$64,000 question: Where are PEC's excess revenues going?

I'm curious where in the PEC's Articles of Incorporation past and present PEC Board's of Directors and managements found the authority to use excess revenues to pay employee bonuses and to make donations and contributions to various organizations

Note: The pec4u watchdog discussion group is crackling again, this time over our co-op's loose spending habits that seem to be at odds with the basic requirements of its governing charter. If PEC were to stick to its own rules, maybe we'd all see lower electric bills. Thanks to Wimberleyite and retired economist Merle Moden, a sometimes contributor to the RoundUp, for his astute observations.

Send your comments and news tips to online.editor@valleyspringcomm.net, to Mr. Moden at mlmoden@gmail.com, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story

By Merle Moden
Guest Commentary

Just when I thought that we had pretty much exhausted all the categories of bad governance at the PEC, I now discover that past AND present Boards of Directors and managements are not conducting PEC's financial affairs in accordance with PEC's Articles of Incorporation. Bless their hearts, the PEC management posted a copy of the current Articles of Incorporation on PEC's website.

Pay close attention to Article VIII, Section 1. After making provisions for all operating, maintenance, administrative, and debt expenses in a given year, excess revenues are to be used in this order: (1) establishing a reserve for the ensuing year for the payment of principal and interest on indebtedness; (2) establishing a general reserve for working capital, insurance, taxes, improvements, new construction, depreciation, obsolescence, and contingencies; and (3) excess revenues not needed for (1) or (2) "shall be returned from time to time to the members.........."

I'm curious where in the PEC's Articles of Incorporation past and present PEC Board's of Directors and managements found the authority to use excess revenues to pay employee bonuses and to make donations and contributions to various organizations. The amounts that have been spent on these two items are NOT expenses required to provide electric service, they are simply distributions of excess revenues , i.e., profit-sharing, with no apparent authority in the PEC's Articles of Incorporation.

It's my understanding that the PEC maintains no sinking funds for depreciation which appear to be required in some fashion in Article VIII, Section 1, Subsection (2.)

If we can't live by the tenets we lay down in our corporate charter, then, to eliminate the obvious hypocrisy, let's change them to meet our current practices. What's the point of establishing basic principles of governance, when there is no desire to live by those principles? How about this for the basic operating principle, "The PEC Board of Directors shall have the power to do whatever it wants to do whenever it wants to do it."

Or, we could just abide by those basic principles. But, that will require finding Directors and managers who actually believe that living by those basic principles is a good idea.

When will it end?