MARIETTA - Incumbent directors for Cobb Electric Membership Corporation have declined an invitation to attend a candidates forum scheduled by the local League of Women Voters, a spokeswoman for the electric cooperative said.

Therefore, in lieu of the forum, the League of Women Voters Marietta-Cobb will hold an informational meeting on the co-op April 12 at the Fire Station on Haynes Street, and candidates challenging incumbents have been invited to speak.

By the end of this year, all 10 directors on the Cobb EMC board will be up for re-election. That is because a lawsuit filed against the co-op -which was settled, but remains tied up in appeals court - has postponed the 2008 election of four members and the '09 election of three. Another three directors are up for re-election this year. Cobb EMC traditionally holds annual meetings with elections in September.

Elizabeth Melville, co-president League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb, said she sent invitations to all directors to attend the candidates forum. She said she later received an e-mail from a co-op spokesman, Sam Kelly, notifying her that the directors had decided to decline.

She then contacted each director personally and they all told her they would not attend.

"Some said they can't come because they're sick, others said other things," Melville said.

But she said director Larry Chadwick, who was up in the 2009 election, told her that the board had been advised by their legal counsel not to attend.

Attorney Lester Tate, who represents Chadwick and many other directors, however, said Wednesday that he knew nothing about the forum. Co-op spokeswoman Carol Cookerly also said she did not know of any legal advice given.

"The directors looked at the advice based on the request," Cookerly said. "They asked our advice."

Leo Reichert, an Atlanta lawyer, represents directors Frank Boone and David McGinnis, while attorney Dwight Davis, with Atlanta-based King & Spalding, represents the co-op.

In Melville's invitation to the candidates, dated Feb. 19, she explains how the forum would be conducted and acknowledges, "It is unusual for the League to sponsor such a forum, but not entirely without history."

The rarity of the League of Women Voters getting involved in such elections was one of the reasons board members decided not to attend, co-op spokeswoman Carol Cookerly said. Also, she said, co-op officials took issue with a member in the League, who they say has a "clear bias."

"In their letter inviting Cobb EMC's board members, the League of Women Voters acknowledged that their proposed forum was out of the norm," Cookerly said. "Cobb EMC's directors agreed with that assessment, as it is clearly out of the norm for directors with corporate responsibility to participate in a debate organized by a group that has always been focused on candidates for elected public office - and to the best of our knowledge never for corporate board elections.

"Subsequently, we learned that at least one member of the League of Women's Voters leadership team has ties to a small group of dissidents against a coal-fired power plant, of which Cobb EMC is a backer. Frankly, it is disingenuous for someone with a clear bias against a very important project, like the coal plant, to be party to a forum where the hosting organization is supposed to hold a neutral stance."

Melville said Eric Brodwell, a candidate who is challenging an incumbent, is suppose to speak at the April 12 meeting held at 112 Haynes Street in Marietta, in the conference room of the fire station from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Brodwell, however, was not on a list of vetted candidates sent by an EMC spokesman.

"No challengers have been vetted by the credentials committee for 2009 and 2010," spokesman Chip Stewart said. "And if there are any, none can be vetted until the court says those elections can move forward."

In October 2007, a handful of EMC customers, led by Butch Thompson and Bo Pounds, filed a lawsuit against the co-op alleging breach of fiduciary duty, gross mismanagement, waste of corporate assets and unjust enrichment in relation to the management and operations of the co-op and Cobb Energy. The case was settled in December 2008. But days later, the co-op board made bylaw amendments that changed the way members could vote on issues, which plaintiffs' attorney Pitts Carr believed were illegal under the settlement. Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster disagreed and Carr appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. During all this litigation, the '08 and '09 elections were postponed, largely due to the settlement addressing voting procedures. Attorneys on both sides have agreed that the appeal needs to be resolved before holding any elections.

Court of Appeals clerk Bill Martin said the appeal is a January term case that will be determined between on or before July 16. Additionally, the Court of Appeals' decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could create more delays.

Meantime, District Attorney Pat Head's investigation into Cobb EMC, President and CEO Dwight Brown, and co-op directors, is ongoing with no updates from the DA's office. In late April, search warrants were issued and dozens of Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents descended on Cobb EMC's headquarters and the homes of Brown, the co-op's board chairman and two other directors seeking documents, computers and video files that may show evidence of racketeering and theft.