Changing the meeting day may have kept some members away from the 2019 annual meeting of Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Cooperative. For decades, the meeting has been held on a September Saturday, but the 2019 meeting was held at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 at company headquarters in Young Harris. According to some attendees, attendance was low because it was a weekday.
Despite this, a quorum allowed three incumbents to be reelected to the board of directors without opposition. Gene Mason, of Union County, Cory Payne, of Clay County and Ray Cook, of Cherokee County were all reelected.
During his manager’s report, General Manager Jeremy Nelms said he expects public commentary about the customer service charge. “I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to address it and move on,” he said. “In 2009, we began breaking it out on the bill to be more transparent. Since then, we have had complaints about it. As a not for profit, we believe it should be spread fairly among all members. Be assured, each member is paying their fair share which will amount to 76 cents a day for the average EMC user’s customer charge. This is what it costs to get power to every home, regardless of how much they use and it allows them to have power at the flip of a switch for lights and modern conveniences like air conditioning, phone charging and cold food.”
He shared how Tennessee Valley Authority has instituted rate increases for several years until now. “After six years of increases, our members and your EMC welcome this much deserved relief. I believe it’s worth noting, that your EMC has not had an increase for its own benefit, for the past six years,” he added. “In addition, the TVA has recently introduced a long-term partnership amendment to its wholesale power contract. However, because it requires a rolling 20-year commitment, it is important to ensure your EMC does its due diligence to provide the best energy solutions for its members, both now and for the long-term.” Nelms repeatedly thanked the BRMEMC employees and the board for their hard work throughout the year.
Several members expressed concerns about the customer charge increase effective Oct. 1. Randy Mazie spoke, on behalf of Families Against Inequitable Rates. “I have a petition signed by more than 120 people in less than one month,” Mazie said, reading from the petition. “Blue Ridge Mountain EMC’s new pricing structure is unfair. Coop members who use less than approximately 970 kilowatt hours each month, will face higher electric bills. If you are on fixed income, use solar power, monitor your electric usage to keep your bills low, can’t afford to buy new energy efficient equipment, pay your monthly customer charge, even though you don’t use your home for an extended period of time, you may be facing an increased bill and you will be subsidizing high energy users whose bills will decrease.” Mazie said BRMEMC is not being transparent. “This policy is discriminatory and causes disparate treatment of members in the same member class,” he continued. “Furthermore, the TVA has not increased its rates.”
Mazie gave the group’s website as: www.FAIR-BRMEMC.org and shared a suggestion of applying a credit to the electric side of the bill to offset the increase in the customer charge. “Why not institute it or come up with a better plan,” Mazie added. “Blue Ridge Mountain needs to be equitable. It needs to include the business member classes, which have not gotten an increase in their customer charges in years.” He also asked why the company is not releasing the customer charge analysis by Chris Mitchell.
Another member asked why the customer charge had increased 27 percent between 2014 to 2019 when the cost of living has only gone up about eight percent. Member Terri Marshall thanked the company for working hard and keeping the power from going off. Then she read a letter by Lucille Heil asking for more transparency and stating excess revenues should be returned to the members. “Bylaws says surplus revenues may be distributed to the members,” the letter said. “You say TVA says excess revenue cannot be returned to its members. We would like to see a copy of this contract and the section you cannot. Make it public.” Heil also asked why business members have not had an increase in several years and why there is not more transparency about profit being made by the fiber-optics division of BRMEMC.
Frank Wilson, who identified himself as a retired Episcopal priest proposed some policy changes to BRMEMC. Waive the customer service charge for anyone at or below poverty level, waive the reconnect fee one time and send a liaison from the board of directors to charitable organizations which help members. “Jesus asked for compassion for the poor,” Wilson said. “It is unnecessary to burden the poor for the benefit of those who can afford it. It is not only good theology, but good business and with that, God is well pleased.”
Member Tom Martin also spoke. “This is not a good venue and there are only about 70 people here,” he said. “Could you share what was saved?” BRMEMC Board of Directors voted earlier this year to change the meeting to a weekday to potentially save the company from paying Saturday overtime to employees. Nelms replied the total savings would be shared at the next board meeting.
Nelms replied to the member comments. “The board and I have had hours of conversations with Mazie,” he said. “What pains me the most is the assumption we’re just not doing the right thing. I came here three years ago to the drumbeat of transparency and I have fought this and have personally made myself available to every member no matter the day, no matter the time.”
He continued, “Rate making is an art and a science because it is a little bit of both. It is not an attack on a particular socio-economic group who can’t afford energy saving upgrades. That is what is most troubling to me.” Nelms said the average monthly utility bill for lower income people is about $232 for both electric and propane. “I know they may not have the opportunity to upgrade to Energy Star appliances so this may actually have a positive impact,” he said.
Nelms requested an executive summary of the cost analysis study to make available to members. The entire study could not be released because it contains proprietary information owned by the contractor who performed the analysis. In addition, BRMEMC members are welcome to attend monthly board meetings, but must submit a request to attend. Visit: www.BRMEMC.com and file an intent to attend or get one at company headquarters.