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The 87th Annual Meeting of the Members was held on Saturday, April 27th. St. Croix Electric Cooperative members, board members and staff all gathered in the St. Croix Central High School Commons.
A light breakfast of pastries and fruit was served before the meeting was called to order at 9:30 am by Board Chair, Paul Nyhus. Nyhus introduced SCEC board members, SCEC Serves board members and guests.
He then recognized the 18 Cooperative Scholarship recipients in attendance and the 18 who couldn’t be there.
Abby Williamson, CPA from CarlsonSV presented the audit report. She shared that the co-op continues to be in a healthy financial position.
No questions were asked regarding the financial reports as reported in the 2023 Annual Report.
Board President Paul Nyhus’ report began with what’s been happening in the energy market over the last year.
He showed a graphic “Grid Reliability Risk Area Summary” that indicated our area of the country is facing a high risk that there will be power shortages during peak conditions, perhaps causing rolling blackouts if nothing changes by 2028.
Nyhus said he believes that some of the power plant closures that are scheduled over the coming years will be delayed to address these future power shortages.
Nyhus also talked about how SCEC’s rates have only increased by 4.5% over the last 10 years, where areas like California have risen anywhere from 72% to 121% over the same period.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s rate as of January 2024 was $.396 per kilowatt hour whereas SCEC’s highest rate is $.112 per kilowatt hour.
He attributed our lower rates to SCEC being much more efficient compared to other co-ops. He thanked the entire staff for their work over the years to make SCEC the success it is today.
SCEC President/CEO Rob Dooley introduced the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting as “One Vision, One Purpose, One Membership.”
He acknowledged that every member has two of three desires that we can all agree on – low rates and reliable service. The third being a challenge – addressing the needs of the membership collectively to fairly choose the best path to benefit all members.
Dooley reported that 2023 was one of the busiest years since the early 2000s. Through hard work and dedication, SCEC navigated the challenges faced with inflation, increased costs, territorial issues and restructuring of the co-op. “I am proud to report that the financial health of your cooperative remains strong,” Dooley said.
Dooley talked about the four-year construction work plan that was created in 2023 and how it is allowing them to address the service areas with reliability concerns, increased load and potential growth. SCEC is also looking at adding two new solar projects going forward.
Dooley also addressed the cost-of-service study that was conducted in 2023. He showed members that SCEC rates are well below the rates of our competitors, but the result of the study showed that SCEC is at the point where rates will need to increase to ensure SCEC remains financially stable.
“Between now and January 2025, we will be increasing our rates to account for the deficiency in our revenues. We will give as much notice as possible to the members before implementing the increase in rates,” said Dooley.
He also stated that there are a lot of changes coming in the industry that need to be considered. “Change is inevitable, but the speed at which we change, and the financial impact of that change must be considered.”
Next, guest speaker Kevin Nordt, Chief Strategy Officer at Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC), addressed the membership. He talked about power supply challenges and opportunities that DPC is facing now and into the future.
He focused on DPC’s mix of generation resources and how they work to keep reliability a top priority. He also talked about his passion, advanced nuclear and small modular reactor technology, stating that nuclear has evolved and is now smaller, simpler and more cost effective.
“Nuclear Energy isn’t a science problem, it’s a policy problem,” said Nordt. He believes government regulation needs to change to allow more research into this area. DPC is exploring advanced nuclear as a strategic option.
Each year, district director elections are held in three districts. This year elections were held for Districts 2, 5 and 8. Two of the districts had contested races; District 2 had two candidates and District 8 had three candidates.
All voting was done by mail, with all ballots due at the close of business on the last business day before the Annual Meeting. Ballots were tallied by tellers at the Annual Meeting and District 2 candidate Ellen Anderson and District 8 Doug Faber were elected.
The single candidate Chris Evans in District 5 was ratified by members raising their cards. Following the Annual Meeting a tabulation error was found for the District 2 election and Ellen Anderson conceded the election to Alan Wilkie. See below in the Dooley Noted article, for further explanation.
Proposed bylaws addressing remote participation in Annual and Special Meetings and the creation of an Executive Committee as presented in the 2023 Annual Report were voted on and approved.
Greetings fellow cooperative members. First, I wanted to thank everyone who was able to attend the St. Croix Electric Cooperative (SCEC) Annual Meeting. Annual meetings are part of the recipe that makes cooperatives so special. In today’s world, it is rare to find an organization where every member gets a vote.
Speaking of votes, we did have an election issue in which we wanted to update all the members. As you know, we had contested elections for directors in Districts 2 and District 8. Following SCEC’s tradition, the ballots were counted by volunteer members and results were announced during SCEC’s Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 27th. Unfortunately, following the Annual Meeting, we discovered an error occurred in the tabulation of ballots for District 2. The change in total votes was significant enough to review the situation further.
Upon learning of the error, we contacted both candidates – Alan Wilkie and Ellen Anderson. Both candidates agreed to come in and meet with me, cooperative staff, our volunteer member tellers, and our general counsel. As part of the meeting, both candidates had an opportunity to review the ballots and speak directly with the tellers.
I also had a chance to walk both candidates through the ballot counting process. I firmly believe the mistake was an honest mistake and the vote tally was simply inaccurate. Going forward, we will be implementing new procedures to ensure every vote is both counted and tallied for the correct candidate. We are also exploring electronic voting and other measures to help ensure our election is efficient and accurate.
During our meeting, we also proposed to the two candidates the option of re-doing the election and having a special election in the next thirty days for voters in District 2 or conceding to the tabulation of votes presented after the error was found and corrected. Since this was a trying and emotional experience for all concerned, the hope was that we could agree to find the best option to ensure fairness, transparency, and closure in the matter.
At the completion of our meeting and realizing that Alan’s vote count was greater than Ellen’s, candidate Ellen Anderson made the gracious move to forego any type of new election and to have Alan Wilkie declared the winner. Alan Wilkie will be recognized by the Board as the District 2 representative and going forward will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.
As the new President of the Cooperative, I want to apologize to both candidates for the mistake. We will work very hard to get the next one right and will of course develop and implement a better process before the next election. I also want to thank Ellen Anderson and Alan Wilkie for their patience and for meeting with us to give us an opportunity to walk through what occurred during the election process.
I consider Ellen and Alan to both be class acts and the exact type of people who exemplify the cooperative spirit. I am also hopeful Ellen will consider joining some of our future committees and play a more active role going forward.
I would also like to thank the candidates for District 8, Doug Faber, Derrick Oberle, and David Sowatzke for their participation in the election and for showing the same level of cooperative spirit and desire to help mold the future of SCEC. We are hopeful that Derrick and David will also consider future committees and active roles with the cooperative going forward.
We are blessed to have the level of interest in exemplary candidates for our Board of Directors at SCEC. It brings diversity to the Board and shows the commitment of our membership to continue to make SCEC successful for years to come.
If any of our members have questions on the election or would like to be more active with committees or other aspects of the cooperative, please don’t hesitate to reach out or send me an email. Thank you and it is a pleasure to work for the St. Croix Electric Cooperative.