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tirement. He is allowed to keep an office Vivarette described as a “cubby hole in the comer of the meter-readers room” in Bowling Green even though he left the company two years ago.
Lewis is acting chief executive officer at Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, a power supply company owned by electric co-ops in Maryland and Virginia. REC owns a portion of Old Dominion.
• Irvine cites a $15,000 trip by nine of 12 board members to a Florida convention, extensive remodeling of the co-op’s Culpeper office twice in two years, and a management structure in which the 11 higest-paid employees all make more than $60,000. REC has a total of 250 employees.
Irvine charges that upper management is “gouging” customers because REC is a cooperative and any profits would have to be returned to the members. As a result, Irvine says, REC managers have no incentive to reduce overhead.
“I don’t think linemen and people out there doing the actual work should be criticized,” said Irvine. “We do have good service. It’s the waste at the top end I’m concerned with. When you don’t have to make a profit the incentive isn’t there.”
Vivarette responded that he wouldn’t advise “cutting comers” even if REC was funded by investors looking for a monetary return for their capital.
“I don’t think an investor would want to cut comers just for a short term return. You may save some today, but you’ll pay for it tomorrow,” he said.
Concerning board member Frazier’s past-due bill, Vivarette acknowledges that it “shouldn’t have happened” and only happened because he was a board member. “It was a violation of our policy,” said Vivarette.
Bankruptcy, as in Jerrell’s case, said Vivarette, is the only way a member can collect the “capital credit” short of death.
“When he couldn’t pay we brought suit against him, and a whole lot of others did too," said Vivarette.
The utility’s higher rates, he said, are a result of having isolated, rural customers — REC serves about 6*6 customers per mile of line, a relatively low number. In rural western mountain counties, where rates are much lower, the power companies generally rely on outdated coal-burning plants that would not meet pollution standards if they were built today.
Because REC is growing quickly, said Vivarette, putting in lines and expanding services has taken a lot of capital.
Irvine wants REC members to use their votes at the utility’s annual meeting Aug. 25 to curtail what he calls waste and mismanagement. CARE is meeting at the Culpeper American Legion Hall at 7 p.m. on July 25 “to discuss an action plan to reduce our electric rates.” CARE is hoping that members who aren’t at the August annual meeting will send the group their proxies.
Irvine is a former state trooper who runs the regional Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP),
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