiny are a concern throughout the Railbelt. In an interview with AETP, GVEA member Kenzley Defler pointed out that cooperative members sometimes do not even know if a specific topic is being discussed in executive session and what position, if any, the board has taken on it. Defler, who works as an organizer for the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition (FCAC) and is involved in promoting pro-renewable board candidates, used the RPS bill currently before the Legislature as an example—recent GVEA agendas and meeting minutes mention “Legislative Updates” in executive session, but without any reference to what bills are being discussed. This leaves members uncertain what position, if any, GVEA is considering taking on the RPS and unable to fully engage the Board on this issue.
It is not clear in what respect a utility’s stance on a piece of legislation falls under the categories covered by executive session, which cover “matters the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect on the finances [or legal position] of the cooperative.” After multiple requests from members that discussions on the RPS be made more public, CEA’s Board discussed in open session a staff proposal for a statement on the RPS at a May 11 meeting.
Defler pointed to another problem with board discussions being held in executive session. Even though resolutions resulting from such discussions must be passed in open meeting, what members hear is only the end result. She acknowledged that major disagreements among board members may be expressed in the form of amendments to resolutions. For the most part, however, members only get to hear what the board has decided, without details about other options that were considered or the content of the discussion.
Defler said that GVEA’s development of its Strategic Generation Plan in 2022 was a prime example of this problem. GVEA had known since 2012 that it would have to make a decision by the end of 2022 about whether or not to retrofit its Healy 1 coal-powered generation plant with technology to limit the emission of certain pollutants. Only in the spring of 2022 did GVEA’s Board, after member requests, hold two public listening sessions to gauge members’ opinions on the decision.
When the Board announced its decision about Healy 1 in June 2022, what emerged was not a simple announcement about whether or not to keep the plant open, but rather an expansive five-point Strategic Generation Plan that will determine the cooperative’s direction for the next decade or more. Members had no inkling that such a major initiative was being considered, nor had they heard anything about some of its key elements (the closure of the Healy 2 generation plant, plans to purchase gas-generated power from other Railbelt utilities) prior to the announcement. Members were presented with the finished plan without any opportunity for comment or feedback.
The GVEA Board did outline its process and some other options that were considered, but only as it was voting on the completed plan. According to Defler, this denied members any opportunity to comment on the different options that had been considered or provide the Board with any sort of feedback about the plan. Nor was the public given access to the hundreds of scenarios the GVEA Board had considered in developing the plan. As a result, GVEA’s Board developed a major policy initiative that will impact the utility for decades with minimal input from its membership.
When asked for comment, a GVEA spokesperson described how the Strategic Generation Plan emerged from 18 months of board and staff discussions about Healy 1, but did not address the question of why the plan was not discussed with members before the Board voted on its approval. She added that, as their elected representatives, the Board is responsible for making decisions in the best interests of all members, and it believed the Strategic Generation Plan did this in terms of rates, reliability, and emission-reductions.
Like Scott, Defler worries that the use of executive session to discuss major policy decisions can be antithetical to cooperative principles. When a board receives information and holds its discussions of a subject in executive session and then simply reports its conclusions to the members in open session, “there is really no way for members’ views, values, concerns, [and] thoughts to be taken into account for the policy-setting or decision-making.”
Finally, a technical problem with how three of the Railbelt cooperatives handle executive session inhibits full transparency. CEA, HEA, and MEA all hold executive session toward the end of their meetings. When they enter executive session, members following on-line are not sent to a virtual waiting room, but are removed from the meeting entirely. As a result, they cannot be present after the board leaves executive session, and cannot know what, if any actions a board takes as a result of the executive session. (In contrast, the Board of the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) puts guests in a virtual waiting room and allows them to return to the meeting after executive session). Some boards do take steps to mitigate this problem—see the discussions of individual cooperatives below—but the institution of virtual waiting rooms would solve the problem entirely (and also make it clearer to members just how long the boards spend in executive session).
If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to get involved with AETP, please contact AETP Editor Brian Kassof at brian@akpirg.org.
Board Meeting Transparency Scorecard
The Scorecard
Overall Meeting Time Spent in Executive Session in 2022 (based on Regular Monthly Board Meetings)
Reports for Individual Cooperatives
Chugach Electric Association
(CEA)—17 points (of 26)
CEA does a good job making it possible for members to find information about the Board and its meetings, in part due to a recent change to their website. They also provide information on the meetings of board committees, which are also open to members. CEA board meetings usually include staff reports that are made in open session.
