To the editor:

My name is Michael Ward and I am a candidate on the ballot for the Pioneer Electric board of trustees. Fellow members signed my petition to get my name on the ballot.

I am sure that many of you have seen the high-dollar TV ads that your and my Pioneer dollars have funded. What you have not seen is my face or comments on any of these ads despite the fact that I am a legitimate candidate nominated by my fellow pioneer members and neighbors. To date, the Pioneer management has not contacted me to offer me equal airtime to represent my point of view. So here we are with our money being spent to represent only one side of the issue, and since I am not saying the things that management wants to hear, I am excluded from my own money. Hmm, what is wrong with this picture?

Some ads from another group of people claim that candidates, other than the present board of trustees, want to shut off the power and leave us all in the dark. First let me say that I have never said this and so any ads claiming I have are boldfaced lies. If anything closes the doors on Pioneer Electric it will be the excessive debts already incurred by our present management and board of trustees. Some estimates have our debt in the 65 million-dollar range. (We don’t really know because the board and management won’t release the records to the members) (more on this later). Pioneer ads also call me an amateur. Well, I know that you can’t spend out more than you take in and remain in business. If I, as a so-called amateur, can recognize this, why can’t those who hold themselves up as professionals do so? (we owe a huge debt!)

I joined this race because I don’t want the lights to go out. (We all know this would never happen anyway) I am tired of high power stakes and management that is not responsive to its members. I am tired of smoke and mirrors. I want an audit to know exactly where we stand and exactly where our money went. Only when all the cards are face up on the table can we proceed to fix what’s wrong.

Lets look at this logically! A group of concerned Pioneer members want to see their books to find out about our high power bills. Pioneer management claims nothing is wrong with the books. However, Pioneer management won’t open the books and so the members have to go to court to try to get their own company to show them their own books. Now if there was nothing to hide, why is it taking a lawsuit to get the management to show us our own books? Oops, there goes the smoke and mirrors. If I were an operations manager and had nothing to hide, I would print copies and say, “See! Look what a great job I have done!”

However I am at the present “Just a co-op member in good standing”, so, I can’t show our records to you.

Now lets look for a moment at what is going on beneath the management level at our Pioneer Co-op. I know many of the very dedicated and hard working people who keep our power going 24 hours a day and seven days a week. They do a very fine job and pride themselves on their service, as they rightly should. I have heard that some rumor has spread to the effect that these people have been told if new trustees are elected to the board that their jobs will be forfeited. There could be nothing further from the truth. Once again logic prevails. Why would anyone want to get rid of the very people who give us such flawless technical service. I certainly don’t. That would be like shooting yourself in the foot. My complaint is with upper level management, not dedicated hard working folks. So put your mind at ease and put that rumor to bed.

There are many things to talk about with regard to this controversy, but space is limited. I would like to touch on one more thing in this brief article and then perhaps go into other important areas of concern in a later follow up article in the near future.

As you know, we had a vote recently to change the bylaws of Pioneer Electric Co-op. When I received my ballot, there across the top in big bold letters it said, and I quote, “Change co-ops bylaws so you can vote for the trustees by mail.” This led me to believe that I was voting on being able to vote by mail. Lets use our logic again here: How could I vote by mail on whether or not to vote by mail? So to my mind, this vote was simply a trick (more smoke and mirrors) to get us to vote in many pages of sweeping bylaw changes and the “vote by mail” was simply a trick to take our mind off the real issues hidden within the bylaw changes. The legality of this deception is being challenged in court by a group of Pioneer Co-op members who have formed a group called “Rural Electric Members Action Committee” or REMAC for short. (I might add that this is an extremely slow moving lawsuit filed in Greenville, Alabama. The judge, at that time of this writing, has not even made a single preliminary ruling although the suit was first filed Feb. 2004)

A lawyers analysis of these bylaws is available at the REMAC website. It breaks them down out of legal jargon into everyday language. Some of the stuff there is pretty interesting. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself. myremac.com is the web address.

The most interesting aspect of this vote, to me, is how the ballots were counted. We could vote by mail or attend the meeting and vote in person. I chose to vote in person. I have two meters and received two ballots in the mail. When I arrived at the meeting to vote, I told them that I had received two ballots in the mail and did that mean that I would get to vote twice in person. They told me no, that I only got to vote once. I voted no. But, I wonder, if I had sent in two ballots by mail and voted yes, how my votes would have been counted? This brings up a very interesting point. Consider this quote from Joseph Stalin, the former Russian dictator, “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” Lets put that into context shall we? For our bylaw vote, the Pioneer management hired a company to count our votes as many of you recall. The name of the company is “Market Research Insights”. It is my understanding that this company is for hire in the political arena. In my opinion, (the last time I checked it was still okay to have an opinion) they are for hire to produce smoke and mirrors. (Boy what did we do for Pioneer management to break out the big guns? Maybe want to look at the books? But I digress).

Now as a private company for hire, the only people Market Research Insights was accountable to, as near as I can tell, was the Pioneer management that hired them.

Let me remind you that this is the same management who has not given me equal airtime on the TV.

Hmmm…Kinda makes me wonder how the votes are gonna be counted this time. What about you?

I remain a native son at your service.

Michael Ward