Cobb EMC members win board election in landslide

Cobb EMC wants to build a coal plant in Ben Hill County, about as far from here as the smoke blows as the Okefenokee Swamp. They’ve run into some resistance at the polls.

Tod Rehm wrote for Peach Pundit 12 November 2011, CobbEMC Owners Association 3 for 4 with one runoff in board elections

The CobbEMC Owners Association, a group of customers dedicated to the reform of the EMC’s Board of Directors has made great steps in returning control of the utility to its customers. CEOA-endorsed candidates took three out of four seats today, with the fourth candidate narrowly missing a majority with 49.47% of votes cast.

Only 1.3% of eligible customers voted, with 2471 votes being cast. Winners were:

Area 1, Ed Crowell 79%
Area 6, David Tennant 68%
Area 10, Cheryl Meadows 80%
Hm, 4 to 1 odds! That reminds me of another recent election. Apparently when the people get organized fat cats can lose big. Cobb EMC’s incumbents already lost a special election back in September, that one about mail-in voting.

About the Cobb EMC runoff, Kim Isaza wrote for MDJonline.com today, EMC members elect 3 new directors; Area 7 goes to runoff

The runoff comes in the area 7 race. Charles Malcolm ‘Cooter’ Swanson almost won outright in the seven-person field, earning 1,203 votes, or 49.47 percent.

Incumbent RJ Patel came in a distant second, earning 354 votes, or 14.56 percent.

Next were Karen Thornburgh, with 276 votes (11.35 percent); Paul Phillips, with 212 votes (8.72 percent); Dr. Larry Baker, with 168 votes (6.91 percent); Charles Spann, 144 votes (5.92 percent); and William Cominos, 75 votes (3.08 percent). Cominos did not attend the 10 a.m. meeting to address members.

Swanson, who owns a screen-printing business, needed only about 13 more votes to win outright, and acknowledged he was disappointed.

“I would have liked this to be done and over with. But the EMC’s worth fighting for, so I’m willing to keep on,” he said.

And Patel has not conceded. So we’ll see.

This doesn’t look good for Patel:

But Phillips, another of the area 7 candidates, took shots at Patel during the 10 a.m. meeting of members, criticizing Patel for his votes to seek to rehire embattled and indicted chief executive Dwight Brown, and to pay Brown a hefty consulting fee of $59,000 a month.
Ah, yes, indicted Dwight Brown who got off on a technicality.

So we’ll see at least three new faces on the Kremlin wall, and maybe four. Hm, how many directors are there? Ten, so even four new ones is not a majority. It could be enough to bring some sense to that board while waiting for the next election to get enough on there to tear down the Kremlin wall.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Ellen Corrie and No Coal Plant in Ben Hill County!