There are a few respects in which CEA board meetings could be made accessible and open to members. These include meeting start time and a poorly-labeled link for registering to attend meetings remotely. In 2022 CEA’s Board also spent a very high percentage of their regular monthly meetings in executive session—65 percent of meeting time, far more than any other Railbelt cooperative. (This figure does not include the August 2022 meeting, which acted as a board retreat—see the chart below). At least 50 percent of every regular board meeting was spent in executive session in 2022. This number has been lower for the first few months of 2023.
In the past information about the Board and its meetings were difficult to locate on the CEA website—access to information about the Board was through a link at the bottom of the homepage. This changed recently when a prominent link was added to the banner at the top of the CEA homepage, which has made it much easier for members to find this information.
CEA’s Bylaws and Board Policies outline the rules governing board meetings. The Bylaws explicitly mention the right of members to attend board meetings.
CEA provides agendas at least three days ahead of meetings and includes meeting packets with the agenda—this gives members interested in attending access to reports, draft resolutions, and presentation slides. Meeting dates and times are easily located—each meeting packet contains a calendar with a schedule of planned meetings for the next year. CEA’s web page on board meetings also includes information on the meetings of board committees—member also have full access to these meetings.
The process for members to join meetings remotely is straightforward, although the link used is poorly labeled. On the meeting information page, those who want to “participate in a meeting” are instructed to click a link that reads “member comment-request form.” The link is actually for anyone wishing to attend a meeting remotely, whether they intend to address the Board or not. Clicking on the link takes you to a registration form that again assumes you wish to address the Board. After the form is submitted you are emailed an invitation to the meeting. While the process is not complicated, it might be helpful to relabel the link to make it clear it is for anyone who wants to attend a meeting remotely. Those wishing to comment could still be prompted to indicate that on the form. Although it is not made clear, those interested in joining a meeting by telephone have to click on the same registration link (the registration form includes instructions on how to call in). The website does include email and phone contact information for a member of the CEA staff who can answer questions about the meeting process.
CEA’s normal meeting start time (4 p.m.) makes it difficult for people who do not get off work before 5 p.m. to attend board meetings. This may be one factor limiting the number of members who attend regular board meetings—on average, about four members attended 2022 regular board meetings, a low number given the size of CEA’s membership (over 92,000 members). Since the time for member comments occurs at the start of meetings, a start time during the work day also makes it harder for members to address the Board. Members wishing to speak are required to sign up ahead of time (this is part of the registration form).
CEA’s Board does hear numerous reports from staff on various aspects of the cooperative’s operations during the open portions of their meetings. The average CEA board meeting lasts nearly four hours.
The CEA Board’s extensive use of executive session (an average of 65 percent of regular monthly meeting time in 2022) has already been noted. Because CEA completely removes guests from the meeting at the start of executive session (as opposed to putting them in a virtual waiting room), there is no way for members to be present if any votes are taken after the Board leaves executive session (this happened at six meetings in 2022).
CEA’s Board does take steps to mitigate this problem. Actions to be taken after executive session are consistently noted on meeting agendas. CEA also posts audio recordings of its meetings within 1-2 days, making it possible for someone to hear what actions are taken. And there is a Resolution Archive where approved resolutions are posted (not all votes taken after executive session are on resolutions, however). These steps make it possible for a member to find out what actions have been taken after executive session before the meeting minutes are approved the following month, but they do require some extra effort.
CEA Board Policies require the Board to specify not only the legal justifications for entering executive session, but also the specific issues to be discussed. This information is consistently included in agendas and meeting minutes.
Over the past three months the CEA Board has held two special meetings that were conducted in open session, one on March 10 concerning the work of its member-staffed Nominating Committee, and one on May 11 concerning the RPS bill before the Legislature and CEA’s membership in the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP). Both were valuable opportunities for members to voice their opinions on these topics and to become more informed about some questions before the Board. Neither, however, was well-advertised—no mention of either was made in CEA’s Facebook or Twitter feeds, nor was any mention of the meetings placed on the CEA homepage. The only way for members to find out about the meetings was by noticing their appearance on the list of meetings on the CEA board meeting page.
Golden Valley Electric Association
(GVEA)—22.5 points (of 26)
GVEA’s Board received the highest score of any of the electric cooperatives for board meeting transparency. This is because of their meeting time, the structure of their meetings, and a clear and easy process for joining meetings. The only significant area for improvement is around the use of executive session, which continues to take up a significant portion of regular monthly board meetings (an average of 47.6 percent of meeting time in 2022).
GVEA does not mention the right of members to attend board meetings in its Bylaws, but its Board Policies explicitly guarantee members the right to attend meetings and to speak to the board during the designated portion of the agenda. Non-members are also allowed to attend meetings, but not to address the Board.
Joining GVEA board meetings on-line is a very easy process. On the board meetings’ page there is a direct link to join the meeting. There are also clear instructions for joining by telephone. Meeting agendas are posted at least three days in advance, along with meeting packets including presentation slides and reports.
