However, elections for the 10-member board have been tied up in court ever since October 2007 when former Cobb Commissioner Butch Thompson and ambulance company owner Bo Pounds brought suit, accusing EMC leaders of breach of fiduciary duty, gross mismanagement, waste of corporate assets and unjust enrichment involving Cobb Energy, Cobb EMC's for-profit subsidiary. Their suit, which was settled in December 2008, called for Cobb Energy to be shut down and its money-losing ventures to be folded back into the EMC. Thompson and Pounds also seek the ouster of EMC President Dwight Brown, and see wresting control of the EMC board as a sure way of achieving that.
Three anti-Brown candidates have already announced for the four seats that expired in September 2008 and three candidates have also announced for the three directorships that were supposed to have been voted on in September 2009. The other three director slots are slated to be voted on in September 2010.
For years before the Cobb Energy debacle, EMC directors were elected by co-op members attending the annual meeting each September. Now, fearing the ouster of pro-Brown directors, Brown and his embattled 10 member board want directors to be elected by proxy - much like in corporate America - a move that co-op critics claim would keep Brown and current board in control of the utility, which has about 190,000 electric customers, primarily in Cobb and four adjacent counties, and which generates more than $500 million in revenues each year.
The 2008 settlement supposedly called for Thompson and Pounds to get approval from co-op members of a new plan to elect directors. However, just after the settlement, the Brown-controlled board unilaterally adopted its own plan calling for proxy voting.
The plaintiffs claimed Brown's board was acting in bad faith and filed suit to block the proxy voting scheme. Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster sided with Brown and his board, but several weeks ago was reversed 3-0 by a panel of the Court of Appeals. The Brown board has now appealed that decision to the Georgia Supreme Court, making it difficult to predict if and when new board elections will be held.
Don't look for another out-of-court settlement. Thompson and Pounds are now convinced Brown's board has vowed to hang together regardless of cost and has no desire to make the member-owned-utility more transparent and end the costly turmoil of the last three years.
A member of the plaintiffs' legal team tells AT it is "obscene" what Brown and the EMC have spent on legal fees - funded by ratepayers' money, of course - to stave off board elections to thwart Brown's ouster.
DRIVING DOWN HEALTH CARE COSTS? Sources tell AT that a 26-person-strong contingent from Marietta-based WellStar health system, including 13 members of the board of trustees, and 13 brass from the staff, plus various family members, spent Wednesday through Friday this week ensconced at the plush Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island Golf Resort and Spa on the Florida coast attending the VHA Georgia Trustee Institute retreat. The event's title? "Health Care Reform: Hitting a Moving Target."
The VHA (formerly known as the Voluntary Hospital Association) was founded in 1977 and counts more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals as members. Among other things, it lobbies Congress on health-care issues.
Registration fee for the event was $550 per person, with spouse/guest fees at $250 per person. VHA members were offered a negotiated room rate of $269 plus tax per night (down from the posted "rack rate" of $439 per night). And for entertainment, golf and deep-sea fishing were available at $250 each per person.
AT's source reported that the seaside temperature was 91 degrees on Wednesday with clear skies and no oil slicks in sight!
POLITICS: A catered barbecue dinner for former Cobb school board Chairman Lindsey Tippins is slated for 5:30-7:30 p.m. May 20 at Lost Mountain Park on Dallas Highway. Suggested donation is $100 per ticket. Tippins is running for the District 37 state Senate seat held by John Wiles (R-Kenn.).
The Northeast Cobb Business Association and the Northeast Cobb Monitor will sponsor a Cobb Commission District 3 (northeast Cobb) candidates forum Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Quarles Theater in Sprayberry High School. Running are JoAnn Birrell, Stephen Moon and Earl Stine.
A fundraiser for Birrell is slated for 5:30-7:30 p.m. May 18 at Bay Breeze Seafood Restaurant at 2418 Canton Road, Marietta. Special guest speaker will be Sheriff Neil Warren. Suggested contribution is $100. E-mail Joann@Joanncan.com. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful David Poythress will speak at today’s Cobb Democratic Party breakfast at 9 at the Piccadilly restaurant on Cobb Parkway. Former Kennesaw Mayor Leonard Church is hosting a “meet and greet” at 2 p.m. May 15 at Swiff Wheels on Main Street in Kennesaw. He’s running against incumbent Northwest Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham. …
Max Wood, who’s running for the GOP nomination for state attorney general, will be the speaker at Monday’s Madison Forum at noon at the Rib Ranch on Canton Road.
PLAYING FAVORITES? Tuesday’s bus tour for local officials of the proposed light rail route up U.S. 41 (Cobb Parkway) was heavy with office-holders — but not with challengers for those offices. Cobb DOT chief Faye DeMassimo says that was by design: that only serving officials were invited, not their challengers.
“But I’d be happy to sit down and explain the plan with any of those who are running against them,” she said.
Some readers had told AT they were curious about why commission chairman candidate Tim Lee was along on the trip, but his opponent, retired businessman Larry Savage, was not. Lee, a former northeast Cobb commissioner, had learned of the upcoming trip while still on the board. He was not invited to ride the bus with the other officials, but attended the open-to-the-public presentation about the plan at KSU, DeMassimo said.
NEW MARIETTA Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin makes a good first impression on folks. Further proof of that is that even though he’s only been in office since January, he’s already expected to be named next month as one of the 14 directors of the Georgia Municipal Association, which represents the state’s 500-plus cities.
U.S. REP. PHIL GINGREY (R-Marietta) has appointed Rob Swartwood, an attorney with Brock Clay in Marietta, to his Military Academy Nomination Board. Smartwood, a graduate of West Point and UGA law school, served as an Army captain in Iraq and Afghanistan.
THE MARIETTA FARMER’S MARKET cranks back up from 9 till noon today on Marietta Square, and with a bit of a new look. This year for the first time the market will also feature a rotating cast of local authors selling and signing copies of their books. This morning’s authors, the first in the series, are AT columnist Joe Kirby, author of “The Bell Bomber Plant,” and Lockheed photographer Damien A. Guarnieri, co-authors of “Marietta: Then & Now.”
THE COLES COLLEGE of Business at Kennesaw State University will induct NFL Hall of Fame quarterback and successful Atlanta entrepreneur Fran Tarkenton as an honorary member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an international honor society for business schools, at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Burruss Building 151. Tarkenton is founder and CEO of the Atlanta-based Tarkenton Financial and owner of GoSmallBiz.com, a small-business portal and consulting services provider.
COBB COUNTY AMBULANCE PROVIDER MetroAtlanta Ambulance Service has been named the 2010 Emergency Medical Service of the Year by the State Office of EMS & Trauma. Metro, headed by Pete Quinones, provides ambulance services for Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta and Smyrna and 14 hospitals in north Georgia.
AND A CLOSING QUOTE from retired pastor the Rev. Sam Storey of First United Methodist Church of Marietta: “Wherever I wander, wherever I roam, wherever my Mother is, so too is my home.”
Post a Comment
Follow us on Twitter!