{"id":1495,"date":"2011-09-18T09:43:02","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T13:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/cobb-emc-loses-special-election-by-huge-margin.html"},"modified":"2011-09-18T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T13:43:02","slug":"cobb-emc-loses-special-election-by-huge-margin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/cobb-emc-loses-special-election-by-huge-margin.html","title":{"rendered":"Cobb EMC loses special election by huge margin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/takebackcobbemc?ref=ts&#038;sk=wall\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-ash4\/306370_10150297458181634_331857701633_8089659_1888848052_s.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nCobb EMC lost<\/a> a<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/08\/coal-planning-cobb-emc-board-to-meet.html\"><br \/>\ncourt-ordered special election<\/a> yesterday by 2561 to 1113,<br \/>\naccording to<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/takebackcobbemc?ref=ts&#038;sk=wall\"><br \/>\nTake Back Cobb EMC&#8217;s facebook page.<\/a><br \/>\nThat was the vote against mail-in voting,<br \/>\nbecause the insurgents believe mail-in voting helps incumbent directors win<br \/>\nre-election.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s Cobb EMC&#8217;s incumbent directors who want to build a coal plant in<br \/>\nBen Hill County,<br \/>\nabout 70 miles north of here.<\/p>\n<p>\nMJDOnline explained the issues 14 September 2011,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mdjonline.com\/view\/full_story\/15509021\/article-Don-McKee--Decision-day-comes-Saturday-for-Cobb-EMC-members?instance=lead_story_left_column\"><br \/>\nDon McKee: Decision day comes Saturday for Cobb EMC members<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThere are two questions in the form of proposed bylaw amendments to be<br \/>\ndecided by members Saturday: (1) whether to allow mail-in voting for<br \/>\ndirectors, and (2) whether to prohibit payment of retirement benefits<br \/>\nto directors.<\/p>\n<p>\nReform groups Cobb EMC Owners Association, Take Back Cobb EMC and Cobb<br \/>\nEMC Watch strongly oppose allowing mail-in voting until new directors<br \/>\nare elected. They argue that mail-in voting would give an overwhelming<br \/>\nadvantage to incumbent directors with unlimited EMC member funds at<br \/>\ntheir disposal in campaigning for re-election versus the very limited<br \/>\nfunds available to challengers.<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/08\/about-as-fruitful-as-trying-to-squeeze-information-out-of-the-kremlin.html\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/wac.17f1.edgecastcdn.net\/0017F1\/medium\/65675024224\/medium\/65675024224_000023_2.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\n\u201cThe historical evidence of mail-in voting shows that it favors the<br \/>\nincumbents over challengers,\u201d Cobb EMC Watch says. \u201cIt gives the<br \/>\ncorporation tremendous leverage to manipulate and influence the voting<br \/>\nprocess. The corporation can use its much greater financial resources<br \/>\nto back its slate of candidates.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One would guess the second item on the ballot passed:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThe second proposal, eliminating fat retirement benefits for directors<br \/>\n(incumbents have racked up $211,000 in future benefits already), looks<br \/>\nlike a slam dunk. Even the EMC management is supporting this change to<br \/>\nundo one of the egregious doings of this board of directors.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The insurgents out-organized the incumbents, including demonstrating<br \/>\noutside the building where the meeting was held.<br \/>\nMaybe there will be some new faces on<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/08\/about-as-fruitful-as-trying-to-squeeze-information-out-of-the-kremlin.html\"><br \/>\nthe Kremlin wall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cobb EMC lost a court-ordered special election yesterday by 2561 to 1113, according to Take Back Cobb EMC&#8217;s facebook page. That was the vote against mail-in voting, because the insurgents believe mail-in voting helps incumbent directors win re-election. It&#8217;s Cobb EMC&#8217;s incumbent directors who want to build a coal plant in Ben Hill County, about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,216,1127,40,14,49,16,21,22,32],"tags":[8736,2732,8753,2090,8818,1484,8701,3791,3792,3793,8715,3790],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-coal","category-cobb-emc","category-community","category-economy","category-elections","category-environment","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","tag-activism","tag-ben-hill-county","tag-coal","tag-cobb-county","tag-cobb-emc","tag-election","tag-georgia","tag-incumbents","tag-kremlin","tag-organizing","tag-pollution","tag-special-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}