GVEA’s Board does require members wishing to speak at a meeting to sign up. This can be done before the meeting or during the first 15 minutes of open session, by emailing or calling a member of the GVEA staff. Until recently members who had not signed up were still allowed to make comments, but this practice was ended last fall—only those who register to speak by 6:45 p.m. are allowed. GVEA’s Board currently does not allow non-members to address it during meetings.
Two structural aspects of GVEA’s board meetings set it apart from the other Railbelt cooperatives. The first is that the open portion of its board meetings begins at 6:30 p.m., a time that makes it possible for a larger number of members to attend. This may help explain why member attendance at GVEA board meetings is much higher than at other Railbelt electric cooperatives—on average ten members a month.
The other unusual aspect of GVEA’s board meetings is when it holds executive session. Unlike the other utilities, which hold executive session near the end of their board meetings, GVEA makes it the first portion of the meeting (for legal reasons, the Board has to meet briefly in open session and vote to enter executive session, but no other business is conducted at this time). Executive session is scheduled to end by 6:30 p.m., when the open part of the meeting starts. Because of this, GVEA is able to avoid the structural problem of members being unable to be present for any actions taken by the Board after it leaves executive session.
There may be drawbacks to GVEA’s approach to executive session, however. The need to schedule a start time before the meeting begins means that the Board has gotten into the habit of spending 1.5 to 2 hours in executive session at almost every regular board meeting (nine of twelve in 2022). This amounted to 47 percent of average monthly meeting time in 2022. Second, since executive session is carried out before the open meeting, in most cases discussion of issues raised in executive session has already concluded before the Board brings them to a vote in open session. The only exception to this is if a board member offers an amendment to a resolution, which will be discussed in open session.
GVEA does have a board policy requiring that agendas and minutes reflect the specific issues being discussed in executive session. This policy is consistently observed, although on occasionally the explanations are generic (‘Legislative update’).
Homer Electric Association
(HEA)—12.5 points (of 26)
HEA’s Board does a number of things to make their meetings open and accessible to members, but there are some challenges (mostly technical) to member participation. Members are encouraged to speak at meetings and considerable time is spent in open session going over reports (HEA’s Board spent more meeting time in open session than any other Railbelt cooperative in 2022). HEA also restructured its board meetings in 2021 to make them more accessible for members—executive session used to be held mid-way through meetings, but was moved to their end.
There are two major sets of issues that impede member engagement with HEA board meetings. One is technical-- the process for joining a meeting is not intuitive and meeting start times (12 p.m.) are not convenient for many. The other is access to information. Agendas appear very close to meeting dates, meeting packets are not available, and information on the issues discussed in executive session is not consistently provided. Like other boards, HEA’s spends a fair amount of time in executive session, although their 2022 average (38 percent of regular monthly meeting time) was the lowest of all Railbelt cooperatives.
HEA Bylaws do not mention member attendance of board meetings (except that they must have the right to listen to telephonic meetings), but Board Policy explicitly mentions members’ right to attend. Non-members are also permitted to attend meetings.
It is a bit of a challenge to find the links to join HEA board meetings. This is for two reasons. First, the HEA website does not provide clear instructions on how to join a meeting—members need to know where and when to look for the necessary links. Second, the links are only provided one or two days before meeting dates.
There are two pathways for joining HEA board meetings remotely. One is through a link on an events calendar near the bottom of the HEA homepage. A link to join the meeting will appear here a day or two in advance. The second is by clicking on the agenda (again, posted only a day or two in advance) on the board meetings’ page. These links are comparatively difficult to locate, making it hard for members not already familiar with the process to join a meeting. Once the links are found, joining the meeting is straightforward.
There is no information about how to join a meeting by telephone on the HEA website. This information used to be included on meeting agendas, but stopped appearing in March 2023 (this may have coincided with the resumption of in-person member attendance at board meetings).
As stated above, meeting agendas are only made available on the website a day or two before the meeting. Over the past few years HEA members have made multiple requests for agendas to be provided further in advance of meetings, so they can be informed about what issues will be discussed. HEA does not make meeting packets (containing staff reports and presentation slides) available to members—a copy of the Manager’s report is usually posted to the HEA website, but only after the meeting where it was presented.
HEA’s meeting start time—12 p.m.—could limit how many members are able to attend board meetings. Member attendance at HEA board meetings is fairly low—in 2022, there were, on average, two members in attendance at each board meeting. There is extensive reporting by staff on various aspects of the cooperative’s operations during the open portion of board meetings. The average length of meetings in 2022 was 3 hours and 45 minutes.
