PEC board announces new changes

The Board of Directors of Pedernales Electric Co-op will initiate a number of changes in governance and business practices at the nation's largest electric cooperative.

Recent public forums at which members of the cooperative were invited to offer suggestions and ask questions provided input for changes to be implemented over the next several months. Area legislative officials also were helpful to the process. "PEC is making these changes after careful deliberation and review because the board focuses on the best interests of the membership as a whole, and that's why PEC ranks so highly in terms of customer satisfaction, reliability and affordability," said PEC Board President W.W. "Bud" Burnett.

Changes approved by the PEC Board and detailed in a letter sent to the cooperative's nearly 220,000 members, include changes to the election process, management and business practices to be implemented over the next several months.

Management:

Changes in management include plans for Burnett to retire from his position as president and director no later than June 2008, and for Bennie Fuelberg to retire as general manager upon qualification of his successor.

Burnett will have served on the board for 40 years in February, and had recently been considering retirement, he said.

Fuelberg was general manager for 31 years, and said he is privileged to have served for so many years and have watched PEC grow into the nation's largest electric cooperative.

A search firm will be engaged to begin identifying candidates for the general manager position, and PEC's members will elect a successor for Burnett's seat.

Election process:

Improvements will include plans to publicize Nominating Committee meetings on the PEC website and by other means, specify qualifications for directors to be appointed or elected to the board, allow nominations by a petition of 25 or more member signatures, post the petition form and qualification requirements on PEC's website, mail candidates' qualifications and biographical information to members, and revise the proxy form to permit members to indicate candidates for whom they want to vote.

PEC also will use an independent service to receive and count all proxies, cease offering prizes to members who send in proxies, and limit board officers to two consecutive one-year terms for the same office.

The board also has amended the PEC bylaws to broaden qualifications for serving on the board.

Business practices:

The board will begin systematic distribution to members of capital credits, funds that accumulate when revenues exceed expenditures.

Other changes to PEC have been noted and are posted on the website.