It is easy for members who wish to address the Board during the comment portion of the meeting to speak. Unlike the other Railbelt cooperatives, HEA’s Board does not have a sign-up procedure for members wishing to speak at meetings. At the appropriate moment the Chair will ask if anyone wants to speak.
As stated above, HEA’s Board spent the lowest proportion of their regular monthly meetings in executive session (38 percent of the time in 2022). There are, however, still aspects of how HEA handles executive session that are not ideal. Guests have to leave the meeting when the Board goes into executive session and there is no mechanism for them to reenter when it ends. As a result members have no way of knowing if any votes are taken as a result of executive session—this happened on three occasions in 2022. This is compounded by the fact that HEA does not post audio of its meetings and is sometimes slow to post approved meeting minutes, meaning that members might not be able to find out about actions taken after executive session for some time.
Although HEA’s Board consistently provides the justifications for why it enters into executive session, the specific issues to be discussed are only irregularly noted on agendas and meeting minutes. For example, specific topics to be discussed were noted in minutes for the first four months of 2022, but not for the remainder of the year. HEA is the only Railbelt cooperative that does not consistently provide this information.
A spokesperson for HEA stated that the utility intends to respond to AETP’s request for comment on this section of the scorecard, but was unable to do so before our publication deadline. This section may be revised to reflect HEA’s comments after they are received.
Matanuska Electric Association
(MEA)—16.5 points (of 26)
Information about MEA board meetings is easy to find and the process for joining a meeting on-line is straightforward. It is also not difficult for members to address the board. There are some impediments to member engagement at board meetings, however—these include the meeting start time, a lack of access to meeting materials, and the extensive use of executive session at some meetings (on average MEA’s Board spent about 47 percent of regular meeting time in 2022 in executive session).
The right of members to attend board meetings is included in MEA’s Bylaws and in board policy. The meeting registration form does ask if you are a member, but non-members can still attend meetings. The process for joining an MEA meeting on-line is fairly straightforward. There is a link for those wishing to attend the next board meeting about halfway down the meeting information page. This takes you to a registration form. Once the form is submitted you will receive a Zoom invitation to the next board meeting.
The process for joining an MEA board meeting by phone is not as obvious. There are instructions for doing this, but they are not on the website or included on the meeting registration form. In order to get the phone-in instructions, you need to fill out and submit the Zoom registration form—the phone instructions are included in the emailed invitation sent after the form is submitted.
Meeting agendas are posted at least three days in advance of board meetings. MEA does not provide meeting packets (including reports and presentation slides) for members—the CEO’s report is made available, but only after the meeting is over.
There is a space on the registration form to indicate if you are interested in addressing the Board at a meeting. For those who have not registered, the Chair usually asks if there is anyone else who wishes to speak. MEA’s Board Policies advise individuals wishing to speak to go through a fairly lengthy process ahead of the meeting, but in practice there is no attempt to enforce this.
MEA’s Board meets at 4 p.m., which potentially limits who is able to attend its meetings. Exact figures for the number of members attending board meetings are not available—only members who address the Board are noted in meeting minutes. 21 people addressed the Board during 2022 meetings, suggesting a relatively small number of members in attendance. MEA board meetings do not feature as much staff reporting as those of other Railbelt utilities, and, as a result, are relatively brief—an average of about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Meetings of other cooperative boards are far longer, usually between 3.5 and 4 hours.
Like the other Railbelt utilities, MEA’s Board spent a considerable amount of time in executive session during their regular monthly board meetings in 2022—about 47 percent of their total meeting time. They did have the highest number of meetings (three) where no executive session was held. Like CEA and HEA, MEA does not have a mechanism for members attending on-line to return to a meeting after the end of executive session. As a result, those in attendance cannot know if the board conducted any business after it left executive session--in 2022, the Board took some action after the end of executive session at six meetings. This is mitigated, to a degree, by the fact that MEA does post audio recordings of the public parts of their meetings to their website within a few days; however, it still requires a member wishing to know if any actions were taken after executive session to make a concerted effort or wait until the meeting minutes are approved the following month.
MEA does not have a board policy requiring the Board to state the specific issues that will be discussed in executive session (as opposed to the justifications, which are required by state statute). This information is, however, consistently included in meeting minutes, and, less consistently, in meeting agendas. On a number of occasions, though, these reasons were somewhat vague, such as “CEO report.”
In the interest of full disclosure, AETP receives its funding from the Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG), which is an organizational member of two bodies mentioned in this story: Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) and the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC). While we receive our funding from AKPIRG, AETP is fully editorially independent and its views do not represent AKPIRG’s stances on energy policy.
Tables for use of Executive Session in Regularly Monthly Board Meetings in 2022
CEA
GVEA
HEA
MEA
